A jury at the trial of three men accused of attempted murder in Beccles has listened to closing speeches at Ipswich Crown Court.

Prosecutor Edward Renvoize said the trio - Nathan Baker, Daniel Hermon, Lewis Aldridge - set out “as an armed gang intent on doing violence” when they attacked Julian Johnson.

Mr Renvoize told the court they hoped to kill Mr Johnson when Baker drove a car over him at 3am on November 18 after a fight at The Kings Head Hotel in Beccles.

“Where is the chat of let’s just stop and make sure he’s ok? According to the defendants it was a nearly silent drive back to Southwold.

“If it was an accident your reaction would be to grab your phone and ring an ambulance. Yet none of them did anything at all. They all travel back together.

“Baker takes himself off to hospital and each conceals evidence. Why on earth if they are not guilty of these offences do they decide to conceal evidence?”

“When someone said, ‘finish him off’, it just didn’t seem that much of a stretch at that stage. This was pack mentality at its worst.”

Juliet Donovan, for Baker, 19, said Hermon, 26, had power over him because of he was older and that it was Hermon who grabbed the wheel and forced the car over Mr Johnson.

“When you’re 19 years old you are under all kinds of pressure. Nathan Baker was not angry, he was scared, he was frightened, he was in pain and he was exhausted.”

Claire Matthews, for Hermon, said he had pushed the wheel away from Mr Johnson and added that although he had a knife, he did not use it which suggested he did not have an intention to kill.

Isobel Ascherson, for Aldridge, 27, stressed he had no convictions and that he was in the back seat of the car with no control over it and that the two knives he brought to the scene were not used.

The jury is set to go out tomorrow to consider its verdicts after Judge Emma Peters has completed her summary of the evidence.

The case continues.