Daniel Christie’s brother recalls moment of fatal punch
APPROACHED by a stranger boasting about being an MMA fighter, Daniel Christie raised his palms and repeated the word ‘no’.
DANIEL Christie took a slight step back, raised his palms, and repeated the word “no”.
It was then that he received the “extremely hard and fast punch” that would lead to his death, the teenager’s brother has told a Sydney court.
Daniel, 18, went limp and fell backwards, his head striking the Kings Cross road with a “very loud” crack, Peter Christie told the murder trial of Shaun McNeil at the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday.
McNeil, 27, has pleaded guilty to Daniel’s manslaughter, but not guilty to his murder.
He claims he had no intention of causing grievous bodily harm when he threw what he would later describe to police as a “jab” on New Year’s Eve 2013.
Peter Christie told the court the 9pm fireworks had just gone off when he and Daniel saw a chubby teenager lying in the middle of a pedestrian crossing near the suburb’s party strip.
Another teen approached and said: “This dude hit all of us.” A tall, “kind of muscly” man in a white shirt then walked towards them, apparently ushering the chubby teen up the street. “He had an aggressive sort of manner, sort of like beefing himself up to look big,” Peter Christie said, standing up in the witness box to demonstrate.
“I heard him say `I’m an MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter’.” As the man approached within about a metre-and-a-half, Daniel took a slight step back, raised his palms “in dismissal” and said “no, no, no, no”, Peter Christie said.
Daniel was then hit with what Peter Christie described as “not just a quick jab”, but a punch with “build up”.
“He immediately became limp and fell backward off the gutter. “I took a step forward and said `What the f*** are you doing?’” The court heard from several other witnesses on Wednesday, including Raymond Taylor, who observed the altercation while drinking outside the nearby Kings Cross Hotel.
He described the punch as “a bit of a haymaker”, telling the court Daniel seemed to fall in “slow motion” with his hands never leaving his side.
Another, Daniel Clancy, said he heard Daniel’s head strike the road from the veranda of the Kings Cross Hotel, all of 50 metres away.
The punch started at waist height and hit Daniel “right on the chin”, he said.
“His body went rigid, his hands were by his side.” Peter Jackson, a bouncer at the Kings Cross Hotel, described the punch as a “right hand cross”, thrown straight.
McNeil’s defence says he threw the punch under the mistaken belief that Daniel was part of a group of teenagers with whom he had scuffled after they made disparaging comments about his girlfriend.
The trial continues.