Brain expert tells Norfolk murder trial kick on victim was 'severe'

Nigel Mazs, 59, was with friends in the communal area of Malakoff Close, Great Yarmouth, when he was confronted by Martin Montgomery.

Norwich Crown Court heard Mr Mazs suffered a catastrophic brain injury when hitting his head after he fell when he was kicked by Montgomery in an attack on December 22 last year.

Norwich Crown Court (Image: Peter Walsh, Newsquest) Mr Mazs died in hospital on January 4 this year, almost two weeks after he was found by police in Regent Road after the attack at around 11am.

Montgomery, of Russell Road, Yarmouth, has gone on trial having denied murder although he has admitted a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Police in Regent Road, Great Yarmouth (Image: Newsquest) Giving evidence on Friday (November 15), Dr Kieren Allinson, a consultant neuropathologist who examined Mr Mazs' brain, said he had suffered a "very severe injury".

He told jurors the injuries were "entirely consistent" with a kick to the face which resulted in an "accelerated impact fall" resulting in the "severe life-threatening intracranial injuries".

Dr Allinson said it suggested that, in terms of force, the kick was "at the severe end of the spectrum".

The court heard Mr Mazs was found to have bleeding in the three different compartments of the brain.

Nigel Mazs (Image: Submitted by family) Dr Allinson said there was extradural haemorrhage and subdural haemorrhage as well as bruising to the surface of the brain and a large frontal lobe haemorrhage.

He said there was a "mass of blood underneath the skull" which resulted in Mr Mazs' brain "physically being squashed" and lead to "parts of the brain being starved of oxygen".

He said an extradural haemorrhage was "always a neurosurgical emergency".

"Unless rapidly surgically removed people with this injury will die", said Dr Allinson.

The trial continues.