Pub security guard tells of attack

Witness: Daniel O’Brien

“HE got kicked, he fell to the ground. Nick Sharp then stamped on his head,” Great Northern Hotel security guard Rose Argent told the jury in a Lismore District Court trial of three Northern Rivers men accused of assaulting two men in Byron Bay.

Ms Argent said she knew two of the accused men, Nicholas Sharp and Dean Phelps (from school days in Mullumbimby), and she saw both men approach a man standing with his friend at the entrance to the hotel.

Ms Argent said she believed the latter were being refused entry due to their level of intoxication.

She said Sharp said something to one man about ‘the Beach Hotel, my girlfriend or a girl’ then punches were being thrown.

“I don’t believe the man in the green T-shirt (Dallas Arnold) threw any punches,” she said.

“He (Sharp) punched and kicked him repeatedly. He (Mr Arnold) fell on to the pavement.”

Ms Argent said Mr Arnold was lying unconscious on the ground when she saw Sharp stamp on his head.

She said Sharp raised his foot ‘maybe a foot’ above the motionless man’s head and stamped down with force.

The three men on trial – Nicholas Stafford Sharp, 27, of Ocean Shores, Dean William Phelps, 25, of Suffolk Park, and Lee Frederick Funnell, 26, of Brunswick Heads – are charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to Dallas Arnold, 32, of Pottsville, at Byron Bay on March 7 last year; and threatening to use violence towards Campbell McFarlane and other people that would cause them to fear for their safety.

Phelps and Funnell are also accused of in company assaulting Nathan Spratt, 31, of Carrara on the Gold Coast, causing him bodily harm.

Witness Daniel O’Brien was working at his hot dog stand outside the hotel and told the trial he saw a well-built, muscly man arrive at the hotel door and begin punching a ‘skinny male’ four to six times in the head with both fists before the man fell to the ground.

“The man in the grey T-shirt began to kick the man,” Mr O’Brien said.

“I saw the man lying on the ground receive kicks to his head and torso.”

Mr O’Brien said the man was kicked by two men. And a male passer-by ‘who seemed to be objecting to the violence’ was punched in the face.

“I started to feel sick from the extremity of the violence,” Mr O’Brien said during questioning by the Crown.

“I saw the man in the grey T-shirt stamp on his head while lying on the concrete.

“I saw a stamping action. His leg was up to 90 degrees to raise his foot over 12 inches from the ground then go straight down like a kick in extreme force.”

Mr O’Brien said he saw two other men, one he knew as ‘Phelpsy’, challenging passers-by.

Barrister Simon Priestley, for Phelps, cross-examined Mr O’Brien about other aspects of the matter, with Mr O’Brien stating he saw a man approaching Phelps with both hands raised saying ‘I’m not fighting, I’m not fighting’ before Phelps gave a jab.

Mr Priestley had hotel CCTV video played and questioned Mr O’Brien if he accepted his recollection was different from the tape, and that the tape showed ‘the whole of the incident’. Mr O’Brien replied ‘no’, to both questions.

The trial continues today.