AN EYE-WITNESS has described the moment Christopher Lemonius was ‘beaten to death’ with golf clubs and chunks of wood in a Blackbird Leys alleyway.

Six Oxford men all deny murdering the 27-year old near Jourdain Road on June 1 last year – Yasine Lamzini, Otman Lamzini, Rashaun Stoute, Yousef Koudoua, Connor Woodward and Carlos Spencer.

Taking to the witness box as the trial at Oxford Crown Court continued yesterday, Julie O’Dong, who lived at Jourdain Road at the time, laid bare what she saw at about 11pm on the night of the killing.

She told the jury of eight women and four men how she had been at home in a downstairs living room when she had heard ‘loud shouting’ coming from outside a neighbouring property.

She said: “There was shouting, arguing. It was aggressive. I locked my back door, I thought we were probably going to get robbed.

“I heard struggling within the house as if there was fighting, as if they were trying to drag Chris [Lemonius] out of the house.”

On hearing the unfolding violence, the court heard, she then moved to an upstairs bedroom and peered out on to the adjacent garden which leads to the alleyway where Mr Lemonius was later found by paramedics having suffered multiple injuries.

Ms O’Dong told jurors that looking out of her window she saw and heard ‘about six people’ outside, four of whom she recognised as Carlos Spencer, Otman Lamzini, Yasine Lamzini and Connor Woodward, together with two others she described only as ‘hooded males’.

The woman, who told jurors she had lived on the estate for nearly 20 years, said that the gang were armed with metal poles, golf clubs and chunks of wood and they were ‘kicking, punching and stamping’ on Mr Lemonius who was lying in a ‘foetal position’ trying to protect his head.

She said: “He was beaten while he was on the floor. He was beaten to the floor. With a pole and wood for a little bit, but mainly a pole across his body.”

The court went on to hear that during the alleged onslaught which, she said, lasted up to 30 minutes, there were screams and shouts from the gang after they had ‘dragged’ Mr Lemonius out of the flat and into the garden.

The eyewitness told jurors she heard the men demand to know where a friend of Mr Lemonius was, shouting ‘he thinks he is a big man, where is he?’

She told the court: “He is on the floor at this point in the garden. I heard ‘finish him, let’s finish him, we are going to dead him’, ‘I am going to finish him off’.

“[I heard] ‘what is he going to do now, you are not a big man anymore for stabbing Yaza’.”

She added that she heard a number of nicknames used during the violence, including Otty, Woody and Yaza.

Answering questions from prosecutor Stuart Trimmer QC she said that Woodward’s part in the violence was ‘continuous’ and he struck Mr Lemonius on the head with a pole as well as stamping on him.

She said Otman Lamzini had kicked and punched Mr Lemonius and Spencer was carrying a chunk of wood, while Yasine Lamzini ‘threw a few punches’ during the attack.

One of the hooded men struck Mr Lemonius with a golf club, she said, but could not recall what the second hooded male did during the incident.

Miss O’Dong also described Spencer as being ‘amped up’ at this point as Mr Lemonius, who was by now limp, was then ‘dragged into the alleyway’.

Otman Lamzini and Spencer then discussed taking Mr Lemonius to a nearby field, she told jurors, before Yasine Lamzini screamed ‘police’ and they all fled from the scene.

She also spied paramedics arrive at the alleyway shortly afterwards where she heard Mr Lemonius tell them his name was Chris before he was taken to hospital, where he soon after died from his injuries.

The five men deny the alleyway murder and one; Koudoua denies murder and driving his car at Mr Lemonius in the run-up to the attack. 

At the same trial Allal Lamzini, 69, and Yamina Lamzini, 57, both of Jourdain Road, Oxford, each deny one count of perverting the course of justice. 

Saffon Fakir, 26, of Territorial Way, Oxford, and a 17-year-old boy from Oxford who cannot be named for legal reasons, also deny one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. 

The trial continues.