A former friend to Gwynneville glassing accused Oskar Calvi has given evidence against him, telling a court the teen privately confessed to the stabbing.
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Christopher Keith Anderson’s recollection of the night of June 24, 2015, was clouded by at least six scotches and two mug-sized serves of white wine, he told Wollongong District Court, Wednesday.
He told the jury he learnt a man had been stabbed in the neck only the next day, when he had a conversation with Calvi, his housemate of several months, at their shared home. “He said something along the lines of, he had hit that person … stabbed him,” Mr Anderson said.
Calvi and Anderson encountered Gwynneville friends David Merxhushi and Agim Bekirovski – the latter fresh from the gym and riding a bike – on a Foley Street footpath about 9.30pm, the night of the attack.
Anderson told the court that Calvi initially defused a verbal argument between himself and Mr Merxhushi, who he accused of acting aggressively towards him.
But Anderson also corroborated Merxhushi’s account of hearing the sound of glass smashing from Calvi’s direction, moments before the altercation turned physical.
“The guy [Merxhushi] continued closer and then … sorry, my memory’s just frazzled … I remember me getting closer to him … I remember [Calvi] rushing past me and then he just threw a punch,” he said.
Mr Anderson told the jury he saw Calvi’s punch connect, but did not see anything in his hand.
He and Calvi later ran towards Wollongong before Anderson stopped and, unprompted, removed Calvi’s blood-stained shirt and threw it into a drain on Denison Street, he said.
“The distinct thing I can remember is blood on his hand and a speckle on his shirt. A blood speckle,” he told the court, explaining he removed the shirt out of concern “those guys were going to chase us, and that we wouldn’t be let into a club in town with blood on his shirt”.
Under cross examination, Anderson admitted he initially faced an identical charge to Calvi (wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm), but that this was reduced to affray after discussions between his lawyer and prosecuting authorities.
“You made a deal with the Crown?” Calvi’s barrister, Sandy Wetmore asked him.
“Yes.”
“And it was to benefit you?”
“Yes.”
Dr Dean Craig, a senior surgical registrar at Wollongong Hospital, told the court Merxhushi lost 500ml of blood in theatre alone.
He underwent a procedure to repair damage to his external jugular vein – an injury made “very scary” due to the tearable quality of the vein wall, which Dr Craig likened to Glad Wrap.
The wound to Mr Merxhushi’s neck was was consistent with a “considerably sharp and irregular object”, applied more than once.
The cut came within a about a centimetre of his carotid artery, Dr Craig told the court.
Under cross examination, Agim Bekirovski denied suggestions it was the alleged victim who threw the first punch.
He told the court the aggressors showed “instant aggression, for no reason at all”, in their intoxicated states.
He was 10 metres away, having heeded Calvi’s warning to “run” when the fight turned physical.
He said the aggressors ran away immediately after Mr Merxhushi retaliated.
“I had thought nothing had happened to [Mr Merxhushi] at this point. I was like, ‘are you all good?’. As he turned I saw half his face opened up and hanging out. Blood was pouring out. I couldn’t see much because of the amount of blood that was pouring out.”
The trial, before Judge Haesler, continues Thursday.