A vulnerable man was left with more than 100 brutal injuries after he was tortured and killed in his home.
Jonathan Head, 44, suffered 115 separate injuries when he was allegedly attacked by Michael Pickering, 31, and Leon Wilkes, at his flat in Oldham, Manchester Crown Court heard.
The pair set upon their alleged victim because they wanted money for cocaine, the jury was told.
Police stand at the scene of Jonathan Herd’s murder outside his flat in Oldham
Mr Herd’s disfigured boy was found by his parents when they arrived for their daily visit.
Mr Herd invited the defendants into his flat after they asked to charge a mobile phone, the jury heard.
After being ‘savagely’ attacked, his injuries included a bleed on the brain, two punctured lungs, cuts to his face, neck and arms and legs.
A knife was also ‘driven down’ into Mr Herd’s bare right foot.
Mr Hall said: ‘The Crown’s case is that these two defendants wanted money to buy illegal drugs, most likely cocaine, or perhaps thought that Mr Herd may have illegal drugs in his flat.
‘They proceeded to torture him in more and more painful ways in the hope that he would give them what they wanted.
‘In the end he didn’t have what they wanted.’
The jury was told that they left Mr Herd’s flat with £40 in cash, an Xbox and Xbox games, DVDs, his mobile phone and a gold chain.
Forensics officers carry out their investigation at Mr Herd’s flat in July last year
Mr Hall said they tried to ‘clean up’ the blood stained scene of ‘devastation’ in the flat following the attack, with tissues containing blood being found.
A blood stained knife containing Mr Herd’s DNA was recovered from the flat.
The court heard that nearly two decades ago Mr Herd’s former partner had died, and that he turned to drink as a way of managing his grief.
He had lost his job and lost a lot of weight, and was described as ‘vulnerable’ by Mr Hall.
He said: ‘Mr Herd was a kind man who tried to think the best of people. He had worked in the care sector working for others.’
At the time of his death, Mr Herd was making good progress in battling his drink problem, it was said.
Mr Herd suffered 115 separate injuries from the brutal attack in his Oldham flat
The night before his death, he had called his parents at about 7pm to let them know he was okay.
This was the last time they spoke before they discovered his body, Mr Hall said.
At about 5am, the jury was told, Mr Herd was woken up by the two defendants knocking on the door of the communal entrance to the flats, before letting them in.
They spent time in a flat belonging to one of Mr Herd’s neighbours, a woman who did not like to be alone after her partner had also died.
Then at 11am, Mr Herd’s parents, who were visiting as they did every morning, discovered their son’s dead body.
Prosecutors said there is ‘no doubt’ that Mr Pickering and Mr Wilkes were the only two other people in Mr Herd’s flat when he was murdered.
Mr Herd, who stood at 5ft 4in and just under nine stone, would have been ‘no match’ for the ‘stockier pair’ of Mr Pickering and Mr Wilkes, the jury was told.
Mr Pickering, of no fixed abode, and Mr Wilkes, of Victor Street, Lees, Oldham, both deny murder. Proceeding.