A brutal attack on a man at Wellington Oval only ended because the perpetrators thought he was dead, a court heard yesterday.

Tahir Nesta Bascome launched repeated assaults on Tarik Foster as violence erupted at St. George?s, a jury was told.

Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney said each time the machete-wielding defendant attacked Foster he intended to kill.

At one stage, he said Bascome stopped chopping because a friend was in the way and could have been hurt.

Mr. Mahoney said that as the seriously-injured complainant made his way back to the clubhouse, Bascome and friends pounced again.

?Then you slashed at him in the stomach area,? the prosecutor told Bascome. ?When he was on the ground you attacked him again with the machete.

?You only stopped when you saw him on the floor in the clubhouse and you thought he was dead.?

Bascome, 23, repeatedly denied the prosecution claims during an hour-plus cross-examination yesterday. The defendant, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted murder, stated he was not at Wellington Oval when a day of finals descended into scenes of chaotic violence.

Bascome consistently rejected prosecution allegations he had been at the heart of the trouble, stating his innocence on numerous occasions.

He told the court he was nowhere near St. George?s and had been at a friend?s house most of the afternoon in question in the Warwick area, where he lives with his grandparents.

Mr. Mahoney later asked if Bascome had ever heard of of the Ord Road Crew.

When the defendant replied ?no, not really?, the prosecutor asked him about a tattoo on his neck bearing the initials ?ORC?.

?Does that stand for Ord Road Crew?? asked Mr. Mahoney. Bascome replied: ?Whatever you want to call it.?

Later in cross-examination, Mr. Mahoney asked Bascome to hold beside his face a photograph, taken at Wellington Oval during the riot, of a man two witnesses told the trial was Bascome.

But the defendant denied it was him.

Mr. Mahoney said Bascome?s evidence about mistaken identity was ?all lies?, but he replied: ?You are wrong.?

Ki-Roy Kinta Butterfield, 27, of Cherry Hill Park, Paget; Jahcai Morris, 24, of Sylvan Dell, Paget, and Bascome, 22, of Dunscombe Road, Warwick, all deny attempting to murder Mr. Foster at St. George?s stadium on April 4, 2004.

The trio have also pleaded not guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm against Mr. Foster.

Butterfield has pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted wounding with intent to cause GBH against Mr. Trott, possessing an offensive weapon and being armed in public to cause terror.

Morris and Bascome have both denied possessing an offensive weapon and being armed in public to cause terror.

The trial continues.