Murder accused 'did not realise victim was injured'

A TEENAGER who confessed to stabbing Lewis Singleton told police he did not realise his victim had been injured.

Rikki Johnson told detectives quizzing him the days after the 18-year-old's death that he was not sure his two attempts to plunge a knife into Lewis had been successful.

He said Lewis continued fighting the four others with whom Johnson had ambushed him and friend Craig Smith as they walked through the Woolston area of Southampton at about 2am on March 31 last year.

Johnson, 19, told police that after the attack there had been no blood on the flick knife and although he later saw Lewis fall to the floor he assumed that was just a way of showing he didn't want to fight any more.

"He didn't look that bad really. He just looked normal," Johnson told officers in an interview, the transcript of which was read to the Winchester Crown Court murder trial.

"I was shocked when the police came to my house saying he was dead."

He said he stabbed Lewis twice to protect his friends after someone said he had a knife.

"I went to stab him in the arm, but he moved his arm and I caught him in the belly," Johnson told police. "I don't seriously know how far it went into him.

"He had a thick black coat on and I didn't even feel it go in and didn't see no blood about it, and didn't think nothing about it. I'm not going to say I didn't use quite a lot of force because I was worried about my mate.

"After the first one he didn't even back away and then I done it again. Because I see he wasn't letting go I thought the knife didn't even go in. Everyone was still hitting him because no one realised he was hurt."

Johnson said after dropping the knife he returned to the car and called his mates over.

"Everyone looked at the knife. There was no blood on the knife and that's why we thought nothing had happened."

He said the five then drove off to look for Mr Smith, but could not find him. They passed Lewis on the way.

"He was still walking and then we reversed back and he sat down on the kerb with his arms in the air," said Johnson.

"That was what we thought was a way of him letting us know he didn't want any more trouble."

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

Proceeding

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