THE chilling moment when a gang member knifed a Southampton teenager has been acted out in court.

Rikki Johnson was asked to hold a plastic ruler to demonstrate how he aimed knife blows at Lewis Singleton, pictured, during the brawl that claimed the 18- year-old's life.

There were sobs from Winchester Crown Court's public gallery as Johnson showed a jury how he brandished the weapon.

The 19-year-old is one of four teenagers accused of stabbing Lewis Singleton in Obelisk Road, Woolston, on March 31 last year.

Johnson again admitted to having twice used a 10cm flick knife to "protect a friend" - but maintained that he was unsure whether the blows had made contact with Lewis's body.

Reluctantly standing in court, he gripped the ruler and thrust it forward in a stabbing motion.

"Why are you making me do this?"

he asked prosecutor Tim Mousley QC. "I don't want to relive what happened. I did not mean to hurt him - it was an accident, yeah."

Lewis later died in hospital from injuries caused by five stab wounds.

When asked why he and the other members of the gang had driven away from the incident without calling for an ambulance, Johnson turned on his co-defendant Sercan Calik.

He added: "It was not my idea to drive off - it was Sercan. Everyone could see he (Lewis Singleton) was pretty hurt."

Calik, 19, denied owning the knife used in the fatal stabbing.

Johnson, 19, of Honeysuckle Road, Bassett, Calik, 19, of Burgess Road, and two youths aged 16 and 17 all deny murder and a second charge of violent disorder. A fifth member of the gang was never charged.

Proceeding