A north-east dad flopped “like a teddy bear” when police tried to sit him up outside an Aberdeen bar, a court has heard.
Craig Grant died outside Tonik bar in the city’s Bon Accord Street last year.
Bouncers Kiel Hauley, 33, Jonas Marcius, 23, and Adrian Morley, 33, are accused of murdering him by seizing him by the neck, forcing him to the ground, striking him on the head and body, placing him in a neck hold or choke hold and compressing his neck.
It is alleged they also knelt on his back and compressed his chest before seizing him by the legs and holding him down on the ground.
It is further alleged they restricted his breathing and they asphyxiated him.
The three men deny the charges, and are on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.
Today, witness Shaun Wheeldon told the court he and his friend Declan Cullen had a number of confrontations with Mr Grant on August 8 last year.
He said Mr Grant, of Inverurie, had been trying to pick fights with his friend after he saw him flexing his muscles outside Prohibition.
After being refused entry into Paramount, Mr Grant made his way toward a Tonik, Mr Wheeldon said.
About 30 minutes later, Mr Wheeldon saw Mr Grant being restrained on the pavement by two bouncers. Another bouncer was standing at the scene watching over it.
The court heard police had been called and when they arrived a police woman tried to handcuff Mr Grant.
Officers then tried to sit him up “like a teddy bear”.
When asked by advocate depute James Keegan QC why he used that analogy, Mr Wheeldon replied: “He was limp.”
Mr Keegan asked him what position his head was like.
Mr Wheeldon replied: “It was just hanging on his chest.”
Mr Wheeldon said that when he saw the colour of Mr Grant’s face he thought he “was in a bad way”.
The trial continues.