A man allegedly killed a man he lived with as they walked back from a pub following a night of drinking, a jury has been told.

At Manchester Crown Court today, Wednesday, the trial into the death of 45-year-old father Vincent McDonagh in Oldham began. 

Lee Burns, 38, of Worsley Street, is accused of his murder.

Prosecutor Robert Hall told the court that on November 9 last year, both Mr McDonagh and Burns got a taxi from the building they both lived in on Worsley Street to The Manor Inn pub on Abbey Hills Road.

The pair arrived shortly before 7pm and spent several hours drinking along with other punters in the pub.

Mr Hall said that "at times during the night, things got heated within the group" over as they argued or bickered.

At one point, Mr McDonagh, who was born in Dublin and moved to Manchester in 2003, caused damage to one of the doors in the pub as he exited outside following an argument, but gave the landlord at the time, Lawrence Whitehill, £40 to cover the repairs.

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Following one of the arguments at around 10.45pm, Mr Whitehill told the group to drink up so he could close, and the punters left the pub.

Mr McDonagh and Burns walked back up Abbey Hills Road to return to Worsley Street, and during this brief walk, things became heated between the pair.

Mr Hall said the "conversation seemed to take a turn for the worst" over something "as innocuous as Mr McDonagh making a call from Mr Burns' phone".

He said that whatever Mr McDonagh had said, "clearly it was something that wound Mr Burns up significantly".

CCTV footage played in court showed a scuffle broke out between the pair, with Burns punching Mr McDonagh to the head, knocking him to the floor.

As he lay on the floor, the expletive-laden argument continued, with Mr McDonagh using his left leg to try and keep Burns at a distance.

Burns then punched and stamped on Mr McDonagh's head while he was on the floor, before walking away and shouting, leaving Mr McDonagh in the street.

At around 11.45pm, roughly 40 minutes after Burns had left the scene, two people in a car spotted Mr McDonagh's body in the street, got out, noticed he was not alright and called 999.

A paramedic arrived five minutes later, with Mr Hall saying it was "immediately clear nothing could be done and that he had in fact been dead for some time".

Police were called, and at around 5am on November 10, Burns was arrested.

The court heard that in statements made to police during several interviews in the days following his arrest, Burns insisted he acted in self defence and that he struck Mr McDonagh with a "pre-emptive strike" due to the fact he thought Mr McDonagh was carrying a knife at the time.

In a statement read out from Mr McDonagh's sister, she said he "always went above and beyond for my children" and that he had a "great sense of humour".

The court heard from three witnesses- The Manor Inn's landlord at the time Mr Whitehill, as well as Michael Loveday and Gillian Howe, who were customers at the pub that night.

All three told a similar story, that Mr McDonagh had engaged in bickering and argument with another punter, Terry Hinds, and that he had taken offence to the use of a derogatory term used in association with the Travelling community, of which Mr McDonagh was part of.

The trial continues.