MURDER trial jurors have been asked to consider who owned the knife used to kill Hampshire teenager Lewis Singleton.

As defence barristers gave their closing speeches, the key point of contention between the representatives of two of the defendants was over who had brought the weapon used to stab Lewis to the scene.

Four people are on trial at Winchester Crown Court, accused of being part of a five-strong gang that ambushed Lewis as he walked through the Woolston area of Southampton on March 31 last year.

Oba Nsugbe, representing Rikki Johnson, told the jury the evidence showed the 10cm-long flick knife belonged to co-defendant Sercan Calik.

The court has heard another defendant saw Calik pass it to Johnson shortly before the attack on Lewis.

"Rikki Johnson said the fact the knife had been brought by Calik was something everyone knew," said Mr Nsugbe.

"The knife is Calik's, pure and simple. He brought it to the scene and made it available to Johnson, knowing there was a chance it would be used."

Detectives later found the weapon hidden in a petrol can in a yard outside Calik's home in Burgess Road, Bassett.

"If he (Johnson) had wanted to cover his tracks he would have dumped it in the river. Whoever dumped it there wanted to be able to keep it, and that person was Calik," said Mr Nsugbe.

Sally Bennett-Jenkins, defending Calik, accepted her client had initially lied about not leaving Johnson and the fifth gang member alone when they returned to his house after the stabbing.

She said he didn't tell the police the truth because he was trying to protect his family, but in fact he had gone inside to get money before they went off to smoke cannabis outside a nearby youth club.

"He left Rikki Johnson and the fifth man, who has never been charged in that yard. How quick and easy to drop off that knife when you're going back out in the car," said Miss Bennett-Jenkins.

"This is a man (Calik) who was worried it was his car the police were going to find. Do you think he would have put that knife in his own address? It just beggars belief as an idea."

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

Proceeding.