Management of the pub at the centre of a fight between an NRL player and the brother of the NSW Blues captain have been questioned in court over a meeting with a Knights representative in the days after the alleged assault, amid an accusation of special treatment.
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They have also been called to explain why 10 seconds of vision was missing from CCTV footage handed to police - recorded around the time of another alleged incident involving Knights prop Jacob Saifiti that night.
Dane Marsden Cordner, 29, has pleaded not guilty to reckless grievous bodily harm after he punched Mr Saifiti, 23, outside the Greenroof Hotel in the early hours of December 1.
The strike caused Mr Saifiti to fall and break his ankle. Mr Cordner is claiming self-defence.
Greenroof Hotel co-owner Angus Harper and the pub's manager Cheyne McIntyre - a former Knights player - gave evidence at the hearing on Wednesday.
Defence barrister Jack Tyler-Stott said police requested CCTV footage recorded on the night of the incident from hotel management on nine occasions between December 4, 2018 and February 20, 2019.
When the footage was handed over, he said, there was 10 seconds missing from vision recorded in the pub's gaming room at the time Mr Saifiti was allegedly involved in an aggressive confrontation with a patron - less than an hour before the fight with Mr Cordner.
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Mr Cordner claims he saw Mr Saifiti grab the patron by the collar at that time.
Neither Mr Harper or Mr McIntyre could explain why the footage was missing beyond attributing it to how their computer program processed the video.
When asked about whether a Greenroof Hotel representative met with anyone from the Knights to discuss the incident in the days following the fight, Mr Harper initially said "I can't tell you".
But under questioning from Mr Tyler-Stott, he told the court Dean Noonan, a Knights staff member, had met with Mr McIntyre.
However when Mr McIntyre gave evidence soon after, he denied meeting with Mr Noonan or anyone else from the Knights.
Mr Harper and Mr McIntyre both denied allegations from Mr Tyler-Stott that Knights players received special treatment at the venue.
During his evidence on Wednesday, Mr Cordner told the court he was scared when Mr Saifiti approached him outside the venue because the NRL prop had been behaving aggressively.
Mr Cordner denied a claim by the prosecution that he wanted to "attack" Mr Saifiti and that he was looking for a fight.
He said he offered to pay for a taxi to take Mr Saifiti home earlier because of his behaviour, which Mr Cordner believed to be a "bad look" given he was a high profile footballer.
"If my brother [Boyd] was in that situation, I'd like to think someone would say to him 'I'll put you in a cab'," he told the court.
The prosecution put it to Mr Cordner that he remained angry over an alleged incident in 2016, in which Mr Cordner claimed Mr Saifiti had punched him and called him "a nobody" at another Newcastle venue.
Mr Cordner denied this, saying his relationship with Mr Saifiti had become civil in the years after the initial alleged incident - which was never reported to police.
Mr Cordner denied being angry when he struck out at the NRL player last December, though he said he had "a split second" of anger when he approached Mr Saifiti a few minutes before the punch.
Mr Saifiti denied behaving aggressively when he gave evidence on Monday.
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