The trial of a Co Tyrone man accused of the unlawful killing of 19-year-old Jason McGovern heard yesterday of the frantic efforts to revive him.
The Co Monaghan teenager died from bleeding on the brain in the bedroom of a friend in the border village of Emyvale, after being helped home following an alleged one-punch assault in a car park in Omagh.
Denying throwing that single punch in the early hours of new years' eve 2012 is Mark Donnelly (23), from Greencastle Road, between Greencastle and Mountfield.
Details of the efforts to revive Jason were given in several witness statements read to trial judge Melody McReynolds and a jury of eight men and four women.
Dungannon Crown Court heard how Jason's friend ran to a neighbour's home just before 1pm on new year's day, telling him that "he (Jason) is cold , he is cold".
On returning to the house, the friend again attempted to give him CPR, but his neighbour, who'd guessed "something terrible had just happened", believed that the teenager was already dead.
In his statement the neighbour told of seeing Jason lying on a duvet on the bedroom floor in his boxer shorts.
There was purple and blue bruising on his head and down the side of his body, and blood was coming from his mouth.
Despite all efforts to revive him, he was pronounced dead shortly before 2pm by a local doctor.
Mr Reid also read statements from a witness in the Weigh Inn car park in Kelvin Street, Omagh, where the teenager was attacked hours earlier following a night out with friends.
The statement told of how he helped lift "an unconscious" Jason McGovern into a Volkswagen taxi waiting to collect him and his friends to drive them back to to Co Monaghan shortly after 2am.
He said while he stood waiting for a taxi himself, he had heard a "very loud thud" that seemed as if someone had hit the roof of a car.
"We noticed a young man lying on the road with his feet pointing towards Sally's (bar) and his head towards the car park.
"I could see clearly from six to seven feet away that he was unconscious.
"We lifted him into the taxi, his eyes were glazed. He was unresponsive."
Another witness spoke of the female taxi driver telling them to "get him into the taxi" and not let him sleep as he had just been hit on the head.
The witness said while the teenager had blood on his forehead, it "did not seem serious".
Another taxi driver, who did not see any fighting, said in his statement that he saw a "fellow being lifted into a taxi", and that "usually when people are drunk they try and get up off the ground, but this lad did not".
The trial continues on Monday.
