A man who allegedly king-hit an Irish tourist in a drunken argument in Civic, leaving him with brain damage, has gone on trial in the ACT Supreme Court.
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Irish-born Timothy McCarthy, then 41, was left fighting for his life after he was punched outside the Quick ’n Go store in Civic in early on Sunday July 24, 2011.
Daniel Byrne, 21, has pleaded not guilty to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm and says the Irishman was being aggressive and had threatened to fight him.
CCTV footage of the alleged assault was played to the court, showing the pair standing near each other.
Mr Byrne appears to step back and then punch Mr McCarthy in the head.
The Irishman was knocked backward, falling and smashing his head on the concrete.
The alleged attack left him with two fractures to his skull and caused bruising, swelling and blood clots in his brain.
The swelling, likened in court to a ‘‘pressure cooker’’, began to restrict his body’s ability to get blood to the brain.
Doctors feared this might cause strokes and result in parts of his brain dying off. They also feared the swelling of his brain would force it down towards his spine, the only space available.
That process, known as ‘‘coning’’, damages the part of the brain that looks after breathing and consciousness, among other things.
Canberra Hospital medical staff cut through the front of his skull, removing a piece of it to relieve the pressure. The piece of skull was stored and surgically re-attached about 13 days later.
The surgery was successful, and Mr McCarthy was eventually brought out of his induced coma and discharged into the care of his mother and sister. He has since returned to Ireland and his treating neurosurgeon in Canberra said he was not aware of his condition now, although he assumed Mr McCarthy had suffered permanent cognitive impairment.
‘‘You can’t have an injury like this and be normal again,’’ he said.
Crown prosecutor Shane Drumgold asked the neurosurgeon what would have happened if no one had been around to help him.
‘‘He would have died,’’ the surgeon replied.
Mr Drumgold: ‘‘Is that a certainty?’’
Surgeon: ‘‘Without a doubt.’’
Mr Byrne gave evidence from the witness box late on Monday afternoon, saying he had felt threatened by Mr McCarthy.
He said he had been standing with a group when the Irishman had come over and ‘‘bear hugged’’ one of his friends, which Mr Byrne said was done ‘‘not in a friendly manner’’.
Mr Byrne said he had tried to get the attention of Mr McCarthy by tapping him twice.
He said Mr McCarthy had then told him he wanted to fight and told him to come into the alleyway.
He said he could not remember what he had said in reply but that Mr McCarthy swore at him and again told him to come to the alleyway.
That’s when, Mr Byrne said, he punched the victim.
He was arrested at his Franklin home the next day, after police found him hiding in his garage.
Mr Byrne told the court he hid from authorities because he began to fear he would be sent to prison after reading Facebook statuses that suggested Mr McCarthy might be dead.
The court heard a recorded phone call between Mr Byrne and an inmate in Canberra’s prison, during which Mr Byrne said police were outside his house and discussed how to avoid detection.
The trial continues before Chief Justice Helen Murrell on Tuesday.