A teenager who inflicted multiple stab wounds on a man he branded a ‘bully’ has adamantly insisted he was not trying to kill him.

Taylor Bentham, 19, who stands accused of attempted murder, told jurors he armed himself with two kitchen knives for protection from a man who had beaten him up earlier in the day.

Standing trial at Newcastle Crown Court he said he had been riding his motorbike when he met the man and two women he knew from his estate.

Read more: Durham teenager with out of control dog faces attempted murder trial

The court was told he started arguing with the man’s girlfriend when she accused him of trying to split them up and said his own partner would be attacked.

Bentham said the man, who was out celebrating his 29th birthday, then punched him in the mouth, causing him to come off his motorbike, and they started fighting.

Bentham said his boots became full of water when he entered a nearby stream leaving him unable to fight and his attacker got the better of him.

He said he was repeatedly struck about the head before the beating stopped.

The court was told Bentham, of Cuthbert Avenue, Sherburn Road, Durham, went to his grandma’s house and realised he had lost a ring his late grandad had given him.

He said he went out to look for it and took the knives with him because he feared he would be ‘brayed’ again.

Bentham, who was 18 at the time, said the man and his girlfriend were both ‘bullies’.

The jury has been told there was a second confrontation with the same man on Bent House Lane, off Sherburn Road, Durham, shortly afterwards, at around 3pm on April 7, Good Friday.

The court was told Bentham set his Mastiff dog on the man before stabbing him with two knives, twice in the abdomen, once in the thigh and twice in the buttocks.

Bentham has admitted wounding with intent and being in charge of a dangerous dog but, giving evidence in court, he said the dog must have followed him and did not realise it was there.

He said: “I did not plan to stab him or to hurt him.

“I thought I would take the knives to scare him so if he came to punch me I could show him them so he would run away.

“I did not want to do anything stupid.”

Bentham said he bumped into the man on his way to find the ring and they began arguing about whether he had it.

Bentham said: “He said: “Do you want it again like?” and I just blacked out.

“I did not know I had stabbed him. We were fighting and we fell on the floor.

“The only one I can remember doing was the one in the belly. I got him once. I fell on him and got him in the belly. I came back to my normal senses.”

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Bentham said he had been smoking cannabis before he went out and taken around 30 Pregabalin tablets which are usually used to treat epilepsy and anxiety.

He said: “They took over my body. I was in a rage. But as soon as I saw the knife go into his belly I woke up and thought to myself: “What am I doing?

“I scared myself, I stopped and I left.”  

Crown Prosecution Service barrister Paul Rooney, cross examining, said Bentham’s account was ‘totally untrue’.

He suggested Bentham had armed himself with the knives and gone out to seek revenge because he was embarrassed at being beaten earlier.

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Bentham, who became exasperated during the questioning, said: “It is not total rubbish. It’s the truth, on my brother’s grave.

“You are just trying to prove me guilty of attempted murder so you are trying to make me look like a bad person.

“I have told the truth and owned up to and said: ‘yes, I’ll accept what I have done’ but I had no intention of killing him.

“If I wanted to kill him why did I leave? I would have kept going. I wouldn’t have stopped.”

Bentham denies a charge of attempted murder and the trial continues.