A murder trial in Dublin has heard that a man was kicked to death after he was dragged from his car at the back of Dublin airport over two years ago.
28-year-old Ian Daly of Moatview Drive, Priorswood, Dublin, denies the murder.
The prosecution alleges that Mr Daly was one of a number of men who attacked Valeri Ranert and hijacked his car.
At the opening of the trial this morning at the Central Criminal Court, Michael Durack SC told the jury that Mr Ranert was with his girlfriend in his car at the back of Dublin airport in the early hours of 30 April 2007 when the attack happened.
He said a man approached the car and asked for a light, another demanded a mobile phone.
When they refused, two men kicked in the windows of the car and dragged Mr Ranert out.
They repeatedly kicked him while he was on the ground, he said.
Efforts to resuscitate Mr Ranert at the scene were unsuccessful.
A mobile phone found at the scene was later found to be registered to the accused man, Mr Daly. The prosecution alleges that he was one of the men.
The victim's girlfriend, Jelena Sirkova, told how she and her boyfriend had been in their car for about an hour at the viewing area at the back of Dublin Airport when two men approached the car.
Ms Sirkova wept as she described how the men kicked in the window of the car and kicked her boyfriend in the face, knocking him unconscious. She ran away but was prevented from getting further away by a fence.
She said she then ran back towards the men and hid in long grass before they left in their own car and her boyfriend's car.
