Manase Fainu stabbing trial: Wounded Mormon church leader can’t identify attacker

The Mormon leader who prosecutors allege was stabbed by rising NRL star Manase Fainu outside a church dance party has told a jury he did not see who attacked him that night.

A Mormon youth leader has told a court he has no idea who plunged a steak knife into his upper back during a wild brawl at a church dance party in western Sydney almost three years ago.

Faamanu Levi told Parramatta District Court on Wednesday he did not see who stabbed him just after 11pm on October 25, 2019, as he tried to protect a female friend from the fight.

Prosecutors allege the man responsible for inflicting the wound was rising NRL star Manase Fainu, who had attended the Wattle Grove dance with friends earlier in the night.

Fainu was arrested four days later and charged with wounding a person with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge and is on day two of a trial expected to last a fortnight.

Manly hooker Manase Fainu outside Parramatta District Court on day two of his trial. Picture: Shannon Tonkin

Mr Levi told jurors on Tuesday morning that he and his friend Charlie Toilalo escorted two men out of the dance after an altercation broke out on the dance floor about 11pm.

He said one of the men, dressed in a black shirt, swore at him when he took them aside and told them it was time to leave.

“I said ‘it’s time to go home, this isn’t the right place, its’ not a good time, this is a church activity’,” Mr Levi said.

“The man in the black shirt, he wrote at me, he said ‘f—k you’.”

Mr Levi said when the two men eventually left via the front gate, he went back inside the hall and collected his friends so they could all leave.

He told the court the encounter with the two men had left him “scared”.

“I was scared; [I] honestly never experienced this type of thing in my life,” he said.

“I was just trying to do my job as a youth leader.”

The court heard Mr Levi and his friends headed to Mr Levi’s car. Mr Levi got in the back seat and a female friend in the front seat when they were approached by a group of males.

“All I heard was a [female] scream and then a fight happening outside [the car],” Mr Levi said.

He told the court he got out of the back seat of the car and walked around to try shield the female

“I saw Charlie (Toilalo) and Kupi (Toilalo) on the ground … right next to my car,” he said.

“They were covering their faces, trying to protect themselves on the ground.

“There were men kicking and punching them …. About four or five men.”

Mr Levi said he did not recognise any of the men.

He told the court he was trying to move the car door when he felt a “stab” on his lower right shoulder.

“Did you see who stabbed you?” Crown prosecutor Emma Curran asked Mr Levi.

“No,” he responded.

When asked what he did next, Mr Levi said he called out to everyone in the melee to stop fighting because he’d been injured.

“I was actually scared and about to faint,” he said.

“I was in pain I can’t explain.”

He said someone brought him a chair to sit on, then the next thing he remembered was being loaded into an ambulance.

The court heard Mr Levi was taken to Liverpool Hospital for treatment to a 2.5cm wound which punctured his lung, causing it to collapse.

He also required three stitches to a gash on his forehead, above his right eye.

When asked in court whether he saw his stabber, Mr Levi said no.

“Are you able to say whether any of the males you saw outside the church before you were stabbed are the same males you saw in the church beforehand?” Ms Curran asked him.

“No,” Mr Levi said, saying it was “pitch black” at the time of the incident.

Manase Fainu (centre) arrives at Parramatta courthouse for the start of his trial. Picture: John Grainger

During cross examination, defence barrister Margaret Cunneen SC asked Mr Levi if he remembered the man in the black shirt having his arm in a sling.

“No, not that I recall of,” Mr Levi said.

She also asked Mr Levi to confirm if three paragraphs of his police statement were correct.

“I did not get a look at their faces as it was too dark and do not know who they were,” the statement read.

“I have never seen these people before. I do not know if the group of males that assaulted Kupi, Charlie and I were the same group of males we followed outside of the church grounds earlier on.”

Mr Levi confirmed the statements were correct.

Meanwhile, Charlie Toilalo told the court he was punched by a man - who was not wearing a sling on either arm - and taken to hospital where a friend showed him a social media picture of a man in a hospital bed, with his arm in a sling.

Mr Tailalo said he recognised the man as being the same person he’d seen in the carpark earlier that night.

“To be clear, that’s the man in the sling you saw in the carpark,” Ms Curran said.

“Yes,” Mr Tailalo responded.

The picture, tendered to the court, showed Fainu lying in a hospital bed wearing a blue dressing gown and with his arm in a sling.

The trial continues.