Friend agreed to take knife

A 999 call to the house came from Foster Christian, the jury in Maidstone heard.

Christian put the knife on a table and went to another tenant’s room before making the call.

He said he went downstairs and saw Ms Sadler lying on the floor.

Christian admitted it was not true when he told the operator he grabbed a knife from his attackers. Asked why he said it, he replied: “I panicked. That was false.

“I didn’t take the knife off anybody in the incident. Nobody grabbed a knife they had taken from me – false.”

He received a phone call from a friend, Naomi Toro, who asked if he wanted her to go to the house. She arrived before the police.

“She came upstairs to my room,” he continued. “She came in screaming. She turned around and said: ‘It don’t look too good down there.’

“I panicked and asked her if she could take the knife. She agreed to take the knife with her. She removed it from the premises.” Police later recovered it from the River Stour in Canterbury.

After his arrest, Christian gave a prepared statement saying he acted in selfdefence. He did not answer any questions on legal advice.

“I was in shock,” he said. “I was just in a daze.”

He denied in court he intended to kill Mr Gorecki or Ms Sadler-ellis or cause serious bodily injury to them or Mr Harris and the teenager.

“I just picked up the knife to get them out of my room and to defend myself if necessary,” he said. “I never had no intention of harming anybody.”

Asked if he could explain how the injuries were caused to four people, he said: “I was just defending myself. I was getting blows to my head and I was just punching out.

“I wanted to get them off and stop them beating me. I was punching out in different directions. It just happened so fast. I don’t know.”

Questioned by prosecutor Philip Bennetts QC, he claimed he was not aware at first that he had a knife in his hand. “I had forgotten about the knife,” he said. “I got struck on my head which made me dizzy and made me see stars. I was out on my feet.”

Naomi Toro