Drug dealer earning £3.5k a week claims he did not mean to kill Ben Fasina in Thamesmead and 'just wanted to escape'

Louis Henry, who is charged with the murder of Mr Fasina, known as Trigger, said in his defence: "I was scared and panicking, I was trying to get him to back off.

"I did not intend to kill him or cause grevious bodily harm, I just wanted to escape."

Judge Jeremy Donne QC read out Henry's witness statement yesterday afternoon (June 1), as he continued to sum up the murder case for the jury.

Henry, 22, who earns £3,500 a week profit by selling cannabis, claimed that Olamide Benedict Fasina, who died aged 25, chased him with a hammer into the Hinksey Path alleyway where Mr Fasina died.

Judge Donne recalled that Henry said: "Trigger and his friends had surrounded me.

"He was laughing and his friends were egging him on.

"He hit me with the hammer.

"There was no gap to move away.

"I swung outwards with the knife three times."

Henry, who has an outstanding allegation of smuggling cannabis into prison for Steven Ngolo, 22, denies enacting a revenge attack on his behalf after Mr Fasina robbed a young drugs runner, known as Kid.

He told the jury: "If Ngolo asked me to do him a favour, sometimes I would do it, sometimes I wouldn't."

The estate, known by the defendents as 'Street Cage', where Mr Fasina died

Ngolo, who was serving time in prison for dealing cannabis, denies conspiracy to cause GBH and claimed he did not mean for his friends to seriously harm Mr Fasina when he told them to "burn that bridge", as the prosecution suggest.

Judge Donne said: "He said he now felt embarrassed and ashamed when he listened to those calls.

"He said being tough was not the only side of him, it was just jail talk."

Ngolo, who described himself as successful in the drugs trade, claimed: "I did not contemplate that a weapon would be used.

"It's clear that I was not having any influence on what went on outside prison."

He went on to claim that on the day Fasina was killed - he had stopped calling his friends because he had lost interest in the situation and was more interested in his jail cleaning job.

Hundreds of calls were made between the four defendants with each other and other associates in the hours after Kid was robbed on October 13 and 14.

Alvin Ansar-Baaphy, who admitted he was known as "Armsy" because he likes to fight, is also charged with Mr Fasina's murder.

He said although he was "prepared to fight" after arranging a meeting with Mr Fasina, he had not expected to.

Mr Fasina had previously been jailed for armed robbery with a firearm, but Ansar-Baaphy said: "I thought he had changed."

He claimed Mr Fasina said he would return the stolen goods, in which Ansar-Baaphy had a partial share.

Judge Donne said Ansar-Baaphy earned £600 a week selling drugs, and his patch ranged from Welling to Eltham, Thamesmead, Abbey Wood and sometimes Crayford.

Ansar-Baaphy admitted he threw punches at Mr Fasina, but claimed he did no more than that.

Bliss Duodo, 22, also charged with Mr Fasina's murder, said he was at home and not present at the time of the attack, and was backed up by the other defendants.

He originally claimed he was at church at the time, but changed his story after being contradicted by his pastor.

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The three holding the murder charges are also charged with conspiracy to cause GBH.

All four men deny the charges against them.

The trial continues, with Judge Donne saying he will discharge the jury today.