A WOMAN has described how revellers fought desperately to save the life of a man she saw being kicked in the head as he lay unconscious on a road.
Steven Herbert died on January 1, after he was attacked as he walked to a party with people he had met in Hull's Yorkshireman pub.
Emma Bell, who was part of the group with Mr Herbert, said they were "happy" and in a "good mood" when she suddenly saw a man in white clothing and a hooded top walking down the road looking angry.
She told Hull Crown Court: "He looked really angry. He was sort of walking really angrily.
"He looked like he wanted trouble."
Miss Bell said she saw the man chase a man in her group along Beverley Road towards the city centre, but then the "angry" man came back.
She said she saw the man approach Mr Herbert, who raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture.
Miss Bell said: "I looked towards Steven, Mr Herbert, and I saw him stood in the road on the corner of Trafalgar Street, and the angry man started marching up to him and Steven, I think, had his hands out like this ..."
Miss Bell held her open hands out in front of her, but said she could not remember whether Mr Herbert's palms were facing up or down.
Asked to interpret the gesture, she said: "Steven was kind of doing it in a way of 'I don't want any trouble'."
"Did that gesture stop the angry man?" asked Andrew Robertson QC, prosecuting.
"No," she replied. "I saw the angry man approach Steven and I looked away."
"Why did you look away?" asked Mr Robertson.
She said: "I just, I don't know. I wanted to get out of the way.
"I wanted to keep myself safe and I, like, I went back into the fencing because I didn't want any trouble.
"When I looked back Steven was lying on the road."
The court had earlier heard Mr Herbert was lying with his arms outstretched.
Miss Bell said she then became aware of a female with long "very blonde" hair.
Asked if she saw her do anything, Miss Bell replied: "Yeah. She marched up to Mr Herbert when he was lying on the ground.
"He looked like he'd been knocked out. He looked unconscious and she kicked him in the head really hard."
As a woman in the packed public gallery began to sob, Miss Bell said: "I think she kicked him twice."
"Where was the second kick?" asked Mr Robertson.
"In the head," she replied.
"Did she say or shout anything while she was doing this?" Mr Robertson asked.
"Yes," said Miss Bell. "She was shouting angry words. I remember thinking 'why are you shouting at him? He's lying in the road'."
Miss Bell said the female walked off "shouting", and she went straight over to Mr Herbert to try to help.
She said: "At first we thought he'd just been knocked out, like a boxer gets knocked out, we thought he'd come round.
"We put him in the recovery position, rang an ambulance and checked for his pulse and started giving him mouth- to-mouth."
Asked if she found a pulse, Miss Bell said: "I couldn't at first, but then I felt one beat but nothing after that."
She was asked if she could remember anything about Mr Herbert's complexion.
With her voice faltering, she replied: "Yes. He looked like he was going grey."
Miss Bell said a passer-by in black began pumping Mr Herbert's chest while a woman in a blue dress gave him "a few breaths".
She said: "I remember a few people were holding his hand and trying to help him."
Miss Bell was asked why she decided to accompany Mr Herbert in the ambulance.
She said: "He didn't look too good and I just wanted to be there for him. I didn't want him going to hospital on his own."
Mr Herbert was pronounced dead at hospital a short time later.
Tiffany Clark, 23, of Victor Street, east Hull, Samuel Jordan, 22, of Yarmouth Avenue, west Hull, and Soul Humphries, 22, of Rawcliffe Grove, west Hull, all deny Mr Herbert's murder and the trial continues.
