Young father Ricky Mount denies attacking Faversham teenager Adam Beaney with knife
by Julia
Roberts
A young father on trial for murder
has told a jury he never thrust a knife into the chest of his love
rival.
Ricky Mount, 21, said he did not
believe he was responsible for the stab wound which killed
19-year-old Adam Beaney in Faversham last year. He also denied
making any contact with Mr Beaney's body while brandishing a
knife.
He told the jury at Maidstone Crown
Court he had armed himself with the knife only to use it as a
"prop" and denied having any intention to hurt anyone with it.
A former student of the Community
College, Whitstable, Mr Beaney died from a single stab wound
through his heart in May. It is alleged that Mount bore a grudge
against Mr Beaney because he was dating his ex-girlfriend, Alicia
Stankovich, 20.
The court heard there had been
trouble between Mount and Beaney three months earlier when the pair
came to blows in Faversham town centre.
Mount told the jury he also
believed that Miss Stankovich, who is known as Lil, used their
daughter, Ellie, now aged two, as a "weapon" against him.
In the early hours of May 30, Mount
and Mr Beaney met in Faversham Recreation Ground. The court heard
Mount had the knife tucked down the waistband of his jogging
bottoms.
Mount claimed things between him
and Mr Beaney were at first amicable but the atmosphere changed
when Mr Beaney got angry with Miss Stankovich during a phone
call.
Mount, of Edward Vinson Drive,
Faversham, told the court he was leaving the park when Mr Beaney
punched him five or six times. At first, Mount reacted by
laughing but then pulled the knife out.
"It was after that that I pulled
the knife from my right-hand waistband in a sweeping, outwards
motion and shouted: 'Come on then' twice."
Mount demonstrated from the witness
box how he held his arms out. Asked how Mr Beaney reacted, Mount
replied: "He shouted: 'Knife', turned and ran towards the Market
Inn.
"I started to chase after him,
still holding the knife in my hand. He was running away quite
quickly."
Mount said Mr Beaney then slipped,
stood back up and carried on running. "When he slipped I stopped. I
just turned and put the knife back into my waistband. He (Mr
Beaney) shouted out: 'Watch what's going to happen to you now for
pulling a knife on me.'."
Mount returned to his flat and put
the knife into a drawer. He said Miss Stankovich accused him of
killing Mr Beaney in a telephone call the following morning. He
told the court others also called him to say rumours were going
around that he had killed Mr Beaney.
"I was shocked that they were all
blaming it on me," he told the court. "I was thinking did I catch
him at all? But then I thought no. He ran off, he was talking. No
one reacted."
Asked by defence counsel Richard
Travers why he had gone to his flat to get his knife, Mount
replied: "For the fact that if I was to go down there and they were
to start on me or jump me, it was to be like a prop, to scare them
off."
He was later asked whether he
thought he was responsible for the wound that killed Mr Beaney, to
which Mount replied: "No."
And when asked by Judge Andrew
Patience QC whether it was his case that he never came into contact
with Mr Beaney's body with the knife, Mount answered: "That's
correct".
The trial continues.
Tuesday, February 02 2010