A Canberra tradesman accused of committing murder at the Kingston Hotel allegedly told the victim "you f---ed with my daughter, c---", before punching him up to 13 times and leaving him to die.
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Kerry Kourpanidis was inside the south Canberra pub for just 46 seconds when he carried out the fatal attack, according to police, who say he had returned in a rage after taking his six-year-old girl home.
Mr Kourpanidis, 35, was remanded in custody without plea when he appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday.
He is charged with murdering Warren Craig Hordpenko, a 44-year-old man from the NSW South Coast town of Dalmeny, on Sunday night.
In documents tendered to the court, police say it seems as if Mr Hordpenko went to the Kingston Hotel alone on Sunday.
Mr Hordpenko, who is believed to have been visiting Canberra for work, was "noticeably intoxicated and annoying other patrons" throughout the evening.
The documents detail a number of incidents involving Mr Hordpenko, including one in which he is said to have taken the triangle from a pool table into a bathroom and held it between the legs of a man who was trying to use a urinal.
Mr Hordpenko also pinched and grabbed at other patrons, and told them he had been drinking all day.
About 8.30pm on Sunday, after receiving complaints about his behaviour and noticing that he was slurring his words, Kingston Hotel staff refused to serve Mr Hordpenko any more alcohol.
He ended up moving to the poolroom and "making a nuisance of himself", the police documents say.
Mr Kourpanidis, by this point, had left the pub with family members including his partner and six-year-old daughter after earlier crossing paths with Mr Hordpenko inside.
Police claim Mr Kourpanidis went to his nearby home in the suburb of Griffith to put the girl to bed before returning to the Kingston Hotel at 8.58pm and running straight towards Mr Hordpenko in the poolroom, which is not covered by CCTV.
Mr Kourpanidis allegedly said "you f---ed with my daughter, c---" and tackled Mr Hordpenko off a stool.
Mr Kourpanidis is accused of then punching Mr Hordpenko in the head six or seven times, and in the ribs a further five or six times.
"The deceased made no attempts to stop the defendant from hitting him," the police documents say.
"After the first punch or two landed, the deceased appeared to be losing consciousness."
Mr Kourpanidis left Mr Hordpenko lying unconscious on the poolroom floor, police allege, and ran out of the pub just 46 seconds after he had re-entered.
He then allegedly called the mother of his daughter and told her that, at the pub earlier that evening, "a very drunk male" had been behaving inappropriately.
"The defendant stated that the drunk male had specifically focused on his daughter and made her uncomfortable on several occasions," the police documents say.
"The defendant sounded distressed and upset. The defendant told [his former partner] that he had gone back to the Kingston Hotel after putting his daughter to bed and bashed the man."
Two other men who were in the poolroom at the time of the alleged murder quickly left the pub out of fear that they would be also be attacked if they were thought to be Mr Hordpenko's friends, police say.
A Kingston Hotel manager performed CPR on Mr Hordpenko until emergency services reached the scene.
Paramedics arrived at the pub about 9.10pm and tried in vain, together with police, for more than half an hour to resuscitate Mr Hordpenko.
Police allege that the next day, Mr Kourpanidis took his daughter to the South Coast and told family members who urged him to come back that he had not been involved in the death of Mr Hordpenko.
He returned on Tuesday and dropped his daughter off to her mother.
Police say that on Thursday afternoon, they were watching as Mr Kourpanidis went to the Kingston Hotel and remained outside in a car as a friend spent about 10 minutes looking around the pub.
A short time later, officers intercepted a phone call in which Mr Kourpanidis allegedly told his partner: "It's a different area, no CCTV. The person I had a confrontation with ... you know, was probably a different person as well."
But he also said he had not looked at the picture police had released of Mr Hordpenko, a transcript shows.
Less than 10 minutes after the phone call, police arrested Mr Kourpanidis in Civic.
He declined to answer officers' questions and was charged with murder.
He was then brought before the ACT Magistrates Court on Friday afternoon, when Crown prosecutor Patrick Dixon opposed bail.
Mr Kourpanidis' barrister, Beth Morrisroe, told the court the conduct outlined in the police allegations did not rise to the level of murder in her view.
She said Mr Kourpanidis had a "very limited criminal history" and presented little risk of committing offences if granted bail.
Ms Morrisroe also said Mr Kourpanidis was "tied to the ACT in a significant way", given he had a young child, a close-knit family and his own business here.
He was not a flight risk, according to Ms Morrisroe, who told the court Mr Kourpanidis was walking into an appointment with local solicitor Tim Sharman to discuss this matter when he was arrested.
Ms Morrisroe indicated that Mr Kourpanidis' family was willing to provide a surety to secure his release.
Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker refused bail, finding that Ms Morrisroe had failed to establish the special or exceptional circumstances necessary to grant bail in a murder case.
Mr Kourpanidis will remain behind bars until at least his next court appearance, which will be on July 24.
