A father-of-two was hacked to death on his doorstep after being attacked in the middle of the night.

George Deer was fatally wounded during a violent assault at his flat in Willow Gardens, Hurstpierpoint.

The 42-year-old, wearing just a T-shirt and boxer shorts, was found by a neighbour the following morning dead on his kitchen floor.

He had died where he had collapsed, on his knees with his head bowed forward.

Craig Clarke, 32, of Albany Road, West Green, Crawley, and James Smith, 26, of Willow Close, Hurstpierpoint, are charged with murdering Mr Deer with knives and a meat cleaver.

Simon Russell-Flint QC, prosecuting, told Lewes Crown Court: "This is a case about the murder of an unarmed, defenceless man in his own home in the middle of the night.

"Having inflicted the fatal wounds to the defenceless man, they ran off into the night."

After the attack, the men are accused of throwing the weapons into a fast-flowing stream at Ansty, where they were later recovered by police.

Mr Russell-Flint said the two men, who were drunk, kicked in the door of the ground floor flat at about 4.15am on March 17 2007 while Mr Deer, who lived alone, was asleep.

He said Mr Deer was stabbed a number of times. One of the blows was inflicted with such force to his back it pierced through the bone of his shoulder blade and a rib before plunging through his lung and into the membrane around his heart, causing massive internal bleeding.

Another blow to the back of his head is believed to have been inflicted with a cleaver.

The court was told after the killing the two defendants ran to Smith's home in Willow Close, a short distance away, where they changed their clothes.

Mr Russell-Flint said later that day both men confessed to friends and relatives to being together at Mr Deer's home when he was attacked.

He said when they were arrested they gave conflicting stories to police and that both men blamed the other for the killing.

Mr Russell-Flint said the motive for the attack remained unclear but that there was evidence of violence by the two men towards Mr Deer before he died.

He said there was bad feeling between Smith and Mr Deer after Smith stopped supporting his former girlfriend, Mr Deer's niece, and the child the couple had together.

There had also been a dispute over a £60 debt owed by Smith to Mr Deer.

Mr Russell-Flint said: "This was murder. The cold-blooded and merciless killing of George Deer by these two men acting together."

When Smith was arrested at his home the following day he told officers he had not seen Mr Deer for months.

Clarke later handed himself in at Crawley police station.

The jury will visit the site of the killing and other important landmarks in the case tomorrow.

A coach will take the jury, Judge Anthony Scott-Gall, the barristers and court staff to Hurstpierpoint, the pub at Burgess Hill and the stream where the knives were found at Ansty.

The trial continues.