A bouncer at Splash nightclub shoved a complaining customer, causing him to fall and crack his head open on the pavement, a court has heard.

Opening the case against Jason Harrell, 34, Crown Counsel Robert Welling told Magistrate Juan Wolffe: "He over-reacted to the behaviour of Jody Feldman, who was a patron, causing him grievous bodily harm.

"You're going to hear about Jody Feldman's behaviour. You may well think he did not behave impeccably, but there's no excuse for what he (Harrell) did."

The defendant, a Regiment soldier from Cut Road, St. George's, denies the allegation. His lawyer Llewellyn Peniston claimed that Mr. Feldman was at fault, having acted with "drunken belligerence," fallen over because he was intoxicated and then grabbed the bouncer's testicles.

Mr. Feldman, 28, a Bermudian living in New York, flew home to give evidence yesterday.

He told the court he had attended a friend's birthday dinner at the Waterlot Inn in Southampton on the night in question, Friday December 1, 2006. He then moved on with his friends to the nightclub on Bermudiana Road, Hamilton.

He said he'd consumed "four or five" drinks at the restaurant – beer, wine and a cocktail then two more cocktails at Splash prior to the alleged incident. This, he claimed, was sparked when he left the club to make a phone call around 2.30 a.m and a white bouncer with short brown hair refused him re-entry due to a line of people waiting to get in.

Mr. Feldman said he got upset when his subsequent request to see the manager, who he knew by name, was denied by the bouncer.

"It started off, I would say, a normal conversation and then I became, I would characterise as maybe contentious. I believe he was being, in my opinion, unreasonable, and at that point he shoved me and I fell back and hit my head on the pavement," he told the court.

"The rest of the details are very blurry. I believe I got up again and was pushed down by the bouncer and then the next thing I knew I woke up and I was in King Edward hospital."

Mr. Feldman listed his injuries as a laceration to the back of his head that needed stitches, a chipped front tooth, cuts around his mouth and lips and swelling around his eyes and cheek.

Answering questions from Mr. Welling, Mr. Feldman said when he became upset with the bouncer this caused him to speak with "maybe quickened vocabulary, raised tension in my voice." However, he denied making any physical moves towards him.

Quizzing him about his level of sobriety, Mr. Welling asked him to estimate where he was at the time on a scale of one to ten, one being sober and ten being paralytically drunk. Mr. Feldman estimated around a six.

The prosecutor asked: "Did you do anything or say anything to justify that assault upon you?"

"No," he replied.

However, in cross examination Mr. Peniston put it to him: "I suggest to you that the altercation that you allege was the result of your drunken belligerence."

Mr. Feldman responded: "I completely disagree with that".

Mr. Peniston claimed he refused a request from the bouncer to show a stamp on his wrist necessary for patrons to re-enter the club.

"I don't recall refusing to show him my wrist," said Mr. Feldman, adding that he did recall being told to go to the back of the line.

"You were aggressive toward the bouncer and he merely defended himself by pushing you away from him," alleged Mr. Peniston. "I put it to you that you were so drunk that you could not stand up properly and you fell down and hit your head. While you were on the ground you continued to lash out at the bouncer.

"I put it to you that while you were on the ground you grabbed the bouncer's testicles. I put it to you that act caused so much discomfort to the bouncer that he had to take further steps to separate your hands from his testicles. When your hands were finally removed from his testicles you grabbed his leg."

Mr. Feldman dismissed all of those allegations as being untrue, and protested in response: "I did not grab anything." –He went on to tell the court that he was later informed by a Police officer that he'd he'd been kicked in the face, although he himself did not see who was responsible.

"I didn't see the blow coming, then it hit me and I was at the hospital," he claimed.

The case continues.