A family party where children as young as four played in a Kingston nightclub turned into an alcohol-fuelled 2am brawl, a court heard.

Surrey Comet:

Jay Beer, Scott Nicholls and Nathan Peardon arrive at court. 

Scott Moodie, 29, denied charges of actual bodily harm and affray when he took to the stand at Kingston Crown Court yesterday after the October 19 fight that closed down the Viper Rooms for three days.

He told jurors that so many members of his family worked in the club he assumed "they owned it".  

Mr Moodie, along with friends Nathan Peardon, 23, Scott Nicholls and Jay Beer, both 21, had been drinking at the club for about nine hours before the fight broke out at 2am in Clarence Street.

The group were all originally charged with wounding with intent and inflicting grievous bodily harm after Frenchmen Sebastian Legendre and Floren Zirah were attacked.

FROM LAST WEEK: Half of group who allegedly attacked Frenchmen outside Kingston nightclub were "so drunk they do not remember fight"

But those charges were dropped on the fifth day of the trial – Friday - after Mr Legendre could not recall who had inflicted a wound above his eye.

A lesser charge of actual bodily harm (ABH) was put to the group and Mr Moodie was the only one to deny it, the jury was told.

He said: “We were there for my cousin Darren’s leaving party.

"He was the manager at the Viper Rooms. I thought that [my family] owned the club to be honest because they worked there.

“I got there about 5pm and all my friends and family were there. It was wicked, there were children there. There were a lot of four and five-year-olds.

“The club was not open to the public then. The children left at about 9pm. At the time I thought it was a private function.”

Mr Moodie added that he had been talking with the alleged victims in the hours before the fight and did not know that other members of the public had been allowed into the bar.

The jury has been shown CCTV footage of the mass brawl outside TK Maxx.

Mr Legendre and Mr Nicholls can both be seen being pinned between the floor and the shop window and repeatedly punched.

The six-minute video shows the four men staggering in the street, throwing off their coats and attacking Mr Legendre and Mr Zirah before brawling among themselves.

Prosecutor James Cartwright said after the four defendants were arrested two claimed to have been so drunk they could not remember the fight.

When Mr Legendre gave evidence on Tuesday he also admitted he could not remember who hit him after drinking six double-vodka red bulls in the club.

Mr Nicholls, of Richmond Park Road, Mr Beer, of David Twigg Close, Mr Peardon, of School Lane and Mr Moodie, of Hilary Road, Hammersmith all deny affray and assault.

Mr Moodie denies ABH.

The trial continues.