A SUSPECT accused of murdering a father for his Gucci bag told a jury: “I tried to stop my 17-year-old co-defendant stabbing him.”

Lewis Aquilina said co-defendant Joseph Jeremy was “wild and out of control” and attacked Newport father Ryan O’Connor with a knife after he had slipped.

The pair are on trial for the murder, manslaughter and robbery of the 26-year-old in the Alway area of the city last summer.

Aquilina was giving his evidence-in-chief in his defence.

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He claimed Jeremy, who was aged 17 at the time of the alleged killing, chased Mr O’Connor and a boy on a bicycle while armed with a knife.

Newport Crown Court has heard how Aquilina and Jeremy were with three other men who are also on trial – Elliott Fiteni, Kyle Raisis and Ethan Strickland.

The five defendants, all from Cardiff, had travelled to Newport on the evening of Thursday, June 10, 2021, in a stolen Ford Fiesta ST.

Aquilina, being asked questions by his barrister Martin Heslop QC, told jurors how he had got out of the car near the Aberthaw Road roundabout.

He said he stopped and exited the vehicle in a “panic” because he thought a police car might be about to follow them by turning around the roundabout.

Jeremy, he told the jury, also got out of the Fiesta.

“I saw him lunge at Ryan O’Connor,” Aquilina said.

“Before he had got out of the car, he had shouted, ‘Yo! Come here!’”

Aquilina said he saw Jeremy “sprinting” after Mr O’Connor and the boy riding on a bike who has not given evidence in the trial.

He told the court: “The one boy cycled up the road, Aberthaw Avenue, and Jeremy continued to chase Ryan O’Connor.

“Jeremy was behind Ryan O’Connor, lunging at him.

“Ryan O’Connor had run on to the roundabout with Jeremy behind him and I remember seeing Ryan falling and Jeremy over him.

“Then I had run over because I wanted to stop Jeremy with what he was doing.”

Aquilina said he kicked out at his co-defendant.

He added: “I shouted at him to stop but he was so focussed on the boy.

“He was not responding.

“Jeremy was wild and out of control.

“He had a large knife in his right hand. I remember it being silver and large.

“He was going at him loads of times.”

Aquilina claimed Jeremy was laughing when he got back inside the car.

He said: “I wanted to stop the car and help the boy.”

He told the court he decided not to “because Joe could potentially attack him for a second time, if not attack me”.

Aquilina, 20, of Canton Court, Riverside; Jeremy, 18, of no fixed abode; Strickland, 19, of Clos Briallen, Caerau; Fiteni, 19, of no fixed abode, and Kyle Raisis, 18, of Bartley Wilson Way, Canton, deny murder, manslaughter and robbery.

The case continues.