The Filipino sailor who died after a Christmas Day fight received a blow to the head so powerful that it cracked his skull in different places, a court heard yesterday.

Testifying in the trial by jury of Charles Demicoli, 34, who stands charged with the murder of the sailor in 2000, forensic pathologist Mario Scerri said the victim must have been struck with enormous force for his injuries to have been so severe.

The sailor, 44-year-old Perfecto Montalban, was at Cherries Bar in Birżebbuġa when a ferocious brawl broke out and Mr Demicoli allegedly hit him on the head with a bar stool.

Dr Scerri said there was one blow to the back of the victim's head that caused four radiating fractures that crossed his skull.

Supporting this testimony, three pathologists, Marie Therese Camilleri, Ali Safraz and Bridget Ellul, said there was a lot of bleeding under the scalp at the point of impact. There was a very definite point of impact to cause that sort of injury to the skull.

Defence lawyer Gianella Caruana Curran pointed out that the impact could have been something hitting the victim or the victim hitting something, a point agreed to by the pathologists.

Noel Falzon, known as Il-Ġgant (the giant), the man who allegedly started the fight, denied kicking the victim while he was lying semi-conscious on a stretcher.

Police officers testified on Monday that Mr Falzon started the fight and that he had kicked the injured Filipino as he was being taken away on the stretcher.

His brother, Kevin Falzon, testified that he had seen a Filipino man fly out of the bar and hitting the pavement. On the night of the murder, his brother had asked him to look after his bar while he went for a drink at Cherries.

Soon afterwards, someone asked him to go over to Cherries Bar because his brother had been involved in a fight. When he got there he saw his drunk brother involved in an argument. He escorted him outside helped by two other men.

Mr Falzon then returned to his brother's bar a few metres away from Cherries, only to return a few minutes later on being told that another fight had started.

Back at Cherries Bar, Mr Falzon said he saw a large crowd leaving. Someone threw the Filipino man out of the bar and he hit his head on the pavement, Mr Falzon added. "I heard his skull crack," he said.

Another Filipino ran up to help his friend but Mr Falzon advised him to run away instead of getting into trouble with the police.

When asked by the defence, Mr Falzon admitted that he did not tell the police when questioned that he had seen the Filipino sailor being thrown to the ground. This was because he was afraid.

Lawyer Anthony Barbara, who heads the Prosecution Unit at the Attorney General's Office, prosecuted.

Lawyer Emmanuel Mallia also appeared for Mr Demicoli.