Friend 'tried to save Hookes'From: AAP August 25, 2005 Witness...

Friend 'tried to save Hookes'
From: AAP
August 25, 2005


Witness ... Christine Padfield arriving at court today / AAP A GIRLFRIEND of former Test cricketer David Hookes today told the Victorian Supreme Court she tried to drive him away from the scene outside a hotel moments before he was hit by a security guard.

As a result of the blow, Hookes hit his head on the roadway outside the Beaconsfield Hotel, in bayside St Kilda, on January 18 last year and died in hospital the following day.
Hotel bouncer Zdravko Micevic, 23, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter over Hookes' death.

Mr Micevic admits punching the 48-year-old, but says he acted in self-defence after Hookes punched him twice.

Christine Padfield told the court she ran in a panic to get her car, which was parked nearby, when security staff who had forcibly ejected Hookes from the hotel again began to manhandle him.

She said she drove up to Hookes, a former Test batsman and Victoria coach at the time of his death, and yelled at him to "hop into the car".


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Ms Padfield said she leaned over and opened the passenger-side door, but Hookes was twice dragged away and prevented from getting into the vehicle.
She said moments after the second time he was dragged to the back of the car, she heard a "loud thud".

She drove forward, got out of the car, walked back and found Hookes lying unconscious in the road.

The trial before Justice Philip Cummins is continuing.

Earlier this year Ms Padfield said she had been Hookes' girlfriend for almost two years, telling ABC's Australian Story they had talked about starting a family.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16379783-2,00.html