A Co Tyrone man tearfully insisted yesterday he was innocent of the unlawful killing of teenager Jason McGovern during a night out in Omagh.
Mark Donnelly (23) refuted any suggestion he threw a punch which floored the 19-year-old in a car park in the early hours of New Years' Eve 2012.
Asked by his defence QC Sean Doran about the evidence of an eyewitness who claimed to have seen him hit the Co Monaghan teenager at the entrance of the Weigh Inn car park, Donnelly said: "I say that she is mistaken".
He added: "I didn't strike anyone down at the Weigh Inn car park."
Given "one final opportunity to comment" on the prosecution case that he was the attacker, Donnelly - his voice cracking with emotion - replied "It's not true".
Later, under cross-examination by prosecution QC Liam McCollum, he denied being a man who would "lie to save your own skin".
He also rejected the suggestion that he was only prepared to admit matters when confronted with the reality captured on CCTV.
Donnelly, who gave his address as Greencastle, between Omagh and Cookstown, spent two hours in the witness box at Dungannon Crown Court on the seventh day of his trial for the manslaughter of Mr McGovern.
The teenager from Tydavnet suffered a fractured skull and died at a friend's house in Co Monaghan on January 1.
Outlining the events of the previous night, Donnelly told how he went to see what was going on "probably more of nosiness than anything" after his girlfriend pointed out a disturbance outside the Terrace Bar in Omagh's John Street.
He agreed that following this "a melee broke out" for which he was later convicted of affray, although he pleaded not guilty at the time.
The defendant said he went to the Kevlin Avenue car park looking for his cousin to give her a lift home along with his girlfriend.
He maintained that he never saw Jason McGovern at the car park, nor any attack on him. He said he saw a friend apparently having "an argument" with someone, but that was all.
Under cross-examination from Mr McCollum, he accepted that he had not mentioned seeing anyone hitting anyone, when he now said he had witnessed an unprovoked attack outside the Terrace Bar.
"I did not recall that," he replied.
He accepted that after a friend of Mr McGovern had been the victim of one unprovoked attack, he was captured on CCTV following a group of others going after the Monaghan teenagers, "a terrible unfortunate coincidence for you".
Donnelly said he was "not aware" that the others had gone down towards the car park the same time he went looking for his cousin, but agreed that security footage also showed him running back up the street, after Mr McGovern must have been attacked.
Mr McCollum suggested that Donnelly was seen on CCTV images running away "after cowardly hitting someone", and put it to the Tyrone man: "That's your style, Mr Donnelly".
"No. That's not true," he replied.
When shown further security camera footage, following the car park attack, Donnelly claimed he had not mentioned it because he had not recalled it.
The footage showed a smiling Donnelly with a group of other laughing and joking young men, one of whom demonstrated throwing a punch.
Mr McCollum claimed that "a clear pattern has emerged" that he was prepared "to say anything you could to distance yourself... prepared to tell any lie" in the case.
"Not true," replied Donnelly.
Today lawyers will begin their final submissions in the case.
