A TRAVELLER funeral descended into a mass brawl because of a 20-year feud between two families, a court heard.

The violence broke out following an alleged stabbing at a service for 76-year-old gipsy matriarch Winnie Joyce on November 13 last year.

John Mongan, of Middle Garden, Wheatley, is accused of starting the trouble with an unprovoked attack on Jason McDonagh, motivated by “bad blood” between their families.

The prosecution said this spread through the crowd of around 300 people who had gathered inside and outside Oxford’s Greyfriars Church.

Emergency services and the police helicopter were called in after people poured out on to Iffley Road, which was closed for about half-an-hour while police dealt with the crowds.

Mongan, 41, denies wounding with intent, the alternative charge of unlawful wounding, affray and having an offensive weapon in a public place. His trial began yesterday at Oxford Crown Court.

Samantha Leigh, prosecuting, told the jury that he stabbed McDonagh twice.

She said: “The Crown says that the defendant stabbed Jason McDonagh in the back of the neck and the back.

“On the day in question there were hundreds of people present at a funeral.

“And this defendant, along with others that were at the funeral, joined in a mass brawl.

“You will hear that there is a background between the two families, McDonagh and Mongan, that has been going on for a very long period of time.

“Some say it is about a wedding being called off, others say it is about the loss of a house because money was borrowed and not repaid.”

She said Mongan and members of his family surrounded Mr McDonagh within minutes of him arriving at the funeral, at around 10.30am.

Giving evidence the 31-year-old complainant said: “I can see them closing in on me, I knew what they were trying to do.

“I could see them making the circle smaller, I knew what was going to happen.”

He told the court he was stabbed from behind with a small knife, knocked to the ground and stabbed again.

Miss Leigh said Mr McDonagh, who lives in Bristol, received two lacerations that were later treated at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

She added: “It is right to say that not everyone involved in the public order incident was arrested.

“ It was too big a disturbance for the number of police who were present.

“The church’s public address system was even used to broadcast a message saying: ‘This is a disgrace, you’re fighting at a funeral.’ “Members of the Joyce family formed a cordon to allow Jason to get up and get to the police.”

But Amiot Vollenweider, defending, said Mr McDonagh and his brothers went to the funeral, uninvited, to start trouble.

To Jason McDonagh he said: “You are making this up because of the bad blood between your two families.”

The trial continues.

  • Mrs Joyce helped set up the Redbridge Hollow travellers’ site, near Kennington. She had 13 children, 64 grandchildren and 45 great-grandchildren.