A man accused of murdering his neighbour was “loathed and detested” by his family, a court heard today.

Martin Joyce denies murdering Afghan refugee Enayit Khalili, 26, who lived opposite him in Fiennes Road, Rose Hill, in March last year.

Richard Benson, defending, told the jury at Oxford Crown Court to question how reliable the evidence was against Joyce, of Larch Hill, Bradford, in West Yorkshire.

He suggested the family said Joyce had confessed to the killing because of a feud.

Mr Benson said: “He was not a popular man within the family. They hated, loathed and detested him. He had become a nuisance to the family.

“According to them, he had threatened them and he had beaten them and he had threatened them with knives.”

He said police had put up a £25,000 reward for information and added there were also rumours that Joyce's family had recently been awarded millions of pounds compensation from the Government for the land they had been living on.

Addressing the jury, he said: “It's plain, isn't it, that the family have actually got together and they have gossiped about Martin and about what happened across the road to poor Mr Khalili and they have started to think 'I wonder if it was the psychopath in our family?'”

Referring to the fact Joyce, 22, had not given evidence during the trial, Adrian Redgrave, prosecuting, said: “Is the reason that he has not given evidence that really he knows he has no answer to the evidence against him, or none that will stand up to proper scrutiny?”

The case continues.