A man who admitted fatally stabbing a teenager after an argument in Sydenham High Street has been found not guilty of murder.

Marley Lucas was today (December 8) acquitted of murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter, after a 12-day trial at the Old Bailey.

Mr Lucas, of Champion Road, Sydenham, admitted stabbing 18-year-old Nathan Murray, also from Sydenham, on June 1 of this year.

But he denied murder, claiming he acted in self-defence.

Despite intensive care treatment Mr Murray died in King's College Hospital from a single 17cm stab wound to the chest.

The 21-year-old said he was driving through Sydenham High Street when Mr Murray spotted his car and told him "get out of the car, let me chat to you".

When Mr Lucas came round to the back of the car and saw Mr Murray was holding a knife he grabbed it "straight away", at which point the victim stepped towards him, the court heard.

TOP STORIES

Mr Lucas said he pushed Mr Murray backwards, still with the knife in his right hand.

Giving evidence Mr Lucas added: "I realised I had the knife in my hand that’s how I realised it must have gone inside of him.

"So I just realised that he’s been stabbed."

Michael Holland QC, for the defence, refuted the prosecution's claim that Mr Murray's killing was a planned attack.

He told the jury: "We suggest to you that the key to this series of events may be for you decide that nobody was planning anything that day and this is an event that blew up on the streets as it happened between young men who survive, until this event, on the streets of Sydenham."