A teenager alleged to have stabbed another youth who died in a gang attack has claimed he only exchanged punches with him.

Victor Maibvisira denied being armed with a knife when Kyle Yule was fatally wounded as he tried to escape to a friend’s house.

Asked by his QC Judy Khan if he had a weapon at any stage, he replied: “No, of course not.”

Maibvisira, of St John’s Road, Gillingham, was the second of five teenagers who are on trial accused of murdering 17-year-old Kyle to give evidence.

Earlier, a co-accused, aged 17, claimed Maibvisira, known as Vee, admitted to him he had knifed the victim.

He added the 19-year-old washed his knife in bleach after telling him he had stabbed Kyle in the legs.

The teenager said during the attack it looked like Maibvisira was punching Kyle. He said he heard Kyle shout out ‘Vee stop. I have had enough. I get the point.’”

Maibvisira claimed in evidence that the co-accused brushed past him and “lunged at Kyle”.

“The intention was to literally just mess up his car for taking my bike...” - Victor Maibvisira

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court has been told Kyle was sitting in a car in East Street, Gillingham, when about six youths started smashing the windows and slashed a tyre.

He tried to run to the nearby front door of his friend Lewis Dilallo’s home but was attacked in the small garden. He died from a stab wound to his armpit.

Maibivisira said he and his friends had been looking for Gabriel Calin, 18, known as Gabby, as he believed he had taken his bike.

They ran towards Mr Calin’s Renault Clio on the evening of October 6 last year, he said, because they thought he might be in it.

“The intention was to literally just mess up his car for taking my bike,” he said. “I have punched the rear window and kicked the driver’s door.

“I did it to damage the car. I only knew there was someone sitting in the car when the door opened. I see a hooded male run out of the car and start running.

“I now know it was Kyle Yule. I didn’t know at the time. I have chased him thinking it was Gabby. I chased him to No. 26. As we get there I realise it isn’t him.

“He turned around and punched me. He was just by the wall. The punch landed on my face. He swung another punch. After the second punch I punched him.

“We exchanged a few blows. It was literally a matter of seconds. He stepped back, so I thought it was finished.”

It was then, he claimed, that another of the gang brushed past him and lunged at Kyle.

“Kyle had stepped back onto the first step in the garden,” he continued. “He made contact. It was around the body area where it landed.

“I stepped back. I kind of withdrew. Our exchange of blows had finished. I am in the road in front of a blue Audi.”

He said he saw the other teenager and another youth in the garden attacking Kyle.

“He turned around and punched me. He was just by the wall. The punch landed on my face. He swung another punch. After the second punch I punched him..." - Victor Maibvisira

“He was kind of bent over,” he said of the teenager. “I can’t see what he was doing. He was doing motions towards Kyle. At that time he was on the floor.”

The other youth, he said, was kicking and punching Kyle. He said he saw two more of his co-accused in the garden. One punched Kyle.

Maibvisira continued that the teenager he claimed lunged at the victim ran to the other side of the road. Others also ran.

“I didn’t see what happened to Kyle,” he said. “I didn’t see any weapon. I start running towards West Street.”

Asked if he knew Kyle had been fatally stabbed, he replied: “No, I didn’t.”

He added he went past Gillingham train station, heading for another friend’s house.

Maibvisira, three 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old, from Gillingham, Croydon, Sittingbourne and Stevenage, Hertfordshire, all deny murder, an alternative of manslaughter and violent disorder.

Maibvisira and one of the 17-year-olds have admitted threatening "another" with a machete in Gillingham Road, Gillingham, six days earlier on October 1.

Another 17-year-old has denied affray, using unlawful violence, on that date.

The trial continues.