A man showed no expression as he repeatedly stomped on the bloodied head of the son of Australian rocker Angry Anderson, an eyewitness has told a Sydney jury.
"I could see the victim turn his bloodied head towards me and he called out 'help me, help me, help me' in a desperate manner as loud as he could be," Trevor Buchert testified on Wednesday.
The American tourist was giving evidence via video link in the NSW Supreme Court trial of Mathew Flame who has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental impairment to the bashing murder of his best friend Liam Anderson.
The jury has been told the 22-year-old apprentice plumber was psychotic when he killed Mr Anderson, a rapper who went by the name Ranford Bigsby, in November 2018 at Queenscliff on Sydney's northern beaches.
The Crown contends this was due to his ecstasy use, while the defence maintains he was labouring under the severe mental illness of schizophrenia at the time of the fatal assault.
The men's friend, Nadia Khalil said they came to her Queenscliff unit around 4am and initially Flame - who she assumed had consumed ecstasy - was "very hyped, very excited" after the friends had a good night out partying.
But Flame's demeanour changed - he became "very closed off", was quite hot and flushed, began to take off some of his clothing and walked outside to get some fresh air, followed by her and Mr Anderson.
"We were worried about him because he was not in a good head space to be out on the street by himself," she said.
She begged Flame to come inside and also asked "Bigsby" to come in.
"He said 'he's my best friend, I would never leave my best friend'," Ms Khalil said.
Mr Buchert said he had got up early to check on the surf conditions when he came across a male kicking a motionless man on the ground, stomping on his head on numerous occasions.
"I could hear his head impacting on the grass on a few occasions," he said.
When Mr Buchert called out "what are you doing", the attacker took one step back and started to look at him but didn't say anything.
""The male's eyes were wide open with no expression on his face," he said.
He rang for help, deciding not to directly intervene because the assailant was larger than him.
"He was clearly capable of beating someone quite severely," he said.
"I figured it was not a chance I wanted to take."
The trial is continuing.
