One punch leaves man with brain injuries
A man accused of causing extensive head injuries with one punch acted in self-defence, a court has heard.
Joseph William Kurene, 25, is on trial in the Palmerston North District Court charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to injure.
While the Crown says he used too much force, the defence argues he acted in self-defence.
The charge was laid after an altercation with a man, who has name suppression, at 11pm on February 19, 2016.
Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk said Kurene was driving alone in Palmerston North. The car the other man was travelling in, driven by a woman with two other friends in it, was at an intersection opposite.
Vanderkolk said Kurene was yelled at by the men in the car, which then drove off.
Kurene changed the direction he was driving and travelled some distance to catch up, Vanderkolk said.
The driver of the other car was worried about being followed, so pulled over, and the man with name suppression got out.
Vanderkolk said Kurene punched the man in the face.
‘‘With the impact and the weight he fell backward almost immediately.’’
His head hit the road, he had a fractured skull, brain swelling and bleeding in his skull, and was in Wellington Hospital for a month.
Vanderkolk said there was no threat to Kurene, and he knew his own strength as he worked as a bouncer.
‘‘He chose to punch [the man] very hard.’’
Defence lawyer Adam Holland said Kurene ‘‘was advanced upon by more than one person’’.
The woman who was driving the car said the three men in her vehicle were drunk and yelling out the windows when they caught Kurene’s attention.
At one point, racial slurs were hurled toward Kurene.
When she drove off, one of the men noticed Kurene’s car had turned around. ‘‘I said ‘we’re being followed’..’’ She pulled over. She did not see the punch, but in her rear-vision mirror saw her friend hit the road.
‘‘I remember the noise. It was a crack. It was loud.’’
She said Kurene then stood by his car and did not try to leave or to fight the second man.
She ran to her friend who was lying in the road, lifted his head and saw blood on her hands.
‘‘I thought he was dead. Blood was pouring out of the back of his head.’’
The court also heard from Helge Koeck, the neurosurgeon who treated the injured man at Wellington Hospital.
‘‘From my experience, there must have been a significant impact with the skull. A small fall on the skull usually doesn’t cause such serious injuries,’’ he said.
However, there was no way to tell if the victim was conscious or unconscious during the fall, he said.
The trial continues.