A plasterer accused of murdering a St Albans man in a street fight told a court he had acted in self-defence.

Paul Crosbie, 26, admits he stabbed Emille Stapleton, 20, in the early hours of October 24 last year in London Road.

But he told a jury the man who died was squeezing the breath out of him.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder and to having a bladed article in a public place.

Crosbie told the court he had been lifted off the ground by Mr Stapleton at the time he stabbed the knife into his back.

Mr Stapleton, a former pupil of Marlborough Science Academy, died almost immediately.

The jury at Cambridge Crown Court heard there was an incident about 1.30am in London Road between Mr Stapleton and two of his friends when their car was kicked by someone in Crosbie’s group.

It is alleged that they stopped when they saw one of the same group in London Road at 3am and there was a second confrontation with the group.

At the start of the defence case, Emille Stapleton’s parents, Lloyd and Rosie, avoided eye contact with the defendant as he walked from the glass screened dock past their seats in the public gallery to the witness stand.

Crosbie began his evidence by saying he accepted he had stabbed their son.

Crosbie has five previous convictions for battery, affray, robbery, assault causing actual bodily harm and wounding, for which he served 30 months in jail, from when he arrived in England until June 2011.

He mostly lived with his friend Tristan Kavanagh at his flat in Benedictine Place, London Road.

Explaining what happened, Crosbie said at 1.30am on Saturday, October 23, he and friends were walking from the Farmer’s Boy pub intending to buy alcohol at an off-licence before returning to the flat.

As they crossed the street at the junction with Marlborough Road a car travelling at speed looked as if it wasn’t going to stop, said Crosbie.

There was a fight between the two groups of friends.

The defendant alleged that Mr Stapleton hit Mr McGrath three times to the ground and the last time Mr McGrath hit his head and was knocked unconscious.

He verbally intervened when he believed Mr Stapleton was going to kick his friend on the ground.

Crosbie said his group went into an archway leading to a car park. He and his girlfriend drove to Sainsbury’s at London Colney to buy vodka and cigarettes before returning to Benedictine Place.

Thirty minutes later Tristan Kavanagh rang and said the group from the first incident had come back and were “attacking everyone” downstairs.

Crosbie told the jury he grabbed a knife from the kitchen in panic.

Crosbie said he saw Steven Gleeson hit Emille Stapleton with a lump of wood over the head, who hit Mr Gleeson back.

Carla Sutherland slapped Mr Stapleton for hitting her boyfriend and Mr Stapleton allegedly “backhanded” her to the ground.

The defendant claimed Patrick McGrath walk towards Mr Stapleton. Crosbie said he heard glass smashing and Mr McGrath “roar in pain” holding his face and saying he couldn’t see.

Crosbie said: “I remember being grabbed, almost like a bad rugby tackle. Emille came from my left side. I turned to my left and we are facing each other. He swept me off my feet. He lifted me clean off my feet.

“He continued to squeeze me. I tried to wriggle away. I pushed my hand in his face. Whatever I did he squeezed me harder and harder.

"The more I struggled, the more I panicked and couldn’t catch my breath.

“I stabbed him so he would let go of me.

“I was not thinking about hurting him. I just wanted him to let go of me.”

Crosbie said he didn’t intend to kill Mr Stapleton or seriously hurt him.

Crosbie said he hid the knife outside the bedroom window in panic.

He said that when he was arrested that night he didn’t want to believe he was the one who had caused someone’s death.

He rang police on 27 October to say he would hand himself in but he wanted to see his son first.

Crosbie’s blood sample, taken 31 hours after he was arrested, showed cocaine and cannabis.

For previous days in court, click here. 

The trial continues.