Three men will stand trial accused of murdering a man whose severed forearm, marked with a distinctive red devil tattoo, was pulled from a Melbourne river.
The dismembered remains of Brendan David Bernard, 32, were found in the Maribyrnong River in Melbourne's northwest on February 5.
Con Spaliaras, 31, Matthew David Brennan, 36, and Edward Lionel "Nippy" Hill, 46, are accused of killing him between January 27 and 28.
The trio have pleaded not guilty to murder and were committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Mr Bernard had been staying with Brennan in the same building complex where Hill and Spaliaras lived, the Melbourne Magistrates Court heard.
A neighbour, Wendy Williams, said the group were together on the night of January 27.
They were yelling and screaming over the top of each other, before it went quiet.
"I then started to hear all these noises, like a power drill being used," she told police in a statement, tendered to the court on Wednesday.
Ms Williams said she then saw two men coming down the stairwell "carrying a long black object, one at each end".
"I couldn't make out what the object was," she told police.
Another witness, who can only be referred to as KJ, said she was at the flat when the three co-accused started beating Mr Bernard.
In her tendered statement she alleged Spaliaras later told her they cut the body.
"It was like he was proud of himself. He said it looked good enough to eat," KJ said in her statement.
"He said he considered eating it, if it hadn't been sitting there so long."
Brennan, Hill and Spaliaras will come before the Supreme Court for a directions hearing next week.
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