A TRAVELLER family was accused of lying during the trial of a man charged with a stabbing at a funeral.

Violence erupted at the service for 76-year-old gipsy matriarch Winnie Joyce on November 13 last year, because of a long-running feud between two families.

As many as 300 people, who had gathered at Oxford’s Greyfriars Church, were drawn into a “mass brawl” which closed Iffley Road for about half an hour.

John Mongan, of Middle Garden, Wheatley, was subsequently charged with wounding with intent, unlawful wounding, affray and having an offensive weapon in a public place.

The 41-year-old denies the charges. At Oxford Crown Court yesterday Amiot Vollenweider, defending, said the alleged victim, Jason McDonagh, was lying.

He told the jury the 32-year-old complainant, along with three brothers and a cousin, arrived uninvited at the funeral, dressed in casual clothes, to cause trouble.

Mr Vollenweider added that Mr McDonagh has previous convictions for attempting to pervert the course of justice and conspiracy to commit fraud, and uses a total of 16 aliases.

He told the jury: “I would suggest that it was not John Mongan who stabbed Jason McDonagh and they are lying.”

The court also heard from acting police sergeant Stuart Carey who said the man he saw stabbing Mr McDonagh had “short grey hair” and was in his 50s, unlike Mongan.

He added that he saw a man matching the complainant’s description kicking the defendant’s brother, Paddy Mongan, as he lay on the ground.

The trial continues.