A MAN on trial for murdering a friend in a street fight has told a jury: "I didn't intend to take his life . . . no chance."

Craig Conway entered the witness box at Teesside Crown Court for the first time today (Tuesday, November 11) to give his account of the stabbing.

He told the jury that he had left his home to meet Simon Bennett after they had argued on the phone - but did not expect to brawl.

Conway, 30, said he thought that there was more chance of them rowing further, then going for a drinking session together.

The clash late at night on May 8 ended with Mr Bennett, 28, dying from catastrophic blood loss after being stabbed in the heart.

Prosecutors claim Conway took a knife to the scene in The Greenway, Middlesbrough, because he feared a savage beating.

The defendant says he picked up something - he does not know what - after being floored, and "punched out" with it.

"I swung as if I was throwing a punch, I swung with force," he said. "I heard a 'pop', like a pop, and knew I'd stabbed him.

"I don't know where it came from. I had my back turned and just swung. As he went to punch me, it has gone in him.

"It is my fault for going there, but I didn't go there to murder him. I have killed him. It was me who done it."

Conway, of Epworth Green, Middlesbrough, denies a charge of murder, but has admitted the manslaughter of barber Mr Bennett.

Asked busy his barrister, Tim Roberts, QC, if he intended to take his life, Conway replied: "Mot a chance. He was my friend."

He added: "I thought we would have an argument and then I thought we would go and have a sesh. That's the worst I thought."

Prosecutor Andrew Robertson, QC, said: "You knew full well that when you went out of that house, it was for a confrontation in order to have a fight.

The trial will continue today