Two drug dealer brothers beat an underling to death with a brandy bottle after finding out he had been stealing their customers, a court heard.

Hernan Ramirez, 28, from Crawley and his brother Jaime, 30, used a Courvoisier bottle to inflict horrific injuries on 25-year-old Kennie Williams in front of his girlfriend, the Old Bailey was told.

A third man, Paul Day, 26, had led the brothers to the scene and looked on as they bludgeoned Mr Williams to death at a flat, said Sacha Wass QC, prosecuting.

All three defendants deny murder.

The court heard how Mr Williams worked as a 'runner' - an errand boy at the bottom of the crack dealers' chain of command.

He worked for Day, who sold drugs supplied by the Ramirez brothers, Miss Wass explained.

But when Mr Williams started selling drugs directly to the customers himself the brothers planned a bloody revenge attack, it is said.

Miss Wass told the court: 'The reason why Kennie Williams met his death was effectively because he had stepped out of line.

'He had started dealing drugs on his own and was taking customers from the Ramirez brothers.' The court heard how Paul Day worked from 10am every day selling drugs, giving the lion's share of the proceeds to the Ramirez brothers and earning £75-100 a day.

Favourite venues for dealing were said to include the Europa hotel near Gatwick airport and an address in Buckmans Road, Gatwick.

At 7pm Day would switch off his mobile phone and finish 'work' - and Kennie Williams started to supply drugs to addicts desperate to get a fix 'after hours', said Miss Wass.

His fate was sealed when one of Day's customers, an addict called Michelle James, complained to Day that Mr Williams had sold her a £20 deal of crack that contained only about £5 worth of the drug, she told the jury.

'What Mr Day said, having heard this complaint, was this: he told Michelle James that Kennie Williams shouldn't have been supplying her with drugs at all and he was going to sort it out.

'He gave her an extra rock of cocaine, which he said she didn't have to pay for, sort of a 'thank you' for putting him in the picture.' Day also told the victim's girlfriend Katrina Sinnick that Mr Williams had been 'traitoring' him, the court heard.

A few days before the attack on February 20 this year neighbours noticed men answering the description of the three defendants apparently staking out the flat Mr Willams and Miss Sinnick shared in Stockton Road, Reigate.

A friend of Williams' later told police the victim told him the Ramirez gang were 'going mad on me'.

On February 20 Hernan Ramirez and Paul Day spoke to Mr Williams on the phone and arranged to call round to his flat, apparently to have a drink together.

Mr Williams was 'upset and worried' by the news but answered the door of the flat when all three defendants called that evening, the court heard.

The four men and Miss Sinnick sat and drank as the visitors poured out round after round from the bottle of Courvoisier they had brought with them, said Miss Wass.

Miss Sinnick's baby daughter Molly was asleep in a room in the flat and one of the brothers menacingly asked to see a photo of her, she added.

'The five of them were sitting on the sofa and the atmosphere was very tense.

'Hernan Ramirez then grabbed the bottle by its neck with his right hand as if, you may think, to use it as a weapon, and he spun it round. He didn't say anything.

'He then stood up, lifted up his right arm, stretched it backwards.

'Miss Sinnick moved out of the way. By this stage she was terrified. Jaime Ramirez remained sitting with his arms folded. Paul Day sat still and just looked at his mobile telephone.

'Miss Sinnick said: ''What the f*** is going on?'' Hernan Ramirez said: ''Do you think I'm some sort of f***ing mug?'' 'He brought the bottle down on Kennie Williams' head with considerable force. It hit Mr Williams on the left side of his temple. It made a crunch noise.' Hernan hit Mr Williams again before handing the bottle to his brother, who continued the beating while Mr Day looked on.

Hernan ordered the victim's girlfriend out of the room when she started screaming, but from the kitchen she heard the sound of the bottle hitting her boyfriend's skull 10 to 15 times, the court heard.

After the beating was over Miss Sinnick ran to check on her daughter and the killers left, after trying to threaten her into helping them cover up the attack, the jury heard.

They told her to count to 200 before calling an ambulance and the police, saying a gang of men in balaclavas had burst in and she had not witnessed the attack.

When she checked on her boyfriend his face was 'unrecognisable' and his blood had been sprayed over walls near where he was sitting.

He died from his injuries two days later in a nearby hospital, the court heard.

A pathologist concluded that at least 11 blows to the head had caused underlying brain damage that led to his death.

Jaime Ramirez, of Glenarm Road, Lower Clapton, Hackney, east London, Hernan Ramirez, of Woodfield Road, Northgate, Crawley, west Sussex, and Day of Portland Drive, Redhill, Surrey, all deny murder.

The trial continues tomorrow