DAVID Flood yesterday told Orange District Court that he acted instantly to defend himself but did not intentionally hit Michael Bouffler out the front of the Standard Hotel.
The 44-year-old former security guard and soldier gave his version of the events of December 7, 2007 which led to Mr Bouffler falling to the footpath outside the hotel, causing head injuries which allegedly led to his death less than 24 hours later.
Flood, who has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, was the only witness called on day seven of the trial and the final witness before the jury hears summaries of both the defence and prosecution cases today.
Flood said he saw security guards James Davis and Bradley Murray support Mr Bouffler down the stairs and eject him from the hotel.
He asked Mr Bouffler to walk away from the other two with him in an attempt to calm the situation.
“He started becoming verbally aggressive towards me. He stopped, turned and lunged at me, spitting at the same time. He spat in my face, right across my eyes and the top of my nose. I raised my right arm with an open hand towards him to stop him coming further and injuring me. The next thing I recall happening was seeing Mr Bouffler on the ground. He was telling me to f... off,” Flood said in the witness box yesterday.
Flood told the court he had closed his eyes when he realised Mr Bouffler was spitting at him.
“I moved my hand in his direction. I don’t remember connecting or hitting him because I had my eyes closed. It was an instant reaction to defend myself,” he said.
Crown prosecutor Frank Hollis questioned Flood’s version of events as compared to CCTV footage of the incident.
“Nowhere on that DVD shows you wiping your eyes, does it?” he asked.
Flood replied “No”.
Mr Hollis raised Flood’s expertise in Thai boxing and said he would have known the consequences of his actions.
“You knew, because you were martial arts trained, that Mr Bouffler was off balance at the time he spat at you. You hit him as hard as you could with an open palm under the jaw. You hit him so hard you had to go forward to brace yourself on the verandah. You knew when you were hitting him you were going to be knocking him down onto concrete,” he said.
Flood repeatedly denied hitting Mr Bouffler intentionally.
Mr Hollis also questioned Flood about what happened after Mr Bouffler hit the ground, with Flood explaining, “I didn’t want him hanging around the hotel”.
Flood said he offered to call a taxi but Mr Bouffler didn’t want one and said he never realised Mr Bouffler was lying in a garden near the Kmart car park when he left work before the hotel closed; about an hour after the incident.
He said he hadn’t told police about the incident when they drove past because he believed what had happened was not important.
“There was no incident to me,” he said.
Mr Hollis said that did not marry with Flood’s recording of the event in the hotel’s incident book.
“On the one hand you don’t think it’s an incident worth reporting to police, on the other hand it’s an incident worth recording ... in the incident register. You did what you did that night after you struck him because you were worried about the consequences of your actions,” he said.
The jurors are expected to start their deliberations on Monday.
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