A jury set to restart its consideration of verdicts after the six-week murder trial of seven men over the killing of Michael Phillips.

Neil Elliott, who owns the Niramax recycling company, is accused of being the ringleader of a gang who kicked, stamped and punched a man to death who they suspected of carrying out the burglary.

Michael Phillips was violently attacked in his Hartlepool home by a gang of vigilantes who believed he had burgled the home of one of his daughters and stole her car, the trial has been told.

The 39-year-old was subjected to a brutal and sustained assault using a cosh, knuckleduster, punches, kicks and stamps, in June last year, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The seven, all from Hartlepool, are Lee Darby, 32, of Ridley Court; Neil Elliott, 44, of Briarfields Close; Gary Jackson, 31, of The Darlings; John Musgrave, 54, and Sean Musgrave, 30, both of Wordsworth Avenue; Craig Thorpe, 36, of Young Street; and Anthony Small, 40, of Rydal Street.