A BEREAVED woman told jurors of the harrowing confrontation that left her partner fatally injured by an alleged headbutt from a doorman.

Edith Fisher said she heard "such a crack" when Billy Smith, 62, hit the floor after the incident at Yates's Wine Lodge in York on Good Friday.

Ms Fisher said she saw Paul Maurice Garner, 60, unexpectedly attack her long-term partner outside the pub, beside Ouse Bridge.

"Bill hit the floor. I heard such a crack, I couldn't believe it. I was in hysterics," she told the jury at York Crown Court.

"I heard a crack and he said 'ouff'. That was his last word."

Prosecution barrister Aidan Marron, QC, alleged that other people gathered round Mr Smith's unconscious body, and someone said he was dead, but doorman Garner walked with "complete indifference" back into the wine bar.

Arrested shortly afterwards, Garner made a formal complaint to police of assault by Mr Smith and alleged that the retired racecourse camera operator had "launched" himself at him.

"That account, submit the crown, at this early stage, when looking at the video is demonstrably wrong," said Mr Marron, referring to CCTV footage which was shown to the jury.

Mr Smith, of Cemetery Road, York, died in Leeds General Infirmary four days after the incident.

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

Today, the jury was visiting the riverside entrance of the wine bar where the incident was alleged to have occurred.

Yesterday, Ms Fisher, also known as Edith Smith, told the jury she and Mr Smith had been partners for 15 or 16 years and had consumed six bottles of wine and soda water between them while out for the evening with their friend, Victor Hodge, of Barking, and his son, David.

When they arrived at Yates's Wine Lodge, the two older men were refused entry and objected.

Then, it was alleged, Garner suddenly head-butted Mr Smith.

Miss Fisher alleged that she told Garner, whom the couple knew: "What the heck did you do that for?" Garner looked shocked.

She claimed she had flashbacks of the incident and that she saw a doorman from another pub kicking Mr Smith.

David Hodge claimed that no one kicked Mr Smith. He said his father and Mr Smith had been singing in the Bamboo restaurant nearby before going to Yates's Wine Lodge.

Opening the prosecution, Mr Marron alleged that although Victor Hodge and Billy Smith had objected to being refused entry, they were leaving the area before the attack.

"He (Garner) then moves towards where the deceased is, delivers this headbutt and then immediately retreats into the sanctuary of the public house," he alleged.

Shortly afterwards, Yates's customer Amy Holden allegedly heard Garner inside the pub tell Philip Kendall, another doorman: "I can't apologise enough for what happened out there."

This, claimed Mr Marron, was Garner accepting responsibility for an unlawful act of violence.

The trial continues.

Updated: 10:45 Wednesday, November 12, 2003