Taking the stand to give his account of events that unfolded the night Jordan Taylor died of stab wounds, Hayden Maslen told the jury “I just wanted to scare him.”

Maslen, 19, of Park Street, Trowbridge, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder, manslaughter, wounding with intent and unlawful wounding of Jordan Taylor, but guilty to possession of a bladed article, was visibly distressed and crying while he gave his account of events at Bristol crown court on Monday.

Maslen told the court how he was walking back home from a night playing Xbox, smoking cannabis and listening to music with his friends, when a car stopped nearby, and Mr Taylor got out and approached Maslen, hitting him in the face with an aerosol bottle. Maslen then retaliated by punching back.

“I started shouting, 'why, why are you doing this' and then that is when it sort of turned into a brawl. It was something along the lines of ‘why the f*** are you doing this, f*** off’' Maslen told the jury. He then told the court Mr Taylor was demanding he give him the Star Wars Messenger Bag he was carrying, before Mr Taylor ripped it off his shoulder.

Maslen continued, telling the jury that the car Neil Vaughan was driving did a U-turn and stopped, jutting backwards and forwards.

“That was when he started saying ‘Do you want to get ran over for a f****** bag? Do you want to die for a bag?’

"That was when I pulled the knife out of the bag,” he said.

Maslen said he punched at Mr Taylor while holding the knife. He told the jury he only intended to scare Mr Taylor and that he thought he had only cut him.

Maslen told the court how he turned to run, but Mr Vaughan was in front of him, so he also punched at Mr Vaughan while holding the knife.

“I was still under the impression they were trying to kill me or at the very least try and hurt me, take my things and just leave me there,” he said.

The court also heard how Maslen had bought the illegal 'ballistic' knife from a man in Trowbridge Park for half a gram of cannabis for self-defence and never intended to use it.

The court heard last week how earlier that night Mr Taylor and his friend Neil Vaughan had been drinking in the Black Horse pub in Frome Road, while Maslen had been smoking cannabis and listening to music elsewhere.

When the pair left the pub they began driving around Trowbridge to find drugs, but stopped near Prospect Place when they saw Maslen walking home.

A witness statement from paramedic Edward Valentine was read out, who was one of the first to arrive outside Trowbridge Hospital, where he found Mr Taylor was suffering from cardiac arrest. He performed CPR and opened up his chest to look for damage to the heart, but he had bled out, saying : “Unfortunately despite our best efforts, the patient remained in cardiac arrest.”

Dr Russell Delaney, a forensic pathologist told the jury the extent of Mr Taylor’s injuries.

He described that Mr Taylor had sustained four stab wounds, two deep ones to his abdomen, and two to his back. He also explained that the wounds were between 9.5 and 13.5 cm deep, with one of the two stab wounds to his front, which punctured the front wall of his abdominal aorta, causing a blood clot which led to his death.

He said Mr Taylor had high levels of alcohol in his blood, as well as a recreational amount of cocaine.

While under cross-examination, Mr Delaney reiterated his statements about the extent of the injuries and how they may have occurred.

DC Tom Allen also presented the jury with the knife Maslen had in his possession, as well as his Star Wars bag and the ripped off shoulder strap.

The trial continues.