A teenager accused of murder has claimed one of his co-accused confessed to him that he knifed the 17-year-old victim.

He said Victor Maibvisira, 19, washed his knife in bleach after telling him he had stabbed Kyle Yule in the legs.

It was not until sometime afterwards, he said, that he discovered Kyle had died from a knife wound.

The 17-year-old student, from Gillingham, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted he was present during the attack, but claimed he played no part in it.

He was the first of five teenagers on trial to give evidence at Maidstone Crown Court.

Earlier, Jonathan Higgs, QC for a 16-year-old, said he was not calling his client to give evidence.

The jury has heard Kyle was sitting in a car in East Street, Gillingham, when about six youths arrived and started smashing the windows and slashed a tyre.

He tried to run to the nearby front door of his friend Lewis Dilallo’s home but was attacked in the small garden. He died from a stab wound to his armpit.

The teenager giving evidence said Maibvisira, known as Vee, wanted to get a bike back that had been taken and on October 6 last year they went looking for Gabriel Calin, known as Gabby.

Questioned by his QC Cairns Nelson, he said he did not have “any beef” with Kyle or Mr Dilallo. Asked if anybody did, he replied: “Yes, Vee.”

They went to Mr Calin’s house in Corporation Road, but did not see him or the bike.

The teenager said they were on their way to the High Street when Maibvisira pointed out Mr Calin’s Renault Clio parked in East Street.

“The group started running up towards the car,” he said.

“I started cycling to the car. Vee was behind me on the pavement. Some people were in the road.

“I didn’t know anybody was in the Clio. I was on the passenger side on the pavement.

"I looked in the window and I saw someone in the driver’s seat. I didn’t know who it was.

“I didn’t know Kyle Yule at that stage. I hit the passenger side window with the handlebar of the bike. It smashed. It was a stupid thing to do.

“The intention was to cause damage to the car and scare the person inside. I wasn’t the only one damaging the car.

“The person in the car got out and ran towards number 24. I didn’t know who it was.

"The whole group followed him towards the door. They were spread out, some in front, some behind.

“I went up the pavement and round the side of a van onto the road. I was walking with the bike between my legs.

“As I got directly in front of the house I saw Vee in front of Kyle in the garden. It looked like he was punching him.

“The group caught up with Vee and some stayed outside the wall and surrounded the front of the garden. I saw Vee punch him.”

He said he thought the 16-year-old joined Maibvisira in the garden, and it looked like he kicked Kyle.

“I carried on going up the road,” he continued.

“The further I am getting, the harder it is to see who is doing what.

“As I am going up the road I heard Kyle shout out: ‘Vee stop. I have had enough. I get the point.’

“I started to ride at this point. Others followed behind up the road.”

Asked if he knew anybody had been stabbed, he replied: “No, I thought the boy had just been beaten up.”

The teenager said he went to Balmoral Gardens to find other friends.

“A few seconds later I see Vee running past, chased by a police officer,” he said.

“I started to get worried because the boy had been beaten up.

“I thought the police were looking for me as well. I went straight home after that.”

He changed out of the coat, tracksuit and trainers he had been wearing.

Asked why, he said: “I was panicking. I knew I had smashed the car window and the police were probably looking for me as well.”

He went to a friend’s house and Maibvisira and another co-accused were there.

“There was a conversation about what happened,” he said.

"He [suspect Victor Maibvisira] got bleach from the cupboard and started washing the knife in the sink" - a teenage witness

“Vee explained what he did when he was on East Street. He said he stabbed Kyle’s legs.

“He demonstrated with the knife he had in his hand. It was small like a fishing knife, about 7in long. The handle had rope around it for grip.

“He said he stabbed him in the legs with that knife. From what Vee said I didn’t think it was serious or fatal in any way. There was blood on the knife.

“He got bleach from the cupboard and started washing the knife in the sink. He had blood on his sock and his shoe.

“He had a cut on his little finger. He said the knife slipped down his hand as he was trying to stab Kyle.”

He claimed another of his co-accused had a flick knife and he also washed it. He didn’t see any blood on it.

Another co-accused arrived and declared it was “madness”, adding that he saw somebody being stabbed in the garden. He had blood on his shoe.

The teenager said Maibvisira called a girl to go to the house and when she arrived they went upstairs. During the evening he had about three phone calls from him.

“In one of them he asked for a condom,” he said.

“I put it on loudspeaker and we all started laughing.”

He claimed he did not know at that stage that Kyle had been fatally stabbed or seriously injured.

The teenager said he stayed the night and went home in the morning. Maibvisira phoned him at 12.45pm and told him the boy who was stabbed had died.

“He said he was leaving the area,” he continued. “He told me to get out of Kent as well. He told me to throw away my sim card.

“He told me to look at KentOnline to see what had happened. He didn’t sound like himself. He sounded anxious and scared.

“I looked at kentonline. I saw a picture of the boy. It said his name and he had died from a stabbing in East Street. I got rid of my sim card the next day.”

The teenager said the next day he burnt a glove he had been wearing at the time of the attack.

“I wanted to rid myself of everything to do with that night and what I was wearing,” he explained.

He threw his Nike trainers in a bin. There was no blood on them. He went to college over the next few days and was arrested on October 12.

Asked if he stabbed Kyle or joined in the attack, he replied: “No.” Asked if he smashed up the car, he said: “Yes.”

Maibvisira, of St John’s Road, Gillingham, three 17-year-olds and the 16-year-old, from Gillingham, Croydon, Sittingbourne and Stevenage, Hertfordshire, all deny murder, an alternative of manslaughter and violent disorder.

Maibvisira and one of the 17-year-olds have admitted threatening "another" with a machete in Gillingham Road, Gillingham, six days earlier on October 1.

Another 17-year-old has denied affray, using unlawful violence, on that date.

The trial continues.