A man was walking his pet dogs when he found the body of a young man in a field.

Tony Mason was giving evidence at a manslaughter trial at Leicester Crown Court yesterday.

Mr Mason made the grim discovery at 10am on Christmas Day in 2008 as he walked his dogs, Flossie and Pippa.

The jury heard the discovery was the body of meat factory worker, Gediminas Kirstukas, 23, who was allegedly abducted and robbed of his Audi A6 car and cash.

Two Lithuanian half brothers Gintaras Kuzmarskis (19) and Aurimas Zaremba (23), are accused of leaving left their fellow countryman to die in a field on a country lane called Barley Leas, near Hungarton, on the cold winter night.

The pair, of Anfield Road, Liverpool, deny manslaughter, false imprisonment, robbing the alleged victim of his car and two counts of fraudulently using his bank card to get about £300.

Mr Mason, from Hungarton, told the jury: "I first saw it was a body when I could see the head.

"The head was towards me and the feet were towards the far entrance of the field.

"There's a well trodden path inside the hedge and he was clearly on that path.

"It was only when I got close that I could see a face. I was very shocked."

Ian Glenton, a retired pharmacist, who lived in the area but has since moved, saw a van and a car – belonging to the victim – parked suspiciously in the gateway of the same field the night before the body was found.

He crucially memorised the registration number plate, which led the police to the defendants' door.

Mr Glenton told a police officer at the scene the next day he had details of a suspicious white van – but the officer sent him on his way without taking any information from him.

On Christmas morning, he went back to church for bell ringing and on his way home at 10.45am he saw police cars and crime scene tape around the gateway.

He stopped to speak to a police officer who did not reveal what was wrong and Mr Glenton suspected it was horse rustling.

He told the officer: "There was a van here at midnight and I've taken the number if you want it. He told me it would be 'all right'. He didn't take the details.

"It wasn't until New Year's Day that they came to see me."

Gregory Dickinson, prosecuting, said Mr Kirstukas had been planning to drive to London to spend Christmas with a friend, but never made the journey.

Before he left his lodgings he received a phone call and told his landlady he was going to meet someone at his local Asda, in Boston, at 3pm on Christmas Eve. That was the last time she saw him alive.

The prosecution alleges that he encountered the defendants, who robbed him, abducted him, possibly plied him with brandy and then left him to die in a remote field, without even a mobile phone.

The case continues.