A TEENAGER accused of murdering a 16-year-old for setting fire to his mother's fence claimed yesterday he had "swung out instinctively" in self defence.

Stelios Paraschakis, 19, said he was terrified when 16-year-old Julian 'Busta' Knight started "fronting up" during an argument.

The blow slashed the teenager's jugular vein, but Paraschakis insisted he had no idea where the boy was injured.

Paraschakis armed himself with two knives and confronted Julian and his friends on July 15 last year, believing they had set the fence alight at his home in Rushdene, Thamesmead.

He told the Old Bailey Julian had stepped towards him with his hands behind his back.

He said: "I was getting really nervous. I had a knife in my left hand and I just kind of swung it out.

"It was an instinctive reaction. I was scared. I thought he must have something and I was going to get hurt.

"I didn't know where he had been stabbed until after he moved away and he had his hand on his neck."

Paraschakis told the jury he took the knives from his kitchen for security "so no one would come near me" as he marched to confront the teenagers.

Julian was with Martin Gardener and Brian Long, the pair who had drunkenly set fire to Paraschakis' garden fence.

Paraschakis started shouting "Who set fire to my house?" after finding the group in nearby Overtone Road arguing with his girlfriend Amy Curran and neighbour Paul Spouse.

He added: "I felt I had to go round there because this couldn't be going on.

"As I came through the garages I saw a group of people arguing and shouting.

"Basically it was a violent group.

"I was worried about what was going to happen. Let's say they didn't want to talk.

"They were talking like they didn't know what I was talking about, like I went round there for a laugh or something."

The jury has heard how Paraschakis fled to his father in Greece but was later persuaded to return to the country.

He allegedly enlisted the help of his girlfriend Amy Curran, now 18, and neighbour Paul Spouse, 28, who are standing trial alongside Paraschakis.

Julian, of Lensbury Way, Abbeywood, died from the single stab wound an hour after the attack.

Paraschakis denies murder.

Spouse, of Tanhurst Walk, Thamesmead, and Curran, of Ferndyke Road, Thamesmead, deny conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and violent disorder.

Curran alone further denies perverting the course of public justice.

The trial continues.