Lawyers for two brothers on trial for murdering a farmer, have told the jury that it is unreasonable that they should be asked by the prosecution to consider that a man “over a stray heifer turned into a killer or became involved in a plot to kill or cause serious harm”.

The Assistant State Pathologist has today told the trial of two brothers accused of murdering a farmer, that the head injury he sustained during a dispute on their farmyard “substantially” contributed to his death.