The man accused of the manslaughter of Dublin-based tennis player Gareth Parker felled him with a punch seconds before he was run over by a car, a Belfast court heard yesterday. Mr Terence Mooney QC, prosecuting, claimed that after delivering the blow, Mr Andre Khaled Shoukri (20) walked off, leaving Mr Parker (23) "as helpless as a new-born baby". Within seconds a car ran over the head of the dazed and possibly unconscious Mr Parker as he lay outside the Shaftesbury Inn on Belfast's Antrim Road. Mr Mooney also told the Crown Court jury the attack was a "manifestation of brute violence - unprovoked violence wreaked on an innocent person because of some perceived slight in the past".
The tennis professional was kept on a life-support system for three days in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, before it was turned off on June 25th last year after doctors declared him brain dead. The day following the attack, Mr Shoukri, of Westland Way in north Belfast, gave himself up to police. He initially claimed he had been trying to break up a fight when approached by Mr Parker, whom he told to "fuck off".
But later he admitted punching Mr Parker on the chin, because he believed he was going to join in the fight.
However, Mr Mooney told the jury a motorist would tell them of observing a fight being watched by two men, one of whom lashed out at the other without apparent warning. He said the motorist would described it "as a real Judas punch - a vicious blow" which immediately floored the man. "What he saw was Andre Shoukri striking Gareth Parker on the head or the face, striking him a blow of such violence it caused him to fall to the ground," claimed Mr Mooney. Earlier, the Crown lawyer said Mr Parker often returned to his native Belfast from Dublin to keep in touch with family and friends. On the night of the incident he had met friends in the Shaftesbury Inn. However, tension grew between his group and another.
Mr Mooney said to avoid any confrontation most of Mr Parker's group left by a side door while he and another friend walked out the front door. Mr Parker's friend was immediately attacked from behind and his coat pulled over his head. When he managed to free himself he saw a body lying on the road. Although a post-mortem examination revealed Mr Parker died from head injuries caused by a car running over his skull, it also uncovered a fracture to his right eye socket similar to those suffered by boxers. The trial continues.