Police told Lewis was stabbed with flick knife

A MAN accused of killing a Hampshire teenager told police how he stabbed him with a flick knife as his victim fought with four other people who had ambushed him.

Rikki Johnson's chilling description of the moments he plunged the blade into Lewis Singleton was read out in court in the trial of four people accused of Lewis Singleton's murder.

The attack was meant to be revenge for an incident earlier that evening, that Johnson told police Lewis, 18, was not even involved in.

Johnson, 19, and three others are accused of being part of a five-strong gang that ambushed Lewis and friend Craig Smith in the Woolston area of Southampton in the early hours of March 31 last year.

Earlier that night Johnson and his friends had been chased by someone carrying a knife, and hours later they drove back to the area looking for revenge, Winchester Crown Court heard.

The driver, Sercan Calik, was not present at the earlier incident but had been phoned to pick up his four pals. He brought a knife with him, which he got out in the car.

"We see them at first and pulled over in the car and that's when it started," Johnson told police. "A couple of people said pull over and let's see if they've still got the knife with them.

"The one that chased us earlier that day ran away as soon as we got out of the car but the other boy stayed there. It weren't nothing to do with him.

"My mate was fighting him and I heard someone say: he's got a knife on him' and I thought to myself before I got out the car I ain't risking because they chased us with knives earlier that night and I'm not risking not taking the knife."

Earlier yesterday the court heard police later found the knife hidden in a petrol can at Calik's home in Burgess Road, Southampton.

To audible sobs from the public gallery, Johnson was quoted as saying: "I got told by my mate he was trying to get the knife out of his pocket.

"That's when I ran over and naturally thought for my own mate's safety, that's when I done it."

Johnson said he tried to stab Lewis' arm but missed and got the stomach. Asked if he had tried to cut Lewis or stick the knife in he said: "Yeah, stick it in. After the first one he didn't even back away and then I done it again.

"He carried on fighting after that one as well. Then I dropped the knife and backed away."

Johnson, of Honeysuckle Road, Bassett, Calik, 19, and two youths aged 16 and 17 who cannot be named for legal reasons all deny murder and violent disorder.

Proceeding

Click here to read all the reports from the trial so far.