Country postmaster John Bourke would often pop into his local service station to chat with the attendant.
He lived alone at the back of Strathmerton post office, in northern Victoria, and enjoyed the company late in the evening.
But his visit in the early hours of August 8, 2021 would be his last.
The 73-year-old man was hit in the head with a one-litre bottle and then kicked on a hard-tiled floor by Troy Maskell, whose girlfriend had falsely accused Mr Bourke of being a pedophile.
The beloved postmaster died in hospital 11 weeks later.
Maskell, 44, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and faced the first day of a trial by jury at the Supreme Court on Thursday.
When Maskell's girlfriend and their daughter walked into the servo, after midnight on August 8, Mr Bourke smiled and asked how they were.
"Really good," the 10-year-old girl replied, before her mother jumped in and wrongly accused Mr Bourke of being a pedophile.
The situation quickly escalated and the woman became aggressive towards Mr Bourke, erratically hurling abuse at him.
She told Mr Bourke "I'll rape you" as Maskell walked into the shop.
"Do we have a problem?" Maskell asked Mr Bourke, who was trying to stand a distance away from the couple.
The accused killer picked up a one-litre bottle of red sports drink and hurled it at the 73-year-old man's head, causing his glasses to fall off.
Maskell then kicked Mr Bourke's his left hip and he fell to the tiled floor.
He stomped on Mr Bourke's glasses, walked off and then returned again to kick the man while he lay on the floor.
Maskell stood over Mr Bourke and berated him until he was pushed away by his girlfriend's son, who asked the service station attendant where he kept the CCTV cameras.
The family drove off after the attendant said he did not know.
Mr Bourke remained conscious as he lay on the floor in pain, bleeding from his ear, until paramedics arrived and he was taken to Goulburn Valley hospital.
He was then urgently transported to Royal Melbourne Hospital, where they found he had developed blood clots on his brain.
He died on October 28 from a brain injury.
Maskell told police the night was a "pretty blurry" as he had consumed a box of Carlton Dry and Jack Daniels shots earlier that evening.
Prosecutor Stephanie Clancy told the jury of 13 it's alleged Maskell caused Mr Bourke's death by throwing the bottle of drink "with force" at his head and kicking him to the tiled ground.
However, Maskell's barrister Julia Munster said her client was not responsible for the death and his acts were "not objectively dangerous".
"His actions, while shameful, stupid and unlawful … did not cause Mr Bourke's death," she said.
She told jurors they would hear "complex medical evidence" in the trial about Mr Bourke's hospital treatment and health conditions, and urged them not to allow emotions to cloud their judgment.
The trial before Justice Lex Lasry continues.
