Vicious assault with baseball bat in Highfields: trial

A YOUNG man has told a Toowoomba Court trial of confronting a group of men he found at his dual cab utility before being struck in the head by a baseball bat.

A 22-YEAR-OLD man has told a Toowoomba District Court trial of confronting a group of young men he found at his dual cab utility before being struck in the head by a baseball bat.

Aiden Formosa said he had been at a friend's place in Highfields about 7.30pm on New Year's Eve 2015 when told some people were rifling through his ute parked out front.

He said he approached one young man standing beside the ute which had two passenger doors opened and asked what he was doing.

He saw the man had a baseball bat behind his back and Formosa said he had taken the bat from him and was then struck in the head.

"Next thing I remember waking up in hospital in Brisbane," he told the court.

Konnor Azrael Millet, 20, and Alexander James Maynard, 19, have each pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and in company arising from the incident.

Their friend Dylan Rodney Chad, 19, told the court he and friend Michael King had gone with Millet and Maynard in Chad's 4WD ute to the Highfields home that evening because Maynard had wanted to collect money from someone there.

He said when he got out of the car at Highfields, he had noticed a baseball bat on the ground near the fence and had picked it up.

He had then walked back to (Formosa's) utility and opened two doors and looked inside the vehicle.

He said a male he didn't know (Formosa) approached and he had held the bat behind his back as he backed away.

The male had taken the bat from him and he had backed away but saw the man poke Maynard in the chest with the bat, he said.

It was after that he saw Konnor Millet arrive saying "Get away from my mate" and strike the man to the side of the head with another baseball bat and the man fell to the ground.

He said another man (Formosa's friend Kane Parton) and a woman had come out of the house with the man (Parton) approaching to see how his felled friend was and Millet had then swung the baseball bat at him.

He said (Parton) had put his arm up to block the blow and the bat struck his arm.

Chad said Millet had then jumped into the tray of Chad's utility and the four of them had driven off.

Under cross examination by Millet's barrister Peter Richards, Chad agreed Formosa had approached the group in an aggressive manner and had said words to the effect "Get out of here or I'll start cracking skulls".

Chad also agreed the incident had taken place quickly and that he had been scared for his safety when confronted.

He also agreed with a suggestion from Maynard's barrister Janice Crawford that her client, when approached by Formosa, had backed away with his hands up.

Parton has told the court that earlier that day he had organised by text message to buy 10 MDMA (ecstasy) pills for $250 of which he had taken one or two but found they were "duds" and had no effect which he had made known to the supplier by text that afternoon.

The trial before Judge Brendan Butler SC continues.

Originally published as Vicious assault with baseball bat in Highfields: trial