Kent teenager accused of beating homeless man to death thought it was 'funny'

A Kent teenager accused of beating a homeless man to death along with his two other friends was heard by a witness confessing to the murder, saying that he found it "funny" to punch the man on his face.

Alex Macdonald and Charlie White, both aged 19, and Jimmy Buckley, 20, are accused of killing Razvan Sirbu at the Loose Valley Conservation Area in Tovil, Maidstone on 6 May. The trio allegedly attacked the 21-year-old Romanian in the area where he lived after coming across him late in the night.

Prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC told the Maidstone Crown Court in Kent that an unnamed female witness overheard a conversation between Macdonald and White at a skate park the morning after the murder.

White asked Macdonald, "Did you kill him, or did I?", the latter replied saying he did. On asking why he kept "beating him in the face", Macdonald reportedly told White because "he thought it was funny", the BBC quoted the prosecutor as telling the court.

The jury was told that Sirbu's body was found next morning on 7 May at around 7am local time by a dog walker. It was said that his body was clothed apart from shoes and a wooden chair was between his legs, which he might have used for protection.

A coat which Macdonald was wearing during the attack was recovered from a caravan from near the area. It had both the victim's blood and the suspect's DNA, the Daily Mail reported.

Based on forensic tests, the cause of the young man's death was reported as blunt force trauma to the head and torso with multiple skull fractures, multiple facial bone fractures and broken ribs.

"In his [pathologist who conducted forensic tests] opinion, to inflict the injuries suffered by the deceased, it would require the use of a blunt object with a significant degree of weight - heavier than the wooden chair leg found between his legs," Bennetts said. "The pathologist's opinion is that there were at least four blows and very likely a significantly higher number."

The court heard that the witness, who overheard the boys discussing the murder, confronted them, following which White took her for a walk and broke down in tears while describing the whole incident from the previous night.

White told the teenage girl that he had gone out to meet a man for selling a lawnmower in Teasaucer Lane and was carrying a blunt meat cleaver with him in case there was an altercation. But when he found his friends fighting with Sirbu, he hit the homeless man in the shoulder six or seven times with the meat cleaver. He added that he did not hit him on the head or his face, and also did not kill him, the court heard.

Meanwhile, both Macdonald and White have denied the murder charge, while Buckley claimed to have learning difficulties and special needs. "I'm not guilty of the killing of Razvan Sirbu," the 20-year-old said following his arrest.