A youth accused of the fatal stabbing of Harry Pitman on New Year’s Eve has told a court he carried a knife after attacks on friends and family made him “paranoid”.

Harry Pitman, 16, who was from Tottenham, was fatally stabbed in the neck shortly before midnight on December 31 after a scuffle as he waited to watch fireworks from Primrose Hill.

A youth, who was 16 at the time, is accused of Harry’s murder and possessing an offensive weapon.

Giving evidence at his Old Bailey trial yesterday (September 16), the defendant, who cannot be identified because of his age, said the knife was kept for self-defence after a series of local knife attacks.

The defendant told the court his older brother was stabbed when he was aged “five or six”, and he had taken anxiety counselling sessions during his childhood.

The youth said another boy was stabbed in the chest outside his home in the summer last year, while he also knew one mutual friend who was stabbed to death outside a college.

Asked by defence barrister David Bentley KC how the incidents made him feel, the youth told the court: “I was very paranoid when I did go out.”

The defendant also claimed he was suffering from hallucinations and “hearing things” alongside his anxiety.

The court heard the youth obtained the knife three weeks before the incident from a friend because he was “scared”.

The defendant told jurors he had gone to Primrose Hill by cab to watch the fireworks and get food afterwards for a friend’s birthday, and had been carrying the knife in his waistband.

The youth ran over to Harry and his group and showed his knife handle to them after he was told a friend was getting into a fight, the court heard.

He said Harry approached him and called him a “f****** c***”, before hitting him on the right side of his face.

Under questioning from Mr Bentley in court, the defendant denied that he had intended to stab Harry or kill him.

“Why was it necessary to strike out at him even with the knife in the sheath?” the lawyer asked.

The defendant said: “I think I just wanted him to get away from me.”

Asked about the immediate aftermath of the incident, he said: “I thought maybe I hit him (Harry) with the sheath, and it flew off.”

The defendant denied he removed the sheath deliberately.

The defendant admitted to the court that he had lied about a series of details in two police interviews, including that he did not have a knife on him at all on New Year’s Eve.

Asked by Mr Bentley why he lied in the interviews, the defendant said: “I was panicked, and I did not want to go to prison. I was scared.”

Jocelyn Ledward KC, in cross-examination, said the defendant would struggle to remember his brother’s stabbing given his age at the time.

A report by a children’s mental health specialist on the youth several months after the incident outside his home said he “did not think about the stabbing anymore” and had “no flashbacks”, Ms Ledward said.

The defendant replied: “It was not necessarily the stabbing I was thinking of. It was about what might happen to me.”

The youth, now aged 17, has no previous convictions and denies the charges against him. The Old Bailey trial continues.

Reporting by PA.