Karate expert carrying injury before unsolved death

A man beaten to death in a suspected historical gay-hate attack was a keen student of karate but had been complaining of injuries in the days before being attacked in a park at night, family members say.

More than 35 years after Raymond Keam's death, Stanley Bruce Early, 77, has pleaded not guilty to murder. He's accused of bashing the 43-year-old, either alone or in a group, suspecting he was homosexual.

Mr Keam was divorced from one woman and in a de facto relationship with another, having a child with each.

He was a well-qualified and dedicated student of karate, family members said, but had been complaining of a strained groin in the days before his death.

His de facto partner, Diane Smart, left Sydney to visit family in the days before Mr Keam died, and saw a news report about a man's body found in an eastern suburbs park wearing a medallion.

"I had a vision straightaway that I thought it was Ray's medallion," Ms Smart said on Tuesday.

Randwick's Alison Park had a reputation for being a "gay beat", crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the 15-person NSW Supreme Court jury as Early's trial began.

The jury will visit the park during the trial, when the nearby boarding house where Early lived at the time will also be pointed out, Mr McKay said.

Witnesses will give evidence about prior incidents in the park, and noises heard throughout the night before Mr Keam's body was discovered on January 13, 1987.

It will include evidence from people involved in incidents where suspected homosexuals were targeted in the park, who will tell the jury Early was involved, Mr McKay said.

Evidence was also expected that Mr Keam was off work due to a groin injury the day before his body was found.

The case against Early is circumstantial.

Some witnesses have died in the decades between Mr Keam's death and Early's trial. Some others cannot be identified as they were underage at the time.

Early's barrister Jeffrey Clarke told jurors they will have to be satisfied Mr Keam died from injuries inflicted at the time by Early and did not die from some other "ticking time bomb".

Identification of Early will also be an area of dispute.

"(The Crown) can't prove contact, no one saw them together," Mr Clarke said.

The trial continues on Wednesday.