A Melbourne teenager who killed a homeless man believed the war-themed video game Call of Duty was his training to be deployed with the Australian SAS, a court has heard.
Easton George Woodhead, 19, repeatedly stabbed Morgan Wayne "Mousey" Perry at an encampment of homeless people living on the banks of Melbourne's Yarra River.
Friends have told Woodhead's committal hearing that he was abusing marijuana and behaving erratically in the months before he attacked Mr Perry on January 4.
His friend Arielle Thomas said Woodhead told her he'd been chosen by the Australian Special Air Service and was completing his training in the video game.
"He was saying he'd been called for duty, he'd been chosen," she told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
"He said that was the reason why games like Call of Duty existed, for the training of people like him."
Ms Thomas said Woodhead told her that he'd come to this realisation after the plug for his game console floated out of the wall on its own, while he was playing the game.
But she said Woodhead had displayed no bizarre behaviour, and was "charming, chivalrous" and funny when she last spent time with him, two days before the attack.
Nerida Goulter told the court she was sleeping among the group of homeless people when Woodhead approached them claiming they'd stolen his motorbike.
She said Woodhead demanded Mr Perry help him start a bike which was parked near the group, saying: "I want you to come down here and start this bike or your friends are going to watch you die".
After arguing with the group, Woodhead pulled out a knife and attacked Mr Perry, with the force of the blows to the stomach lifting him off the ground, Ms Goulter said.
"It's the most horrible thing I've ever seen," she told the court.
Woodhead's barrister Michael Tovey QC challenged Ms Goulter's version of events, saying Mr Perry had not been stabbed in the area she was describing.
Ms Goulter said she was certain of her version of events.
Mr Tovey on Monday said there was no dispute that Woodhead stabbed and killed Mr Perry, but his state of mind at the time of the incident would be at issue.
Woodhead, a former Melbourne Grammar student, is charged with the murder of Mr Perry, who died from multiple stab wounds.
The committal hearing continues.
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