A WITCHCRAFT enthusiast was stabbed and bludgeoned to death by three men while camping out on moorland above Todmorden, a court heard.

Brothers Nicholas Grundy, 22, and Daniel Delker, 23, teamed up with David Sandham, 24 to kill drifter James Bowman, Leeds Crown Court was told.

The jury was told Mr Bowman, 44, met a "very violent death".

He had been in a relationship with Grundy's mother and the three men had teamed up to warn off Mr Bowman, the jury was told.

His body was found fully clothed by a hill walker in woods at Cornholme, close to a campfire on the moors near to a rock formation known as Black Wood, near Todmorden, on September 15 last year.

He had been repeatedly stabbed and beaten with around 20 blows, probably from a rock or stone.

At the time of the incident police said they knew very little about Mr Bowman.

He had no family connections in the area and was thought to have lived in the Workington area of Cumbria and to have gone by the name of Stig.

In court Mr Bowman was described as a "kept man" and a "womaniser" who had been asked to leave Melanie Payne's home in Ernest Street, Cornholme.

Grundy Sandham, of The Croft, Cleveleys, near Blackpool, and Delker, of Shackleton Road, Freckleton, Kirkham, near Preston, all deny murder.

(Proceeding)