Second gang member denies owning knife used to kill Lewis (From Daily Echo)

Second gang member denies owning knife used to kill Lewis

5:30pm Monday 4th February 2008 in Lewis Singleton Trial By Julian Robinson, Eastleigh Chief Reporter

A SECOND gang member today denied owning the knife used in the fatal stabbing of a Southampton teenager.

Sercan Calik, who along with three others is accused of killing Lewis Singleton, said he did not produce the 10cm flick knife used in the attack on March 31 last year.

Earlier in the trial, at Winchester Crown Court, his co-defendant Rikki Johnson also denied owning the weapon and said Calik had placed it next to the handbrake of his car shortly before the incident in Obelisk Road, Woolston, Southampton.

When asked whether it was his knife, Calik told jurors: "No way - that's not true. I'm not in the streets or anything. I don't need to protect myself."

He added that after a separate incident earlier that evening, Johnson had become irate after claiming he had been chased by two men carrying broken bottles.

Calik said: "He (Johnson) was punching the dashboard and the airbag area. He said that someone pulled a shank on him or a knife."

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.