A jury have begun deliberating at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin in the trial of three British men accused of the murder of a 43-year-old Portuguese national on a "new age" campsite last year.

A 43 year-old Portuguese man who was found dead in a field near a New Age traveller’s campsite was the victim of a violent assault and suffered 13 separate blows to the head, a murder trial jury heard today.

A 28 year-old ‘new age’ traveller told gardaí he agreed to allow his girlfriend’s former partner join them on a campsite because he was scared of him.

A New Age traveller denied that he and two other men intended to teach a Portuguese man a lesson when they beat him with an iron bar and left him to die in a field near their caravan site last year.

A garda told a murder trial jury today that he found a "long bar" in grass during a search of a field following the discovery of the body of Portuguese man nearby.

One of three New Age Travellers accused of the murder of a Portuguese national told gardaí he intended to force the deceased off a campsite but did not realise the extent of his injuries when he dragged him to a field where he later died.

Three new age travellers had a "tacit agreement" to remove a Portuguese man from a caravan site when they allegedly beat him to death, a prosecution lawyer told a murder trial jury today.