A father was punched by rapper Bugzy Malone in the face “very, very hard” just hours after he took part in the annual black pudding throwing festival in Ramsbottom.

Malone, 30, is said to have struck the man and his friend in “retribution” after he wrongly believed they intruded and attacked his home in Ramsbottom.

Jurors at Manchester Crown Court have heard the man was enjoying a family day out at the annual event in Ramsbottom on September 9 2018 when his “terrified” teenage daughter rang to tell him about an incident involving Malone elsewhere in the town.

The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, and her friends were big fans of the popular grime artist and earlier gathered outside his new home opposite Nuttall Park.

One of them, a teenage boy, peered over the front electric gate and shouted his name, before they all ran off when somebody came out and later a car sped past them and was driven at them as they fled to a nearby car park, the court has heard.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, the girl’s father said he decided to visit Malone to find out why the children were so distraught and was joined by his friend and another father.

He told the court the father of the boy who peered over Malone’s gate was behaving “erratically” and went on to pick up a brick or a stone and throw it at the entrance gate.

He said he “couldn’t believe it” when the man forced his way into the property through the gate and he then made a “tough decision” to follow him into the courtyard after the man’s “hysterical” son pleaded to get him out.

The boy’s father refused to leave, he said, and when their group departed he was sat on a wall of the property and told him: “I will do it on my own.”

Malone was not home at the time and his mother rang the police while his girlfriend rang the rapper, jurors have heard.

The group was walking away on Nuttall Hall Road, said the girl’s father, when he was grabbed by a “stocky, quite strong man” – a neighbour of Malone – who pushed his elbows to his side and held him against a parked van.

He said: “He asked me what I had been doing and I said ‘I have done nothing wrong’. I said the guy is still down at the house.”

As he struggled to break free, he said, he saw Malone appear and punch his friend to the floor.

The man told prosecutor Maria Brannan the rapper then walked towards him and punched him to the right side of his jaw.

Asked to describe the force of the blow, he replied: “Very, very hard.”

He went on: “My head hit the side of the van and I was stumbling a bit after that.”

He told the court he then saw Malone swing his foot close to his friend on the floor and heard a “thud” but did not see a connection.

Malone ran off, he said, and he later underwent surgery at hospital where he had three plates inserted in his fractured jaw.

Gordon Cole QC, defending Malone, said to the witness: “We accept he did punch you but when he punched you it was all happening very quickly and as you turned in his direction you had your fists clenched.”

The girl’s father said: “I was still being held. It was not a clench, I was trying to get away from the situation.”

Suggesting that Malone did not swing a foot and kick his friend to the head, Mr Cole said: “If there was anything, he was trying to go back to his house to see what was going on.”

The witness said: “No, he swung his foot.”

Also giving evidence, the girl’s sister said she saw their family friend kicked in the head by Malone “like a football” while he was lying on the floor.

She said: “It was the most horrible thing I have witnessed in my whole life. He booted him in the head. It was disgusting.”

She said Malone had got out of his car and was “like bouncing on his tip-toes” as he approached and asked her: “Have you just been in my house?”

The witness said: “I was saying to him ‘no, the man was still at your house, you need to get down, these haven’t done it’. But he didn’t listen.”

The family friend was also taken to hospital where he was treated for a fractured jaw, as well as a broken cheekbone.

The prosecution say the evidence will show that Malone was not acting in self-defence when he assaulted the two men.

Malone, appearing in court under his real name Aaron Davies, denies two counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm.