‘Murder accused Billy Allison hit another man with heavy blow’

Asked by prosecuting barrister Tim Hannam KC if he had paid any further attention to Allison, Cooper said: “Nothing really, I just looked around the room, just like anybody does.”

Cooper then described feeling an “almighty blow” to his face that left him in shock.

“I didn’t see it coming […] I didn’t see anything at all,” he said, before describing being hit once to his right eye and again to his jaw.

“I [had] blood pouring out of my face,” he said. “I put my hand to my head, I was just in total shock and walked straight out the back door.”

Asked what it had felt like, Cooper said: “Like a sledgehammer, it was hard, very, very hard.”

He told the court he did not realise until later that O’Gara had been punched in the same attack.

Asked by Hannam if he had done anything to “justify” being attacked, Cooper said: “Absolutely not.”

He also told the jury he had since spent £6,000 on dental work to repair implants that had been damaged in the attack, and had already visited the dentist 11 times with further treatment planned.

Previously, the court heard how Allison had been visiting Lichfield with a group of friends including his girlfriend Charlotte Dean and friends Ryan Bridge and Ben Cullen, and had been drinking throughout the day before the attack on the two men, who he did not know.

Footage after the attack showed Cooper receiving help in a wooden shelter and Allison leaving through a gate.

The jury was told how after he left the scene, Allison swapped t-shirts with Cullen, and had tried to pull the top over his head to conceal his face from a camera.

The trial continues.