Machel victim shielded friend

According to Pollonais’ testimony in court yesterday, he sustained several blows to his back minutes before he became involved in a second attack in which Montano and the group of men beat him unconscious.

“They were pelting punches with their hand swinging at him,” Pollonais told presiding Magistrate Maureen Baboolal Gafoor yesterday at the fourth day of the trial in which Montano, 32, is charged alongside three others with assaulting Browne and Pollonais in the early hours of April 26, last year.

He said he saw the group beating Browne on a car parked outside of Club Zen moments after an incident inside which led the club’s bouncers to empty the nightclub.

“Machel Montano and a group of friends were beating him (Browne) upwards from his waist, chest and face. I ran across to pull Brandis away from them,” the witness said in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Magistrates’ Court.

“I pushed in between Machel Montano and his friends and I covered Brandis with my body and dragged him off the car and I dragged him onto the road,” Pollonais said softly, his voice dropping at times during his testimony.

“I was punched on my back. (They were) lashing at me...(Brandis) walked towards Pembroke Street...I ended up rushing everybody to Pembroke Street to get away from the commotion.”

He said he then realised two of his friends were missing.

“I turned back and went for them...back to the club...Before I reached the top of Pembroke Street, there was a crowd on that corner. When I reached closer I realised it was Machel and his friends. (They were) about 15 feet away. “I stretched out my arms...I was able to say that all I came back for was two individuals and I am not looking for trouble,” Pollonais recounted. But his declaration of good intentions did not appear to have the intended effect.

“He (Montano) said, ‘I don’t want to hear anything. F— you!’”

“As he (Montano) said those words, he and his friends charged towards me...When he swung at me I end up with my hands up and blocking my face. By the time I raised my head up Machel and his (friends) were already in front of me.”

“At this point, he swung at me with his fist and I protected my face...Before I got time to retaliate...(a group of) 15 of them started to...beat down on me (with their) fists.”

Pollonais said he received “countless blows”.

“From there I blacked out.”

He said he regained consciousness at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital in Ward 51 and felt dizzy, pain and suffered from a lack of mobility.

An X-ray as well as a brain scan were performed. He said when he was discharged he “still had a little pain and dizziness.”

For months afterwards he suffered headaches and could only breathe out of one nostril, he told the magistrate. The case continues on July 2.