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The knifing of a nightclub owner was carried out in self-defence, a jury has heard.
Karl Ahmad was stabbed through the stomach during a row outside his nightclub Vivid in High Street, Herne Bay.
Anthony Ridge, 44, told Canterbury Crown Court Mr Ahmad punched his sister Rebecca Shepherd to the floor and drew a “sharp shiny object” in the early hours of the morning.
Ridge denies causing GBH with intent, arguing Mr Ahmad was wounded while being disarmed.
The defendant explained he “couldn’t assist with how the [Mr Ahmad’s] injury was caused” and threw the blade, containing only his DNA, into his mum’s neighbour’s garden in Charles Street.
When Judge James O’Mahoney asked why Ridge disposed of the weapon, he replied: “I have no rational explanation for that - I wasn’t trying to discard of a knife.”
Judge O’Mahoney continued: “You had been attacked by this man, you had to disarm him. Why didn’t you take the knife to the police?”
“I was worried," Ridge replied. "I’m not not one to go to the police."
The jury heard today Ridge, represented by Richard Milne, has a chequered past.
In total, he has two convictions for affray and one for robbery, for which he was imprisoned for ten years.
CCTV played in court showed Ridge purportedly waving the blade and being restrained by an off-duty officer and a bouncer.
Prosecutor Andrew Hallworth said a clip appearing to show Ridge “lunging” at Mr Ahmad “in a stabbing motion” was him knifing the alleged victim.
But Ridge insisted he was leaning forward to defend himself.
His sister Rebecca Shepherd, 34, told the jury Mr Ahmad punched her with a straight right, knocking her out.
She added: “As far as I am aware he [Ridge] did not have a knife.”
Ridge claimed the drama unfolded after Mr Ahmad became intimidating inside the nightspot.
He said bouncers “manhandled” him out of the club, slamming his head into the wall, and then set upon him outside.
Mr Ahmad in a previous hearing told the jury claims he was carrying and flourished the blade were “ridiculous”.
He revealed he only realised the seriousness of his injury when onlookers said: “You’ve got blood all over you.”
He explained that when he went outside to defuse a row one woman punched him in the face, prompting Mr Ahmad to push her.
The woman “may have fell on the floor,” he told the jury.
“Then I felt something but at the time I didn’t know what it was,” he continued.
“It felt like a punch.”
The court heard off-duty police officers treated Mr Ahmad at the scene before medics rushed him to a hospital where he stayed for six days after having major surgery.
The incident happened just before 3am on July 9 in 2017.
Ridge, who now lives in Ashford and studies at Ashford College, gave a no comment police interview in December 2017.
The trial continues.
