A Canberra man suffered three eye socket fractures, a broken nose and cheek, chipped teeth, and a cut face after an alleged assault at a northside club, a court has heard.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He required surgery to fix the damage, which included a plate inserted into his face.
His alleged attacker, Kane Rheinberger, 28, went on trial in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday.on a charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm.
He has pleaded not guilty.
The court heard Rheinberger had been at the Belconnen Soccer Club with friends on April 6 last year.
The alleged victim and his wife had been drinking at the McKellar club when the woman became the target of a number of comments.
The woman said Rheinberger, who had not been responsible for the comments, had been apologetic and courteous about the harassment she had suffered.
But he allegedly attacked her husband when confronted later.
CCTV of the incident, played in court, was partially obscured.
The man and his wife could be seen to walk into the pokies lounge.
A man – alleged to be Rheinberger – then stands and walks towards the smoking area when he stops to speak to a person, the alleged victim, who is obscured by an object,
The alleged attacker is then joined by a friend before throwing punches.
The alleged victim gave evidence that the conversation had not been aggressive until a second man joined Rheinberger.
"When his friends arrived, it all changed," he said from the witness stand.
He said his wife pulled him by the arm, urging him to leave, and he had turned to when he was hit.
"I didn't see it coming ... because I was looking at my wife."
He said he was knocked to the ground and did not know how many more times he was struck.
Under cross-examination, he denied he had told Rheinberger he would "smash" him, had been aggressive, raised his voice, or had a clenched fist before he had been hit.
The man's wife told the court that Rheinberger had continued to punch her husband after he fell to the ground, estimating he had been struck a total of six to seven times.
She said she had attempted to stop the punches by pushing him on the shoulder, but he shoved her away in the chest.
She gave evidence that her husband had told Rheinberger to stop the comments towards his wife, but had not been aggressive or raised his voice.
She denied she had told the men she could get her husband to punch them in the face.
The judge-alone trial before Justice John Burns continues on Wednesday.
