A FRIEND has described how stabbed teenager Ben Hitchcock tried to escape from a gang fight before he died.

Ben, of Blean Grove, Penge, was stabbed during a “pitched battle” in Southend Road, Beckenham, on June 23, 2007.

The 16-year-old and other members of the Penge Block gang clashed with youths from Lewisham after trying to gatecrash a party in Copers Cope Road.

Duncan Segawa, a friend of Ben's, told the Old Bailey today (June 2) how the Lewisham youths started throwing “anything they could get their hands on” at the Penge group.

He said: “We were just trying to dodge things and throw them back.”

Mr Segawa said the Lewisham group was made up of around 50 people, some carrying bottles, sticks and bricks, while another carried a bat and one was armed with nunchucks.

The witness said the fight lasted for around 10 minutes and at one point he saw Ben lying on the floor with “three or four people on him”.

Mr Segawa ran over to the group, and Ben got up again, grabbing one of his attackers.

The witness said he then hit the boy Ben was holding.

He told the court that Ben then started walking away from the fighting.

But Mr Segawa said: “He touched his back and there was blood on his hand.

“He said something like 'I've probably got sliced'.”

The witness said one youth appeared to be leading the Lewisham group and shouting orders.

When Mr Segawa next saw Ben he was trying to climb over the fence running alongside the pavement to get away from the fighting.

But he said Ben was too weak to climb over and was “hanging from the fence” so he rushed over to help him.

Mr Segawa said the Lewisham boys could see Ben was injured and some were still trying to fight, with someone shouting: “Surround them.”

Ben's friends managed to get him on to the pavement and the fighting eventually stopped.

Mr Segawa said a woman then came out of her house with a towel to help his injured friend before an ambulance arrived.

Ben died at Lewisham Hospital in the early hours of the following morning from a stab wound to the back which punctured his kidney.

Royston Thomas, aged 19, of Hazel Grove, Sydenham, and Mitchell Elliott, aged 19, of Howerd Way, Woolwich, deny murder.

Andre Lawrence-Bennett, aged 18, of Brownhill Road, Catford, and Olatunji Olulu, aged 18, of Firhill Road, Catford, also deny the charge.

The trial continues.