The Central Criminal Court has heard that a 36-year-old man kicked another man to death following a row over a 70c phone call.

Zhen Dong Zhao, of Jervis Street, Dublin has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Noel Fegan, 40, in a Dublin city centre internet cafe last year.

Mr Zhao leased the ground floor of a premises on lower Wellington Quay in Dublin last year, which he operated as the e-Times internet cafe.

At around 3.50pm on Friday 20 May 2011, Mr Fegan and a friend went into the cafe to use a phone booth to call his daughter.

The court heard a row broke out between Mr Zhao and Mr Fegan over whether he had gotten through on the phone and owed 70c and that Mr Fegan slapped Mr Zhao in the face and ran out onto the quays.

Mr Zhao followed him and kicked him repeatedly in the body, head and neck.

Mr Fegan died a short time later.

Prosecuting Counsel Pauline Walley told the jury that Mr Fegan was on methadone and was in the Focus Centre in Dublin when he received a 'call me' text from his teenage daughter.

She said he had no credit on his phone, his friend did not have a phone, and they ended up in Mr Zhao's cafe after a number of other failed attempts to borrow a phone.

The jury was told that the attack on Mr Fegan took place during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II last year.

They heard that there was a large garda presence in the city and gardaí were on the scene almost immediately.

Defence Counsel Brendan Grehan read to the jury extracts from Mr Zhao's final interview with gardaí where in answer to questions he said: "I can' t remember how many times I kicked him I was so angry.

“Because he hit me first I was afraid he was going to hit me again. I didn't want to kill him. After I saw the CCTV footage I couldn't even recognise myself. This is not my intention at all. Just for 70c he lost his life and I destroyed mine.”

Mr Zhao has pleaded not guilty to murder.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.