King hit accused denies Irishman was a 'soft target'

Daniel Byrne, 21, is on trial in the ACT Supreme Court over the alleged assault in the early hours of one Sunday morning in July, 2011. He is has pleaded not guilty to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm and is accused of punching Timothy McCarthy, 40, in the head, knocking him unconscious and causing him to fall back and crack his head on the concrete.

Mr McCarthy was left with skull fractures and bruising and blood clots in his brain.

The Irishman’s brain began to swell up significantly inside his skull, restricting his body’s ability to supply it with blood.

A neurosurgeon said there was no doubt the tourist, who has since returned to Ireland, would have died without urgent medical intervention.

Byrne is fighting the charge on the grounds of self-defence, saying he thought he was about to be punched by Mr McCarthy.

The court has heard that the Irishman came up to the group, who he had never met, and hugged three members, including Byrne.

Byrne told the court he had tapped Mr McCarthy twice to get his attention while he was giving a friend what was later described by his lawyer as a ‘‘prolonged hug’’.

He said the tourist had then turned on him, told him he was better than him because he was Irish, and asked him to fight.

Byrne said that the Irishman had said ‘‘come into the f---ing alleyway because I want to fight you c---.’’

He told the court Mr McCarthy appeared to brace his body and clench his right fist.

Byrne took two steps back, and claims Mr McCarthy again asked him to fight.

That’s when Byrne said he struck him, causing him to fall backward in a manner Chief Justice Helen Murrell later described as ‘‘like a plank’’.

Byrne’s barrister Anthony Hopkins argued the punch had been an ‘‘instinctive, split-second reaction’’ to a very real threat posed by a drunk, older man.

Byrne’s friends also gave evidence that Mr McCarthy had been acting in a threatening manner.

Mr Hopkins said Mr McCarthy, in his demeanour and his ‘‘prolonged hug’’ of one of the group, had been acting strangely.

‘‘It’s more than odd, it’s very unusual,’’ Mr Hopkins said.

‘‘It requires explanation and the explanation is that it was done with hostile intent,’’ he said.

In his cross-examination of Byrne, Crown prosecutor Shane Drumgold suggested the accused had viewed Mr McCarthy as a "soft target".

Mr Drumgold told Byrne he had hit the Irishman with "all the force he could muster" and had knocked him out to impress his friends. Byrne denied those propositions.

Mr Drumgold also highlighted the large black spots in Byrne’s recollection of the night, comparing them to his memory of minute details in the moments before the punch.

Byrne said the moments before the alleged assault stuck in his memory because he had felt threatened, something his lawyer later said was not unusual.

Mr Drumgold likened Byrne’s memory to a plane ascending through clouds, hitting black spots and then achieving moments of clarity.

But he later said a better metaphor would have been of ‘‘one big dark cloud, except for a very small passage of just minutes’’.

He said Byrne’s evidence should be rejected by the court.

Byrne faces a charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm, and an alternative charge of causing grievous bodily harm.

Chief Justice Murrell reserved judgment on Tuesday afternoon, but is expected to hand down her decision on Wednesday at 2pm.