A Kurdish teenager was told to “go back to your country” before being chased down by more than a dozen people and brutally assaulted in Croydon, a court has heard.

Reker Ahmed suffered a bleed to the brain and a fractured spine after being kicked and stamped on in a late-night attack near The Goat pub in March.

The 17-year-old student was assaulted after enjoying a night out with two friends and woke up in hospital in "severe pain", remembering nothing of what happened.

Mr Ahmed and a friend were speaking to a group of five people near the pub when they were asked by one of the men where they were from, his friend Hamo Mustafa said.

Speaking from behind a screen and through an interpreter he told Croydon Crown Court he said: "My friend told them I was Iraqi and he was Iranian."

"He said to us, 'You are asylum seekers, you are refugees, you have to go back to your country'."

Asked if it was just one man who made the comment, he said: "The male, he said this. And after that immediately he initiated the attack and punched Reker."

The victim was subjected to two beatings over the course of 16 minutes, shortly before midnight on March 31.

George Walder, 23, Lliam Neylon, 19, Daryl Davis, 21, his sister Danyelle Davis, 24, and 23-year-old Kyran Evans are each charged with two counts of violent disorder.

Kurt Killick, 18, faces a third charge of grievous bodily harm with intent, accused of stamping on Mr Ahmed.

Mr Ahmed and another friend, Dilshad Mohammed, had been visiting the area for the first time when the assault happened, Mr Mustafa said.

Explaining that he had gone to the bus stop after leaving a nearby club to check the journey times for his friends, he said: "It was their first visit to the area so I went there to show them."

CCTV footage of events that night has been played to the jury, showing Mr Ahmed and Mr Mohammed speaking with a group that includes Killick outside the Goat pub.

A fight broke out involving Mr Ahmed and his friends and Killick, Walder and Neylon, the prosecution said.

Shortly afterwards, Killick is shown entering the pub and, seconds later, leaves, followed by a trail of people including the Davis siblings, who all run towards a nearby bus stop where Mr Ahmed is.

Evans, who left the pub as Killick went in, is also said to have run towards the group.

Mr Mustafa and Mr Mohammed ran away and hid in a garden, from where they called 999.

Mr Ahmed was assaulted a second time in an incident involving as many as eight against one, according to the prosecution.

The defendants were all identified in CCTV footage running after Mr Ahmed towards Shrublands Avenue, Detective Constable Chris Tucker of Croydon CID told the court.

Walder, of Myrtle Road, Neylon, of Ferris Avenue, the Davis siblings, both of Laurel Crescent, Killick, of Courtwood Lane and Evans, of Shrublands Avenue, deny the charges.

The trial was adjourned until today (October 12).