THE Crewe teenager accused of murdering a man on a Winsford estate told a court he wished "it could have turned out different".

The 17-year-old said he feared he was "going to die" as he tried to fend off a group of older men, who had turned on him after he armed himself with a large knife and went with his friends to frighten people who he claimed had earlier made threats at a girlfriend's flat.

Keagan Crimes, 27, died after being stabbed through the heart by the youth's blade as he swung it around in Cheviot Square on October 11, 2020.

Another man, Jason McQuoid, was also injured in the melee. Mr McQuoid received wounds to his back, but the court has been told previously that he would take no part in the ongoing proceedings at Chester Crown Court as he passed away in custody last year.

Under cross examination from Prosecutor Gordon Coles QC the defendant denied being "the leader of a little pack".

He said a phone image recovered by detectives showing him holding a knife and "making gestures", which he uploaded to Instagram, was just him "trying to be cool".

Mr Cole said: "I'm going to put it to you that you took the knife out with you knowing that you may have to use it?

"You held it in such a way down at the bottom of your hand that you stabbed him to the chest and you stabbed him hard using force, didn't you?"

The youth replied: "Yes, to keep him (the victim) away from me."

The court has heard how the teenager and his associates took a taxi ride to Crewe, where he bought some ecstasy before they returned to the flat in Winsford.

He was asked about his friend's flat being used as a base for drug dealing and admitted that cocaine, crack and heroin as well as cannabis had been kept there to be delivered by "some of the people, but not me".

When he was quizzed about the identity of a mystery member of his group that day, he replied: "I don't want to say for my safety and other persons."

But he said that one of the group had bought the knife from a friend in Liverpool and it was usually kept in the kitchen drawer at the flat.

Asked by defence counsel Michael Hayton QC if he accepted his actions led to Mr Crimes receiving a fatal stab wound to the heart he said "Yes, I'm sorry for my actions. I wished it could have turned out different."

Before he became embroiled in the altercation that led to the stabbing, the youth recalled how he'd pursued two men in the Premier store on the Square, but they had run out through the back.

He recalled his friends leaving him and then seeing a lot of men coming for him.

"Everyone had run off and left me. An altercation started happening and people were coming towards me. There were eight or 10 males who were a lot older shouting and they were coming towards me. They were shouting 'get him'."

He said he was chased by the group of older men, including Mr McQuoid and fell over on a grass bank when he said he was kicked in the face.

He said he had the knife in his hand and that it felt "different". "I felt like I hit someone as there was a vibration through the handle," he told the court.

Mr Hayton asked him if he had any recollection of any injuries being inflicted to any person.

The defendant replied "I can't recollect. Every time someone got close to me I just swung it (the knife) out."

He added: "I kept backing up on the grass. I saw they had knives and a big large branch. They just kept coming at me. I thought I was going to die. I felt lost and scared and didn't know what to do."

He said he was left struggling to catch his breath as he tried to evade the men with his exertion exacerbating a lung condition he suffers from.

Afterwards he barricaded himself in a kebab/chip shop and tried to keep the group of men from entering.

He shouted to them that he was "only 15" to try and make them lay off him (although at the time he was 16).

One of the men, he alleged, told him "when I see you in Altcourse [prison] I'm going to get you raped."

He said they'd told him to put the knife down and nothing "would be done" to him.

But he said as he did so they "came back at me". He recalled the shop door was almost prised open and he swung the knife out and the group backed off.

After swinging it again he made his escape from the shop, but heard someone shout "run him over, run him over".

"There was an Audi and a couple of other cars and it had it's headlights on. It almost hit me and I ran up the grass so it couldn't go up there," he recalled.

The defence counsel asked the youth if he was aware anyone had been hurt at that stage.

"Yes, when I was in the chip shop I'd seen someone on the floor," he replied.

He said he was told "you killed him, watch what happens to you" and he was aware of a "big bloke with his top off who had a cut and blood".

"Obviously it must have been me as they were all together," he said.

After fleeing he went into a wooded area where he said he disposed of the knife in a tyre filled with water.

When the defence counsel asked him, "did you intend to cause Keagan Crimes really serious injury?", he replied "No."

"I was trying to defend myself. I wanted them to leave me alone."

The 17-year-old denies murder and unlawful wounding.

The trial continues.