An Asian student told a court yesterday he thought his younger brother had been killed in a violent street attack allegedly carried out by a gang including three Leeds United footballers.
The alleged victim of the violence, Mr Sarfraz Najeib (20), left Hull Crown Court wiping away tears as his brother Shahzad, just a year older, told the jury: "He was lifeless - I thought he was dead."
The pair, both students at Leeds Metropolitan University and non-drinking Muslims, were on a night out with three friends in Leeds city centre in January last year when a group of men, claimed to include England internationals Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate and reserve team striker Tony Hackworth, chased and attacked them.
Mr Sarfraz Najeib told the second day of the trial that he had been "running for his life" when the group chased them after a confrontation outside a nightclub, but he was tripped and fell to the ground.
His brother Shahzad told how he watched as four or five men kicked and stamped on his younger brother.
"As I turned into Mill Hill, I heard this loud scream and I looked around and I realised my brother was on the floor and that he had bumped his head on the wall or something," he said.
"When I looked round, he seemed to be unconscious and there were four or five guys around him who started kicking him while he was lying there unconscious.
"As I walked towards them, one of the guys punched me in the face."
"I was shouting: `Stop, leave him, he's had enough'," he said. "At the same time I was getting punched."
Woodgate (21), an England defender, of Middlesbrough, Bowyer (24), of Leeds, Hackworth (20), a reserve team striker, of Leeds, and Neale Caveney and Paul Clifford, both 21, of Middlesbrough, deny causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Najeib, of Rotherham, South Yorkshire. They also deny affray.
Woodgate, Caveney and Clifford, with Leeds United player Michael Duberry, 24, also plead not guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice after the attack in January last year. The trial resumes today.