A MAN accused of partially blinding a clubber in a fracas in Bromley was standing up for a teenage sibling, a court has heard.

Sean Cahill, 29, also the younger brother of Everton's Australian international Tim Cahill, denies knocking Chris Stapley, 31, unconscious by kicking him twice in the face while on the ground.

Younger brother Chris, now 22, told the Croydon Crown Court trial today that Sean Cahill was racially abused after leaving a nightclub.

He said he and Millwall player Tony Warner left five minutes ahead of him and were at a burger van when up to six men starting screaming abuse.

Chris, 19 at the time, said: “Then Sean approached us and said ‘What’s going on?’ I said, ‘These blokes are having a go at me’. Sean said, ‘Do you know them?’ and I replied, ‘No’. The blokes told Sean not to get involved.”

Cahill, whose mother is Samoan, sat nodding in the dock as Chris added: “They called him a P*** c***. Then he said, ‘That’s my brother’, and I remember Sean getting hit from behind.

“He went down on the floor and four blokes surrounded him. Sean was trying to push the blokes off but some other blokes approached and came after me and Sean.

“He [Sean] kicked at one of the blokes to get him off and before I knew it, it was over.”

Mr Stapley’s right retina was pierced in the early-hours taxi rank attack after leaving Delano's, in East Street, Bromley, in July 2004.

But Chris told the court he did not know a man had been injured.

Cynthia Cruickshank, prosecuting, said: “I suggest that is completely ridiculous. You must have known.

“I suggest to you that it is a complete fantasy of yours because you knew perfectly well there was a man seriously injured outside the cab office.”

Chris, who lives in Australia and plays for Sydney FC, said he could not remember if he was punched but admitted to defence barrister Ian Leist that Cahill had “kicked off” in trying to push some men away.

He rejected suggestions that the fracas had started when Cahill objected to a man calling a young woman in the street “sweet pea”.

Miss Cruickshank has told the jury that Cahill's boot had a one-in-a- billion DNA match to the victim – proving, she said, he delivered the blows.

Cahill denies GBH with intent and the trial continues.