A man was brutally kicked to death after he bravely confronted a group of men who had punched his girlfriend in the face, a court heard.

Ben Gardner, 30, approached the men after one of them punched his girlfriend Allana Devine twice, having already stolen her Halloween hat.

The jury at the Old Bailey were shown sickening CCTV footage of the IT expert being attacked from behind in what Brian Altman QC described as a “cowardly” assault.

Daniel Ransom, 21, from Blake Close, Ross Collender, 21, from Wigmore Road, and Jordan Dixon, 18, all from Carshalton, are charged with Mr Gardner's murder.

The violent attack, which lasted a total of six seconds, took place in the early hours of November 1 last year outside Melville Cars in Throwley Way, Sutton.

Mr Gardner and Miss Devine, who had only been in a relationship for three weeks, had been celebrating her birthday with friends at a nightclub in Sutton town centre.

The pair, along with friend Kay Chick, headed back to Miss Devine's flat at 3am stopping at a takeaway, Papillons, on the way.

While Mr Gardner and Miss Chick were inside Papillon's, the three accused, and another man Frankie Boylan, stole Miss Devine's fancy dress hat and walked off.

Minutes later, as they reached Miss Devine's flat, she spotted the same group of men and went to ask why they stole her hat.

But she was met with a torrent of abuse and was punched by one of the group, possibly Dixon, according to Mr Altman.

As Mr Gardner approached the group he was heard saying: “What the hell do you think you're doing? That's my girlfriend you've just hit.”

Ransom, according to Mr Altman, took off his jacket and started jumping up and down saying: “Come on then you want a ****ing fight?”

Mr Gardner then replied: “Do you know what, you just hit my girlfriend, I'll take on the lot of you if that's what you want?”

Meanwhile, CCTV footage showed Miss Devine trying to pick up her hat, which had been thrown on the road.

But Dixon kicked it away before Ransom grabbed it, spat in it and threw it at her saying: “There's your ****ing hat.”

At this point, according to Mr Altman, the “fatal attack” began as Collender, attacking his victim from behind, landed a vicious blow to his target's head.

The punch caused Mr Gardner to stumble and “jellified” his legs, before Dixon swung a “big upper cut” causing his victim to hit the ground.

Mr Altman said: “For good measure, Ransom followed up the blow with a full kick to the head.

“Eyewitnesses described the blow as like a 'running penalty kick', 'vicious with lots of power behind it'.

“Mr Gardner had his hands by his side, clearly a threat to no one. He never saw it (the first punch) coming.

“It was a three-on-one joint attack, he didn't stand a chance. He never laid a finger on any one of them.

“The response of Ransom and Collender was to laugh before running off. Big, cheesy grins on their faces, proud at what they had done.”

In the footage, Miss Devine could be seen tending to her stricken boyfriend before chasing barefoot after the now disappeared assailants.

Mr Gardner died, according to pathologist Dr Ashley Fegan-Earl, from a traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage, meaning bleeding beneath one of coverings to the brain, caused by an “unanticipated blow to the head”.

A fourth defendant, Sarah Davey, 41, is charged with housing Dixon while he was wanted by police for two months after the murder.

The trial continues.