A Mormon youth leader allegedly stabbed in the back by an NRL player in a church dance brawl has told a court he did not see who attacked him, but he was scared and left in unexplainable pain.
Manly Sea Eagles hooker Manase Fainu, 24, has pleaded not guilty to wounding Faamanu Levi with intent to cause grievous bodily harm outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Wattle Grove, in Sydney’s south-west.
Alleged victim Faamanu Levi outside court on Tuesday.CREDIT:RHETT WYMAN
The Crown alleges Fainu stabbed Levi when a brawl erupted in the car park during a charity dance event for young single adults on October 25, 2019.
The defence disputes Fainu was the man behind the stabbing, claiming he had no problem with anyone that night, and it was “not his fight”.
Giving evidence in Parramatta District Court on Wednesday, Levi said he saw two men, in a red shirt and black shirt respectively, fighting on the dance floor and the DJ stopped the music.
Asked by Fainu’s barrister Margaret Cunneen, SC, whether the men were fighting with each other, Levi said, “I think they were in the same team or something like that”.
He told Crown prosecutor Emma Curran they had looked about 18 to 20, had brown skin and the man in the black shirt was of a large build and taller than the man in the red shirt.
“I said to them, ‘it’s time to go home, this is not a good place, not a good time, this is a church activity’,” Levi said.
He said the man in the black shirt was annoyed, shaking his head and said, “f--- you”.
RELATED ARTICLE
Levi said he and his best friend, Charlie Toilalo, walked the two men out to the front gate, and he told them to “go home and have a rest”.
“I don’t know who was calling out, [saying] ‘come out and see what you want’, but I said ‘goodbye, we’re going back inside’.”
Levi said he wanted to go home and walked to his car about 11-11.30pm with Toilalo, Toilalo’s brother Kupi, their friend Tony Quach and two of their female friends.
“I was scared. Honestly, I never experienced this kind of thing in my entire life,” he said, adding that he was “just doing my job as a youth leader” and member of the church, and had work the next day.
He sat in the back seat and closed his eyes before one of the females, Vaituutuu Sherrie Tapusoa, who was sitting in the front passenger seat started “screaming” and saying, “Charlie’s having a fight with someone and my leg is stuck in the door”.
Levi said Charlie and Kupi Toilalo were on the ground “covering their faces and trying to protect themselves” and there were four to five men “kicking and punching”.
He went around the back of the car to try and push the group away to keep Tapusoa safe.
“I felt the stab on my back,” he said, adding that it was in his lower right shoulder.
The prosecutor asked: “Just so we’re clear, did you see who stabbed you?”
“No,” Levi replied.
He said, “stop fighting, I’m injured” and was scared and “about to faint as well”.
“I was in pain that I can’t explain,” Levi said.
“I remember someone bring me a chair. I lean on it and then the next thing I know
was in the ambulance.”
He was taken to Liverpool Hospital where he underwent scans and had three stitches above his eyebrow. He said he did not see the person who inflicted that wound either. The jury has been told the stab wound to Levi’s back punctured his lung, causing it to collapse and internal bleeding.
Asked by Curran whether he was able to say whether any of the males outside his car “were the same males you spoke to inside the church hall”, Levi said, “no, not that I can think of”.
In response to Cunneen asking whether he was “all right now”, Levi said he was “getting there”.
The trial before Judge Nanette Williams continues.