A Co Down man who claimed yesterday he was severely beaten during a "childish" argument over a UVF flag during last year's loyalist feud later denied he had provoked the attack.
Mr Keith Patrick Butler (40) was giving evidence at the Belfast Crown Court trial of three men accused of attempting to murder him near his Forthill Green home in Banbridge on July 5th last year.
He claimed the three, Mr Noel McCready (34), of Dickson Park, Seapatrick, and Mr Stephen McClean (32) and Mr Philip Harrison (26), both of Hillside Park, Banbridge, attacked him with a hatchet, sticks and fists.
Mr Butler claimed that during the attack, which left him with multiple fractures of the skull, facial bones, left arm and leg, he at one stage heard someone laughing and asking: "Is he done? Is he finished yet?"
During cross-examination he denied that he had attacked the men with a hatchet, threatening to kill them, although he did admit that, while he thought their taking the UVF flag down was childish, he was not going to "let it go by default" or walk away "with my tail between my legs".
Initially he told Mr Justice Girvan he was on his way to pay his mortgage when he saw five people pulling down a UVF flag and told them "not to be so f---ing childish".
He said the men came towards him and he to them when suddenly, "blows started raining down on me from all directions".
He claimed the three he could remember carrying out the attack were Mr McCready, Mr McClean and Mr Harrison.
Asked by Mr John Creaney QC, prosecuting, what he would say to the suggestion he had gone to attack the men with a hatchet, Mr Butler replied: "That's a lie."
Later under cross-examination by Mr Dermot Fee QC, defending, Mr Butler said he could not remember telling an ambulance man "that a boy had come to your door and had told you someone was taking down flags and you had gone to see what they were doing and got assaulted".
He said at the time there was a feud between the LVF, who he described as "undisguised gangsters" and the UVF, who were "no angels either", but that he was not associated with either group.
He also said that, although he regarded both Mr McCready and Mr McClean as "dangerous people", he did not believe he would be attacked as he approached them.
The trial continues today.