BATTERED: Brett reveals injuries he says Crowe caused in night of mayhem

OSCAR STAR: Crowe in brooding mood

TAPED: Crowe, dressed in black on the right of image, at theheart of the fight

I WAS TERRIFIED: 'Crowe went wild' says teenager Karen Mack

A TERRIFIED student has told how Oscar favourite Russell Crowe turned into a snarling beast on a night that ended in bloodsoaked horror.

Brett Martin's testimony comes on top of surveillance video pictures which show the star hitting out in a frenzy.

He was also filmed kicking at a bouncer, spitting in a pub landlord's face and slamming his own brother face first into a car.

Off-camera, claims 30-year-old Brett, Crowe also sank his teeth into his neck, ripped out a chunk of flesh, spat it in his face and broke his thumb.

Australian Brett added angrily: "Crowe just went schitz (crazy). He punched me straight in the face, pulled me close and bit me on the neck. He ripped out a part of my neck. He was going off his head. I had my thumb smashed. It was such a bad break I needed orthopedic surgery."

Crowe, who denies the biting incident, is hotly tipped to win Best Actor award in Hollywood tonight for his performance as tormented maths genius John Nash in A Beautiful Mind.

Critics feel one of the few factors that could make him lose is his increasingly wild temper.

A court case resulting from the fracas will open a fortnight tomorrow. And last night a friend of the Crowes said: "Win or lose, once the Oscars are over Russell is planning to fly to the trial."

Shout

The row started in the early hours outside the Saloon Bar nightclub at Coffs Harbour in Australia's New South Wales.

Teenager Karen Mack was just leaving with her best pal Laura Seymour to catch a taxi home.

"I was really happy," she said yesterday. "We'd enjoyed an awesome night drinking and dancing, celebrating the fact that we'd just finished school for good.

"Then Russell Crowe came out of the club and I shouted in excitement, ‘Oh, my God, it's Russell Crowe'.

"He turned around and mimicked me saying it, then added, ‘**** off, you whore'. He was off his face.

"I told him not to speak to me like that and he just went wild.

"He came up to me and was right in my face, shouting abuse literally centimetres from my face. I was trying to back off, but he just kept following me. He had staring, mad eyes and he was huge and very hairy, like a big ape-far more frightening than the way he looked in Gladiator.

"Even when my taxi came and I got in crying, Russell started following the taxi, still shouting and swearing." Karen, now 20, and working as a waitress, didn't see the fights that followed. They were captured on the tape, which has been viewed by the News of the World.

The video is silent but he can be seen talking to one young girl, crouching down to her level and poking a finger inches from her face.

A club bouncer appears to intervene and suddenly Crowe starts swinging punches. The actor is then mobbed by bouncers and bystanders who try to break up the brawl. But as the mob swings from one side of the pavement to the other, Crowe struggles to break free.

His own security man then pushes him backwards against the limousine and Crowe appears to calm down. But Crowe swings back into action and throws a huge punch at another man.

When a man later identified as a local publican tries to talk to Crowe, the actor appears to spit in the man's face and then headbutt him. The video shows Crowe grabbing his own brother Terry by the back of his hair, then smashing his face against the roof of the limo.

Crowe eventually walks away-but then he allegedly became involved in another fight with Brett Martin.

Brett declined to make a complaint to police about the incident, which took place in November 1999. But he later launched a civil action against Crowe, which the star made legal moves to dismiss.

Justice

But a court case resulting from the night will start on Monday, April 8. Nightclub owners Mark Potts, 42, Malcom Mercer, 37, and Philip Cropper, 36, have been charged with attempting to blackmail Crowe into paying for them to suppress the surveillance tape, and with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. But the tape did later turn up on Australian TV.

Australian barrister Peter Davies who will defend one of the accused said: "At least one of the defence lawyers wants Russell Crowe as a witness."

Crowe's brother Terry is also to be called. A special video screening room will be set up in the Coffs Harbour court.

On Friday, top LA showbusiness lawyer Jay Lavely, rang the News of the World's Los Angeles bureau and said: "Our client Russell Crowe has consistently denied all of Brett Martin's allegations.

"Russell Crowe believes many incidents on the video can and have been misinterpreted. Our client is not on trial here."

But Karen Mack, the girl who Crowe first turned on, said: "I never want to watch any of his movies, ever."