A man found dead in a flat suffered multiple injuries to his head and body before being left for dead while his friend was knocked unconscious during a violent attack, a jury heard.

Carlos Boyce’s body was covered in cuts and bruises from the beating he had endured and Teesside Crown Court heard how it could have taken up to two hours for him to die.

His friend, Joseph Spencer, was knocked out for several hours before he was spotted stumbling around near his Middlesbrough home last November.

Lee Hogg and Terry Dalton are accused of murdering Mr Boyce and inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Spencer when they attacked the pair in a drink and drug fuelled attack, jurors heard.

Read more: GUILTY: Four former care workers GUILTY of ill-treating patients at Whorlton Hall

Pathologist Dr Louise Mulcahy outlined the catalogue of injuries she discovered on Mr Boyce’s body, including evidence of a shoe print on his head.

Dr Mulcahy said Mr Boyce "likely fell unconscious'"and so could not cough, to clear blood from his airways. He may have survived for one or two hours after the attack, the court heard.

The Northern Echo: Carlos BoyceCarlos Boyce (Image: Cleveland Police)

The pathologist concluded that the father-of-one died due to a blunt force head injury.

She said the majority of the injuries were the result of a blunt force trauma - the evidence shows they were from kicks, fists and stamps.

Police were called to Mr Spencer’s flat on Homerton Road, Middlesbrough, at about 5pm on November 11 last year where they discovered Mr Boyce’s body and he was declared dead at the scene.

And forensic psychologist Dr Dawn Harris told jurors that blood spatter from Mr Boyce showed he had been repeatedly struck while he was in the bathroom as well as when he was on the floor of the flat.

She added: “The blood staining that had run from his face had potentially run after the shower had been switched off. There was extensive blood splatter on the wall - impact splatter.

“A forceful blow had struck to a surface where there is blood.

“If blood is coming for example from the mouth, then air gets into the blood and blood splattered on the surfaces can bear those air bubbles, that would suggest to me that some of the blood on the wall was from Mr Boyce’s face.

“In my opinion, Mr Boyce was repeatedly struck whilst he was on the ground.”

She said a vodka bottle recovered from the scene was covered in blood and there were a number of fingerprints on the glass. Analysis of the blood matched that of Mr Spencer, she added.

Earlier, Mr Spencer had told the court how he was battered unconscious with a vodka bottle after he tried to stop two men beating his friend to death.

Read more:

​​​​​​If you want to read more stories, why not subscribe to your Northern Echo for as little as £1.25 a week. Click here

Jurors had heard how Hogg started to search for flights from Teesside Airport after learning of Mr Boyce’s death.

The were later arrested after being asked to leave Chequers Inn, in Dalton on Tees, near Darlington, for being rowdy.

Hogg, 38, of Lindisfarne Road, Ormesby, Middlesbrough, and 53-year-old Dalton, of Ellerbeck Way, Ormesby, both deny murder and causing grievous bodily harm.

The trial continues.