A PARAMEDIC has told how she battled in vain to save the life of a Southampton dad beaten unconscious in an alleyway.

Louisa Dunkason told Winchester Crown Court that Kevin Wyeth was “cold to the touch” and had no pulse when she found him down an alleyway in Woolston.

But despite all signs indicating that the 31-year-old was already dead, the paramedic spent more than 20 minutes trying to bring him back to life.

Her efforts to restart his heart failed and the Saints groundsman was pronounced dead in the alleyway. Miss Dunkason was giving evidence during the third day of the trial of cage fighter Damon Wright, who is accused of murdering Kevin on the evening of August 23 last year.

She told the court that when she arrived in Defender Road, it took her around 20 minutes before she found Kevin lying in the alleyway, after the control room received an anonymous call from a telephone box.

She said that he wasn’t moving and advised the control room that she would need back up, but thought that he was already dead.

When she began chest compressions and ventilation using a bag and mask, she told the jury that she noticed his jaw was “quite swollen”.

She said: “I started chest compressions, trying to keep the heart going.

“I was alternating between chest compressions and also trying to ventilate him. “There was no response.”

But after more than 20 minutes of resuscitation she said that “there was no sign of life” and his pupils were fixed and dilated. Earlier in the day the court also heard from Joseph Moule, who lived in Highlands House, where Kevin was last seen alive, visiting his expartner, who was dating scaffolder Wright.

Mr Moule told the court that on the night of August 23 he had heard a “dispute” between Kevin and Samantha Slater.

He said that this was not unusual, as he would often hear Kevin talking to her, “mainly about his kids, he always seemed pretty concerned about his kids”.

Wright, 32, of no fixed address, denies murder.

Proceeding