THE man accused of murdering Jimmy Mizen has told the Old Bailey he "feels terrible" about the teenager's death.

Jake Fahri was giving evidence for the first time this morning.

He spoke about the row which led to Jimmy's death at the Three Cooks Bakery in Lee on May 10 last year.

When asked how he felt after hearing Jimmy was dead, he said: "I feel terrible. I didn't mean to do it. I know someone has died because of what I have done but that was the last thing I wanted to do.

"I have a mum and a dad and I know they would be devastated. I know he has a family and I feel horrible. But I didn't mean to do it."

The defendant said he felt "nervous" and "intimidated" when standing face to face with 6ft 2in Jimmy in the bakery before being punched by the 16-year-old and his brother Harry Mizen, now 19, and "rolling" out of the shop.

Fahri, aged 19, told the court he then kicked the glass door of the bakery because he had seen Jimmy walking towards him and felt "threatened".

He also claimed he used an advertising board "to get some distance" between him and Jimmy but that a "tug-of-war" over the sign then followed which "Jimmy was winning".

Fahri claimed this made him "panic", leading him to pick up a glass dish full of sausages and "fling" it at the teenager.

Fahri said: "He's got hold of the sign. I didn't want him to get hold of it and hit me with it. That's why I did what I did."

The dish broke on impact, cutting Jimmy's throat, but Fahri said "it didn't even enter my mind that it would break".

He added: "I ran out and I was in a state.

"I was worried but I didn't think I had fatally wounded him. I knew it had cut him because I saw red. When I heard the sirens it confirmed it."

When prosecutor Crispin Aylett told him witnesses had seen him "swagger" out of the shop "with a grin" on his face, Fahri replied: "No, that's ridiculous."

"I'm disgusted that someone could say that I had a grin. I had no reason to grin - I'm not like that."

Fahri, of Milborough Crescent, Lee, denies murder and says he was acting in self-defence.

The trial continues.