THE jury in the trial of a man accused of killing football star Jermain Defoe’s brother has been asked decide whether a single punch - or the negligence of medical staff - caused his death.

Christopher Farley, 34, of Kingswood Road, in Leytonstone, punched rapper Jade Gavin Defoe so hard during a row that he fell to the ground and fractured his skull - causing brain damage which led to his death four days later, a court heard.

Farley is accused of killing Mr Defoe, who is known to family and friends as Gavin, in Walnut Gardens in Stratford in April last year.

He admits punching Mr Defoe, but denies manslaughter.

At the Old Bailey on Tuesday, Brian Altman, prosecuting, said the Farley’s legal team will invite the jury to decide whether the punch caused Mr Defoe’s death, or whether “medical negligence” of staff at Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone ultimately killed him.

Addressing jurors, Mr Altman said: “Whilst there may have been shortcomings at Whipps Cross Hospital in Gavin's treatment, or whether there was a delay in transferring him to Queen's Square hospital, the prosecution say that any delay was simply not so bad as to render irrelevant what the defendant did to put him there.”

The court heard that Mr Defoe, a father-of-three and step-brother of Tottenham Hotspur and England footballer Jermain Defoe, was popular on the Grime music scene.

Mr Altman said on April 20 last year, Mr Defoe went to meet some friends in Walnut Gardens where he bumped into the defendant.

The two were heard by witnesses having an argument, during which the defendant accused Mr Defoe of breaking into his home, which he denied.

Mr Altman said: “The defendant punched him once. The blow fell Gavin to the ground and rendered him unconscious because he was unable to break his fall.

“The impact of his head on the ground was so heavy and severe that his skull was fractured and he suffered a severe brain injury, which ultimately caused him to die.”

After initially putting him into the recovery position and seeing Mr Defoe taken into a house by witnesses, Farley fled the scene but turned himself into police days later, the court heard.

Mr Defoe was taken to Whipps Cross University Hospital and later transferred to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) in Queen's Street, central London.

Mr Altman told the court that the patient’s brain scans taken at Whipps Cross were not sent by image link to specialist doctors at NHNN on the Monday of his arrival, as they were supposed to.

When they were finally sent on the Tuesday evening and a NHNN consultant asked for Mr Defoe to be transferred immediately.

He underwent surgery on the Thursday to remove a piece of bone from his skull to try to reduce the swelling on his brain, but he died four days after the assault

The trial continues.