A WITNESS to an alleged murder told a jury in York that a head-butt by a doorman on Billy Smith was deliberate.

Janine Barrett witnessed the incident as she stood in the queue outside Yates's Wine Lodge, York, on Good Friday, York Crown Court was told.

She said of the alleged head-butt: "It was deliberate. It wasn't an accident."

When defence barrister Rodney Jameson QC suggested the heads had collided accidentally, she said she knew the difference between a deliberate and an accidental action.

"The way it was done... it was done deliberately, not accidentally," she said.

The prosecution alleges the head-butt caused the death, four days later, of Mr Smith, a 62-year-old retired racecourse worker, of Cemetery Road, York.

Paul Maurice Garner, 60, of Chaloners Road, Dringhouses, denies alternate charges of murder and manslaughter.

Amy Holding, who was also in the queue outside the pub, claimed that the incident made her so unwell she had to go to the toilets inside the pub.

"There was a really loud crunching noise. That is what made me feel sick," she said.

"She (Mr Smith's partner Edith Fisher) was screaming and pointing. She said he was dead when he was laid on the floor."

Miss Holding claimed she later heard alleged head-butter Paul Maurice Garner tell another doorman inside the pub he was sorry for what had happened outside.

Waitress Leonora Grabiner alleged that Mr Smith had fallen from his chair in the Bamboo restaurant earlier in the evening on Good Friday because he was drunk and his companion, Victor Hodge, had been singing and swearing so much the staff had several times asked him to calm down and had apologised to other customers.

Both men had later apologised for their behaviour after a difficulty over the bill and Mr Smith had not been violent.

Mr Hodge told the jury door staff had refused entry to him and Mr Smith at Yates's Wine Bar.

His son, David, who was with them, alleged that he saw Garner push his father over and heard Mr Smith complain to a second doorman: "There was no need for that."

Miss Holding, who was waiting to go into the pub with her friend, claimed she saw the two men trying to change the doormen's minds and get in.

Mr Smith's arms were flailing about, she said.

The trial continues.

Updated: 10:50 Thursday, November 13, 2003