Doctors later told David Merxhushi he lost four litres of blood in the attack in Gwynneville on June 24, 2015.

Mr Merxhushi, then aged 20 at the time, required emergency surgery and was left with a 10-centimetre scar running from the bottom of his ear, down his neck.

Read more: Oskar Calvi found guilty of glassing

He showed the scar from the witness stand at Wollongong District Court on Tuesday as the man accused of dealing the blow stood trial. 

Oskar Calvi pleaded not guilty to wounding Mr Merxhushi with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. 

Mr Merxhushi was walking on Foley Street with a friend, Agim Bekirovski, about 9.40pm on the night of the attack.

Mr Merxhushi told the jury a blond-haired man made a "weird gesture" at his friend and asked, "Do you wanna go, c---?" 

Mr Merxhushi said a short-haired man, whom he has since identified as Mr Calvi, initially defused the situation by pulling the agitator away and walking with him about 30 metres in the opposite direction.

But then Mr Calvi allegedly become the main aggressor.  

"Hearing the glass break was what made me turn around," Mr Merxhushi told the court. 

"That's when I saw the short-haired guy coming towards me, running and yelling. He was angry. He was swearing, 'You have three seconds to run now', and he's just come closer and closer towards me." 

He said Mr Calvi and his friend each took one of his shoulders, restraining him, before Mr Calvi struck him multiple times. 

In the "poorly lit" street, he could not see the blows coming, he said.

"I've dropped … my hand and he's struck me again. And at this point I saw a lot of blood come out of my neck. It was everywhere," he said.

"I retaliated and I did punch [Mr Calvi] in the face … three or four times. And that's when the [blond]-haired bloke has said, 'Shit dude, we've got to go, you just stabbed him.' "

Mr Merxhushi told the court an employee of Wiseman Park Bowling Club saw his injuries and urged him inside, while his friend called for police and an ambulance. 

"I was sitting at the sink … taking pieces of glass out of my neck," he said. 

"At this point I realised what he had used, obviously a bottle, to stab me. I remember putting [the broken pieces of glass] into the sink." 

Mr Merxhushi told the court he weighed about 57 kilograms at the time of the attack, but had since deliberately bulked up to 68 kilograms.

"I've been … training pretty hard since. I think it helps me relax and sleep." 

Detective Senior Constable Jacob Murdoch told the court he and another detective spoke to Mr Calvi at his share house a month after the attack.

"He walked over to the fridge, got a drink out, drank from it very casually as he spoke to us," Senior Constable Murdoch said. 

Mr Calvi told detectives he had no knowledge of the attack. 

He exercised his right to silence in a subsequent interview at Wollongong police station. 

CCTV footage played for the jury showed Mr Calvi and a friend ordering drinks at the Wollongong Tennis Club, on Foley Street, from 8pm on the night of the attack.

On Wednesday, Christopher Keith Anderson, a former friend and housemate of Mr Calvi, testified that he encountered Mr Merxhushi and Mr Bekirovski on the night of the attack.  

He said his recollection of the night was clouded by at least six Scotches and two mug-sized serves of white wine. 

He said he learnt that a man had been stabbed in the neck only the next day, during a conversation with Mr Calvi. 

"[Mr Calvi] said something along the lines of, he had hit that person, stabbed him," Mr Anderson said. 

Mr Anderson told the court that Mr Calvi initially defused a verbal argument between himself and Mr Merxhushi, whom he accused of acting aggressively towards him. 

But Mr Anderson also corroborated Mr Merxhushi's account of hearing the sound of glass smashing from Mr Calvi's direction, moments before the altercation turned physical. 

"The guy [Mr Merxhushi] continued closer and then … sorry, my memory's just frazzled … I remember me getting closer to him … I remember [Mr Calvi] rushing past me and then he just threw a punch," he said. 

Mr Anderson told the jury he saw Mr Calvi's punch connect, but did not see anything in his hand. 

He said he and Mr Calvi later ran before he stopped and, unprompted, removed Mr Calvi's blood-stained shirt and threw it into a drain. 

"The distinct thing I can remember is blood on his hand and a speckle on his shirt. A blood speckle," he told the court, explaining he removed the shirt out of concern that "those guys were going to chase us, and that we wouldn't be let into a club in town with blood on his shirt". 

Under cross-examination, Mr Anderson admitted he initially faced an identical charge to Mr Calvi, but that this was reduced to affray after discussions between his lawyer and prosecutors.

"You made a deal with the Crown?" Mr Calvi's barrister, Sandy Wetmore asked him. 

"Yes."

"And it was to benefit you?"

"Yes."  

Dean Craig, a senior surgical registrar at Wollongong Hospital, told the court Mr Merxhushi lost 500ml of blood in theatre alone. 

He underwent a procedure to repair damage to his external jugular vein - an injury made "very scary" due to the tearable quality of the vein wall, which Dr Craig likened to Glad Wrap. 

The wound to Mr Merxhushi's neck was consistent with a "considerably sharp and irregular object", applied more than once. 

The cut came within a centimetre of his carotid artery, Dr Craig testified. 

Under cross-examination, Mr Bekirovski denied suggestions Mr Merxhushi threw the first punch. 

He told the court the aggressors showed "instant aggression, for no reason at all", in their intoxicated states. 

He was 10 metres away, having heeded Mr Calvi's warning to run when the fight turned physical.  

He said the aggressors ran away immediately after Mr Merxhushi retaliated. 

"I had thought nothing had happened to [Mr Merxhushi] at this point. I was like, 'Are you all good?'

"As he turned, I saw half his face opened up and hanging out. Blood was pouring out. I couldn't see much because of the amount of blood that was pouring out." 

A man accused of glassing a passer-by on a Gwynneville sidewalk admits to landing a blow with a bottle in his hand, but denies he intended to cause his victim’s life-threatening injury. 

Drunk, and with no expertise in human anatomy, Oskar Calvi could not have deliberately nicked his victim’s external jugular vein, Calvi’s barrister argued, at the 20-year-old’s Wollongong District Court trial on Thursday. 

Calvi admits to recklessly wounding Gwynneville man David Merxhushi the night of June 24, 2015, as the pair crossed paths on Foley Street, each accompanied by a friend. 

To prove the more serious charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, prosecutors must show Calvi planned to cause Mr Merxhushi serious injury when he dealt the blow. 

From the stand on Thursday, Calvi told the jury he was too drunk – an “eight out of ten” – to have intended anything. 

He said he was taking swigs from a half-empty bottle of VB - found abandoned in the carpark of Wiseman’s Bowling Club moments earlier – when he and his friend, Christopher Anderson, encountered Merxhushi. 

He told the court Anderson and Mr Merxhushi exchanged “smart-a--e” comments, and he initially defused their conflict. He accused Merxhushi of behaving aggressively, and said it was Merxhushi who struck first, hitting him in the face three times. 

“I struck him back ... with my hand,” Calvi said. 

“Was there something I your hand,” Calvi’s barrister, Sandy Wetmore, asked. 

“Yes.” 

“Do you know whether or not the bottle broke when you struck him. 

“No.”

“Did you realise at that point you'd caused some considerable damage to the victim.” 

“No. 

Mr Merxhushi suffered cuts to his face, head and – most seriously - his neck, where the wound came within a centimetre of his carotid artery, according to expert medical evidence. 

Calvi denied he told Anderson “I stabbed him [Merxhushi]” the next day, as Anderson claimed in earlier evidence. 

He told the court he first heard about the stabbing when police visited his home a month later. 

The prosecution is relying on the evidence of three witnessses –Anderson, Mr Merxhushi and his friend, Agim Bekirovski – who claim have heard the sound of glass smashing in the seconds leading to the moment Mr Merxhushi was injured. 

A bowling club kitchenhand, Alexander Thorndyke, witnessed the attack. 

In evidence, he described Calvi as the aggressor and said Mr Merxhushi was “walking backwards with his hands up” when Calvi went to hit him. 

“He had something in his hand. I couldn't make out what he was holding,” he said. 

 Mr Thorndyke later visited the site of the altercation and noted there was broken glass on the opposite side of the road. 

“I saw the glass on the eastern side, and I saw the attack more of the western side,” he said. 

Crown prosecutor Mark Heffernan called on jurors to consider “the irresistible inference that the bottle was broken before the first blow by the accused”. 

This, and the location of Mr Merxhushi’s wounds, showed Calvi’s “clear intent to do really serious harm”, he argued.  

“Look at the area that has been targeted. It’s not a leg, it’s not his back. Not in his stomach or chest. He goes for his head and neck.” 

Read more: Jury finds Oskar Calvi guilty of glassing