A SUSPECT on trial for murdering a father for his Gucci bag “smacked his girlfriend in the mouth” and filmed himself assaulting a young man.

Lewis Aquilina is accused of killing Newport dad Ryan O’Connor in an alleged machete attack in the Alway area of the city last summer.

The defendant is on trial with four others for the alleged murder, manslaughter and robbery of the 26-year-old.

The five Cardiff men, Aquilina, 20, of Canton Court, Riverside; Joseph Jeremy, 18, of no fixed abode; Kyle Raisis, 18, of Bartley Wilson Way, Canton; Ethan Strickland, 19, of Clos Briallen, Caerau, and Elliott Fiteni, 19, of no fixed abode, deny all the charges against them.

Aquilina, cross-examined by Jonathan Elystan Rees QC who represents Jeremy, asked him: “You’ve used violence towards your girlfriend?”

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He replied: “Yes.”

Mr Rees invited him: “What have you done?”

Aquilina answered: “Pushed her.”

You’re a f****** rat

Mr Rees said: “You smacked her in the mouth.”

South Wales Argus:

Joseph Jeremy lived for a short time in Machen, Caerphilly, under the supervision of the local authority before he cut off his electronic tag and went back to his home city of Cardiff

Aquilina responded: “Not that I can recall no.”

Mr Rees then referred to a Facebook Messenger conversation in which Aquilina’s girlfriend mentions being “smacked in the face” by the defendant and calling him a “joke”.

Mr Rees continued: “You said you’re sorry.”

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Aquilina told him: “I pushed her in the face because she was screaming in my face.”

Jurors were earlier shown footage of a video Aquilina took of him attacking a young man he repeatedly calls a “snitch”.

The film is taken at night and shows the defendant following him and a woman who is referred to as the victim’s girlfriend.

Mr Rees accuses the defendant of punching the man twice but Aquilina says they were slaps.

Aquilina can be heard calling his victim a “little f****** rat” and a “little b****”.

The defendant claimed under cross-examination that the man had just assaulted his cousin.

At the end of the film, Aquilina asks: “How can they chat s*** about me?”

He is heard continually asking the young man to apologise.

After the film is shown, Aquilina told the court: “I’m disgusted. I am sorry everyone had to see that video.”

He said: “I turned up at the scene, it was Christmas and I had been drinking and I was angry because he attacked my cousin.”

Mr Rees put it to him: “You were angry because he snitched on you.”

Aquilina responded: “No. He attacked my cousin.”

Mr Rees went on to ask Aquilina if he had given a “beating” to a woman’s father in a separate incident.

He replied: “I had the upper hand, yes.”

Mr Rees asked him: “You said, ‘He can’t handle the beating.’”

Aquilina responds: “I gave him a black eye.”

The defendant explains this had stemmed after the woman “drunk off her face” had confronted his mother.

The prosecution claim Mr O’Connor was murdered when some of the defendants wearing masks attacked him when armed with a machete and a knife.

The alleged victim died from stab wounds on the night of Thursday, June 10, 2021.

It has been put to the jury the Cardiff men drove from their home city to Newport that evening in a stolen Ford Fiesta with the intention of committing crime.

The trial continues.