IT was a sad death that sparked a murder hunt.

The body of Wieslaw Filus was found in his Southampton bedsit by housemates just hours after he was beaten up.A ten-month murder investigation, codenamed Operation Hopscotch, was launched with detectives, who had already made repeated appeals to Southampton’s Polish community and travelled to Poland to build up a picture of the victim, putting up a £10,000 reward in a bid to help solve the crime.

Now two men accused of attacking Mr Filus have admitted lying to police.

Boguslaw Chmiel and Marcin Zonca were alleged to have assaulted him in July 2009. The 45-year old labourer died of a brain haemorrhage within hours.

Chmiel and Zonca were charged with manslaughter along with a third man, Krzysztof Szalus, after Mr Filus was found dead in his bedsit in Denzil Avenue, in Bevois Valley.

Chmiel and Zonca had been due to stand trial this week at Winchester Crown Court, but prosecutors dropped the manslaughter allegation.

Yesterday the pair admitted conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The court heard police secured evidence against them on the conspiracy charge through covert recordings made in cars eavesdropping on the defendants.

Chmiel, 40, of Bevois Valley Road, has also admitted assault causing actual bodily harm against Mr Filus. The same charge against Zonca, 29, of Denzil Avenue, was ordered to lie on file.

Both men will be sentenced on April 4 along with Szalus, 28, of Bevois Valley Road, who admitted assault causing actual bodily harm and conspiracy to pervert justice.

A fourth man, Waldemar Misiak, 50, of Denzil Avenue, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to perverting the course of justice. He had been due to give evidence for the prosecution this week.

The judge, Mrs Justice Sharp, said prosecutors dropped the manslaughter charge because they could not definitely prove that the alleged attacks definitely caused the death of Mr Filus.

She said the attacks were motivated by suspicions that Mr Filus had been stealing from some of the other men.

Susan Evans QC, prosecuting, said there was evidence Zonca had kicked Mr Filus in the face, as the victim had told Misiak.

But the injuries on Mr Filus’s face were not severe. Also she said, none of the covert recordings mentioned any kicks at all.

A team of 25 detectives from Southampton’s major crime department was detailed to the murder investigation launched after Mr Filus was found dead on July 17, 2009.

Officers went from door to door in the area and trawled through hours of CCTV footage as they tried to put together his movements the night before. A dedicated Polish-speaking hotline was also set up.

The head of one of Southampton’s largest Polish church communities urged his congregation to tell police anything they could to help find Mr Filus’ killer. Then, in April last year, police put up the reward.

A month later, the four men were charged in connection with the crime.

Additional reporting by Jon Reeve