ALLEGED murderer Aaron Roche ignored warnings that Dele Little would beat him in a fight minutes before the fatal stabbing, a court has been told.

A witness said he thought Roche did not want to back down in front of his girlfriend, Winchester Crown Court heard yesterday.

Roche, 21, is accused of stabbing Dele, 15, after the teenager pushed over his girlfriend earlier in the evening.

Dele, of Powell Crescent, Totton, suffered a fatal heart wound in the fight outside West Totton Community Centre in Totton on February 3.

The witness, aged 16, told the jury that Dele and Roche's girlfriend, Kayleigh Shinn, 18, had an altercation ending with the girl on the floor. She had seemed drunk and had attacked Dele with a stick, he said.

Roche was contacted by mobile phone and told his girlfriend had been "hit". He arrived about ten minutes afterwards, shortly after Dele had left the scene, the boy said.

The witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, added: "He (Roche) looked angry. He stormed up to his girlfriend. He said 'where is he?' "He started running in the direction Dele had gone. We followed him. Then he says he is 'going to stab him', in an angry way. Everyone hears it.

"When people have a fight they seem to say 'I'm going to beat him up' or 'kill him' but you don't really take anything of it sic.

"I spoke to him (Roche). I said Dele 'was going to beat you up. I would just go'. It looked like he wanted to go, but I don't think he wanted to back down in front of his girlfriend.

Headbutt "Then Dele comes around the corner. The man (Roche) and the girl start to walk off. Others were shouting 'come over here, Dele, quickly'. Dele shouted out 'come on, then!' The man turns around and Dele headbutts him on the forehead.

"Dele grabs his head and hits it on a car window about four times. Then Dele stops doing that and grabs him and pushes him over."

The witness said Dele was clearly winning, getting Roche on the floor, sitting on him and continuing to punch him.

Then Dele gets up and walks off with Roche's girlfriend hitting him.

The witness said: "Dele lifted up his top. He had blood all over his stomach. I shouted out that Dele had been stabbed. I remember the male (Roche) saying before he was going to stab him."

Tim Mousley QC, defending, asked the youth whether, when he warned Roche, he had heard someone say Dele was a 'bit of a nutter'?" "No, I didn't hear that," the teenager answered.

Mr Mousley asked: "When you said to Aaron Roche 'just go, Dele will beat you up' you knew what he was like?"

"Dele was a big lad. The other lad was not as big as Dele," he replied.

The boy said Roche had been attacked by friends of Dele after it was clear Dele had been stabbed.

Roche, formerly of Ringwood Road, Lyndhurst, denies murder.

Earlier, another friend of Dele's, a 15-year old boy who was 14 at the time, denied attacking Roche. "I was more concerned about what happened to Dele."

Mr Mousley said the boy had attacked Roche. Mr Mousley said the boy was facing aggravated burglary charges and that he was a "dishonest and violent young man." The boy denied it.

Both teenage witnesses gave evidence yesterday via a video link from another room at the Law Courts.

The trial continues.