Murder accused '˜didn't mean to stab teenager'

Paul Kane (25), who denies murder, said he stepped in to help a friend when Sean Banks pulled a knife on him during a “square go”.

Kane and Liam Donnelly (19) are accused of murdering Mr Banks (18), of Viewpark, in North British Road, Uddingston, in September last year.

At the High Court in Glasgow, Kane said: “He pulled it out on Lewis McMahon. That’s when I ran over and jumped in the middle of the two of them and grabbed the knife. The two of us were struggling and I got it off of him. It all happened that fast.

“I can’t remember stabbing him.”

Prosecutor Iain McSporran asked Kane: “Do you remember stabbing him the first time, the second time, the third time or the fourth time?”.

Kane replied: “No. The two of us were in a struggle and when we broke apart I saw the blood. I didn’t mean for him to die. He kept coming at me.”

Kane was asked if he meant to deliberately stab Mr Banks and replied: “No I didn’t deliberately stab him. At the time I didn’t know how many times he had been stabbed.”

The accused said he ran off with the bloodstained knife in his hand and later threw it away.

The court has heard that a group went to confront Mr Banks that night because of an allegation he had hit a 15-year-old girl.

Kane denied taking a knife with him and told the jury: “He’s only punched the lassie. I wasn’t going to go up and get a knife and stab him for punching a lassie.”

Kane and Donnelly are also accused of assaulting Daniel McAulay. Earlier this week McMahon (18) was cleared of the murder charge when he admitted a reduced charge of punching Mr Banks. He will be sentenced later.

Donnelly told the jury he hit Mr McAulay to get him away from Mr McMahon and said: “I went to back him up. I went over and started fighting with Daniel because it was two on one.”

He said until that point he hadn’t seen any knives, adding: “I just heard somebody shouting ‘He’s pulling out a blade’.”

The trial continues.