Angry scenes ... A woman is restrained outside the Alice Springs Magistrates Court yesterday.
Basil Jurrah, the principal victim of the Alice Springs fight that has embroiled AFL footballer Liam Jurrah, was armed with a machete and drunk at the time of the altercation, Alice Springs Magistrates Court heard today.
A witness, Philomena White, said she saw Basil Jurrah trying to hit Melbourne Demons player Liam Jurrah, who was defending himself.
Ms White, the first witness to declare she had not been drinking the day of the fight, said she saw Liam Jurrah's co-accused Josiah Fry running at Basil Jurrah armed with a nulla nulla and running away again.
Ms White said that Basil Jurrah was too drunk to stand and fell down.
John Tippett, QC, for Liam Jurrah, asked Ms White whether she had seen Basil Jurrah with a machete and whether he was trying to hit people with it, whether he had tried to hit Liam Jurrah and whether Liam Jurrah had tried to defend himself.
Ms White answered "yes" to all three questions.
Earlier, Ms White's mother Ingrid White told the court that she had been fighting another woman Sarah Singleton, who was armed with a nulla nulla.
She said both Singleton and Fry had struck her and that she then withdrew from the fight and went to a nearby house. Yesterday, the prosecution alleged that Liam Jurrah struck Ingrid White to the head but she was not asked about that allegation today.
Ingrid White said she had started drinking at 2pm the day of the fight. The fight did not take place until after sunset.
Another witness said she saw Liam Jurrah running towards the house at which the fight occurred but she had not seen not see him hit anybody.