'Help me, help me': Witness tells court of severe blows in fatal attack
A man has told a murder trial he saw one man stomping on another man's head in a very aggressive manner with "blows so severe I thought they would be fatal", before the aggressor turned and looked at him with a "thousand-yard stare".
Mathew Flame, 22, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court accused of murdering his best friend Liam Anderson, 26, by beating him to death at Pavilion Reserve at Queenscliff in Sydney's north on the morning of November 4, 2018.
Liam Anderson (left) with his father, Rose Tattoo frontman Angry Anderson. Credit:Facebook
Mr Flame's barrister told a court on Tuesday that his client does not deny killing Mr Anderson – who is the son of Rose Tattoo frontman Gary "Angry" Anderson – but did not murder him, because he was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time and believed Liam Anderson was a demon who wanted to kill him.
"[He believed] that he had no choice but to kill his good friend," barrister John Stratton SC said.
Nadia Khalil told the court on Wednesday Mr Flame and Mr Anderson had been at her house when Mr Flame, who had taken the drug MDMA, became hot and flushed and "closed off" and started to take off some items of clothing.
She said Mr Flame then went outside and began to walk away from her house. He was followed by Mr Anderson, who told her: "He’s my best friend, I would never leave my best friend".
American tourist Trevor Buchert told the court he was walking home from Freshwater Beach at about 6am when he heard weird grunting sounds.
In part of his statement, read out to the court, Mr Buchert said he then saw one man kicking another motionless man who was lying face-down. He said the aggressor stood on the other man's head on numerous occasions.
"The blows were so severe I thought they would be fatal," Mr Buchert said in his statement.
He said he called out "what are you doing" and the attacker "took one step back and started to look at me" with wide eyes, but did not say anything. He said the attacker did not appear to be angry and showed no emotion.
"I could see the victim turn his bloodied head towards me and he called out 'help me help me help me' in a desperate manner as loud as he could," Mr Buchert said in his statement.
Mr Buchert said he sized up the attacker, who was larger than him and called 000 instead of intervening because "he was clearly capable of beating someone quite severely". Mr Buchert said after he shouted out, the attacker "was giving me the thousand-yard stare" and didn't appear "fully coherent".
In his statement, Mr Buchert said the attacker appeared to have smears of blood all over his legs and the injured man had his "entire head covered with blood due to the constant aggressive attack on his head and torso".
"At no time did the injured male fight back or do anything apart from being viciously attacked," he said.
Emergency services responded but Mr Anderson died at the scene.
In a 000 call played to the court, Mr Buchert said "there's a guy getting murdered ... his entire head is blood red and the guy is stomping on his head". He was told police and an ambulance had been urgently dispatched.
Ellen Spencer, who jogged past the reserve that morning, told the court she stopped when she saw a motionless man lying face-down with his face in a pool of blood, with another man sitting on his back.
Ms Spencer said she stopped and called out "oh my God what happened, are you okay, is he okay" but got no response.
The trial continues.
Georgina Mitchell is a court reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.