13 Jan 2015

Man thrown down stairs 'for own protection'

5:59 pm on 13 January 2015

A security guard says he had to throw a bleeding man down the stairs of an Auckland club for his own protection.

George Moala

George Moala Photo: Photosport

Pati Junior Pati was one of five or six security guards on duty at a Karangahape Road club the night the Crown alleged Auckland Blues winger George Moala and his brother Siua were involved in a brawl.

The Moala brothers had denied charges of assault with intent to injure and assault.

Mr Pati told the Auckland District Court today a group of men were attacking a man who was on the ground and bleeding from his head.

He said he threw the man down the stairs towards another bouncer in an effort to protect him.

Clifford Matoka - the man the Crown said was attacked by the brothers - wept as he looked at photos of his injuries today.

Mr Matoka said he was at the Desi Lounge with his friend when a man started pointing at them and he was punched.

Mr Matoka said he fell to the ground and remembers being kicked and punched.

He said the next thing he knew he was on the kerb outside the club and his friend told him he had been stabbed in the head.

As Mr Matoka was taken through a photo book of his injuries, which included black eyes and stitches in his neck, he wept.

Under cross-examination he denied his friend had asked for a fight.

This afternoon, a police officer told the court he chased George Moala down a street but Mr Moala only stopped when he was threatened with a taser.

Constable Glen Lindup was on patrol in the early hours of the morning of December 30, 2012.

He said he saw punches being thrown and a man fall to the ground.

Four other men ran down Mercury Lane and Constable Lindup chased after them.

He said he yelled out for them to stop and then told them they would be tasered.

Glen Lindup said George Moala was the only one who stopped and he was arrested for fighting.

The trial, before a jury, is due to finish on Thursday.