Cody Fisher: Masked group surrounded footballer before death - court

Cody Fisher was fatally stabbed in the chest on Boxing Day 2022

The fatal stabbing of a footballer in a Birmingham nightclub was started with a headbutt after a masked group surrounded him, a court has heard.

Cody Fisher died in Crane nightclub on Boxing Day 2022.

At trial at Birmingham Crown Court, three men deny his murder.

In the latest proceedings, Mr Fisher's best friend Daniel Vann told jurors how violence ensued, with Mr Fisher left dying on the floor and his girlfriend screaming at security staff.

The accused, Remy Gordon, 23, of Cofton Park Drive, Birmingham, Kami Carpenter, 22, and 19-year-old Reegan Anderson, both of no fixed address, are also charged with affray in relation to an attack on Mr Vann, which they also deny.

Mr Vann said he met Mr Fisher and others at the venue after playing football and had been enjoying the night until a "large crowd" with masks "up to their noses" moved towards them "acting quite rough".

One man in a light grey tracksuit said to Mr Fisher, from Redditch, to "come outside" as they surrounded him, he said.

Mr Fisher was then headbutted by a man in a black hooded top and mask which "took his head backwards", the court heard, before "a very aggressive punch thrown wildly" came from another male.

Remy Gordon, 23, Kami Carpenter, 22, and 19-year-old Reegan Anderson, all deny murder and affray at Birmingham Crown Court

Mr Fisher, the jury was told, retaliated before the group launched an attack on him as his friends tried to get him away.

But Mr Vann said the attackers then "turned their attention to us" and started kicking and punching him, with Mr Fisher being set upon a few feet away.

According to the account, Mr Fisher fell backwards on to Mr Vann, causing them to both fall. Mr Vann was then dragged away along the floor and he tried to hold on to a table leg as someone pulled him by the back of his shirt.

Once released from that grip, he jumped up and ran behind a bar for safety, he told the court.

A friend then told him Mr Fisher, a former footballer with Stratford Town, had been hurt and he ran to Mr Fisher's girlfriend to comfort her, he said.

Mr Fisher was confirmed dead at the nightclub

Mr Vann said she was "screaming and crying her eyes out" and shouted at security staff "why have they got knives in here?".

He then realised his best friend had been stabbed as he saw CPR being carried out on him.

The court had previously heard from prosecutors the attack was a "planned act of retribution" after a minor altercation involving the accused Mr Gordon in a late-night bar in Solihull on Christmas Eve.

Recounting events of that night, Mr Vann told jurors the bar was really busy and at the end of the night his group tried to "push through" the crowd to leave and "someone thought we pushed them".

Mr Gordon and a friend then turned towards them asking "who's pushing?" Mr Vann said, describing the questioning as "aggressive" and "insinuating a fight", with a suggestion then following that they go outside.

Although Mr Fisher agreed, the friends left the bar getting a lift home with his girlfriend.

But Trevor Burke KC, representing Mr Gordon, challenged Mr Vann, saying the defendant had been accidentally nudged off a step in the bar before Mr Vann's friends "got in the face" of his client and "stared him down", which Mr Vann denied.

Mr Vann also denied another person got involved to calm things down.

The trial continues.