A 19-year-old man accused of murdering a former friend told how he decided to hit him after being "wound up" by another youth.

Lee Cowie said the friend asked him to assault 16-year-old Michael Chapman because he was cheating on his girlfriend.

He said he decided to hit Michael because the friend kept going on at him "and he just wound me up in the end".

But Cowie denied that he wanted to seriously hurt Michael during the incident at The Grove recreation ground in Sittingbourne on June 16 last year.

He said: "It was not about injuring him. I was just going to hit him once with a punch and that was it."

Maidstone Crown Court has heard that Cowie and a boy, aged 16, ambushed Michael as he was walking home with his brother David and their girlfriends. Michael, of Sheppey Way, Bobbing, died at the scene from a ruptured vessel above his right ear.

Cowie, of Beechwood Avenue, Sittingbourne, and the boy, who cannot be identified, deny murder. Cowie admits manslaughter, while the boy denies the charge.