THE killer of Connor Tremble claimed he was ‘not in control’ of his body when he fatally stabbed the teenager 15 times.

Will Blencowe, 21, also denied being a “psychopath” and said he acted in self-defence when he caused Connor’s death on February 13.

Giving evidence for the first time yesterday at Oxford Crown Court he told the jury: “I’m sorry about what happened that day.”

The prosecution claims that Blencowe, pictured, carried out a “deliberate” attack because he was jealous of 17-year-old Connor’s relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Aimee Harrison.

But in an emotional testimony Blencowe, of Oxford Road, Banbury, said he went to the teenager’s flat in Fairacres Road, Oxford, to buy heroin to kill himself.

He said he also wanted to reassure the youth, after he called Miss Harrison to say goodbye and she told him Connor was afraid of him.

Blencowe said: “I told her ‘I have known about you and Connor for three weeks, it doesn't bother me’.

“Then I got off the phone and thought, she’s making me out to be some kind of psychopath. I have never even spoken to Connor in my life. I have never threatened him, I’ve never got anyone to speak to him for me.

“She’s making me out to be something I’m not. Putting impressions in people’s heads that just aren’t true.

“I thought, I’m going to go down there, I’m going to say to Connor ‘I haven’t got a problem with you, me and Aimee are done’.”

Blencowe said he had suffered from paranoia and anxiety since he was at primary school, eventually realising he had borderline personality disorder. He also said he had a history of self harming.

On the day he stabbed Connor he said his mental problems had left him feeling “hopeless and helpless” and he was planning to end his life.

He told the jury: “I didn’t want to kill myself, I was stood on a line or a path where at the end I realised was my death. And I couldn’t get off the path.”

But when he arrived at Connor’s flat he said the teenager came at him with a knife and he lost control of his body.

Describing what happened at about 6pm, Blencowe said: “I knocked on the door and there’s a window next to the door and I can see a tall lad, who I know is Connor, bending over the sofa and doing something with his hands.

“The door is flung open and he’s stood there all tall with a knife in his hand and I’m trying to scream out ‘I’m not here for this, I’m not here for this, I don’t want no drama with you’. But nothing was coming out of my mouth.

“I didn’t want to be there, I could see him with a knife and I didn’t want to be there.

“I was trying to scream out but nothing would come out.

“Then we have come together and I grabbed his arm and we went spinning around. He’s let go of the knife, I picked up the knife, and we have come together again.

“I can remember his head, he’s a lot taller than me, I can remember seeing my arm going like this (Blencowe mimes a stabbing motion).

“I couldn’t stop my arm moving, I couldn’t stop my body. We were spinning around and we both crashed to the floor.

“He’s trying to get up and I just ran for the taxi.”

Connor died two days later of his injuries in the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Richard Barton cross-examined Blencowe and pointed out he did not receive a single injury in the confrontation.

The barrister said the attack had been “deliberate” and wounds appeared to have been inflicted while Connor was lying face down on the carpet, including six to his buttocks.

He said: “Were you trying to damage his body in a humiliating way?”

Blencowe replied: “No.”

Later Mr Barton asked him: “Can you point to anything you did that day that is not consistent with you planning and carrying out a deliberate execution?”

Blencowe said he had not avoided any of the CCTV cameras that picked him up during the day.

He said: “I wasn’t exactly trying to hide, was I?”

Bradley Jones, 21, of New Road, Bledington, and Grant Clemens, 23, of Stockwells, Moreton-in-Marsh, are also on trial and both deny perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.

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