A man accused of killing a businessman with a fire extinguisher bragged about the brutal attack moments later, a jury was told.

Father-of-two Ovidiu Pop, 28, died days after being violently hit on the head while on a night out in Brighton in August last year.

James Redmile-Gordon, who is accused of inflicting the fatal blow, denies murder at a trial at Lewes Crown Court.

Redmile-Gordon, 29, who was living in Cromwell Road, Hove, at the time of the alleged attack and now lives at Charlwood, Horley, is alleged to have told friends afterwards: "I wanted to kill him and I enjoyed it.

"I hit him as hard as I could. You should have seen his head come apart."

When Redmile-Gordon, 29, was arrested he told police he had only intended to use the fire extinguisher on his alleged victim as a prank because he thought it would be funny to humiliate him and cover him with powder.

But, he claimed, when he hit out at Mr Pop in self-defence he forgot he was holding the extinguisher.

The court has heard Mr Pop, of Greenleas, Hove, a Romanian national who ran a demolition business in Portslade employing 60 people, went out with friends on the night of August 16.

At about 5am the following morning he left the Honey Club and was walking to another bar along Kings Road when he met up with a friends of Redmile-Gordon, who were waiting at a bus stop for a friend to collect them to take them home.

Christine Laing QC, prosecuting, told the jury there was a "minor altercation" after a vulgar sexual comment was said about a drunken girl who was amongst Redmile-Gordon's friends.

When his friend arrived in his Nissan Navara, Redmile-Gordon, who had been drinking and taking cocaine, picked up the fire extinguisher from the seat pocket and followed Mr Pop before hitting him on the head outside the King of Rock shop.

Witnesses gave police the vehicle's registration number and detectives arrived at Redmile-Gordon's flat about 40 minutes after the attack.

The jury was shown CCTV footage, which did not capture the moment the blow was struck but did allegedly film Redmile-Gordon heading towards Mr Pop carrying the extinguisher, which was later dumped in a rubbish bin and found by police after hours of searching at the city's amenity tip.

Miss Laing said: "This case is about misplaced pride and not losing face aggravated by drugs and alcohol. This event was swift and shocking in its nature."

Mr Pop, who suffered a fractured skull, was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, before being transferred to the Hurstwood Park neurological centre, at Haywards Heath, where he died on August 25 without gaining consciousness.

The trial continues.