THE man who admitted stabbing Hampshire teenager Lewis Singleton originally tried to convince police he had nothing to do with the death, a court heard.
Rikki Johnson was arrested just hours after 18-year-old Lewis died, following an ambush by a five-strong gang at around 2am on March 31 last year.
He initially claimed he had spent the evening drinking with friends in a Southampton park and had then gone home, where he went to sleep in a shed because he was locked out.
Johnson, 19, of Burgess Road, Bassett, said he had cycled to meet mates in the St Denys area of the city, before leaving on his own at around 11pm to go home.
"My dad was out at snooker and my mum goes to bed early, so I jumped over the gate and went into the shed where it's warm. I went to sleep," he said in the interview, which was read to the Winchester Crown Court murder trial.
Johnson said he woke around 2.30am and was walking to a nearby garage to get a drink when he bumped into four friends, who were in a car.
"They told me about what happened that night, about a couple of people who chased them with knives and then they chased them back or whatever," he said.
But he changed his story when officers interviewing him at Lyndhurst police station showed him details of comments made by one of his friends being quizzed at another station.
Johnson said he had actually left the park with friends and went to Woolston, where he said he was chased.
Hours later he returned to the area with four pals and spotted the boy he said had threatened him with a knife, who was walking with a friend.
He said they jumped out of the car but the boy they were after ran away, although his friend - Lewis - stayed and got in a fight with Johnson's mates.
Johnson said he then stabbed Lewis with a flick knife a friend had brought with him because he thought he had a weapon in his pocket.
Johnson, Sercan Calik, 19, of Burgess Road, Bassett, and two youths aged 16 and 17, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all deny charges of murder and violent disorder.
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