A student on trial for murder searched online 'how much time do you serve for killing someone' in panic, a court heard.
Shiloh George Pottinger, 19, is accused of stabbing Luke O'Connor, 19, to death on October, 2022 but denies the charge and is claiming self defence, reports Manchester Evening News.
Manchester Crown Court has heard that the incident happened after a pal of Mr O'Connor made a 'light-hearted' joke about university student Mr Pottinger's skateboard.
Prosecutors allege Mr Pottinger reacted 'unpredictably and violently' to the comment. The court then heard how Mr O'Connor, who was also a student, was stabbed eight times.
Giving evidence for the first time in the second week of the murder trial, Mr Pottinger said he brought out the knife because he was 'scared' and was acting in self defence. "I just flailed my arm," he said. "It was just a reaction."
Asked when he realised Mr O'Connor had been hurt, Mr Pottinger said he noticed blood and saw the victim fall over. Mr Pottinger went onto say that he left the scene shortly after.
He said: "I was just terrified at what I had seen." He said he only learned of Mr O'Connor's death hours later after receiving a message from a friend on a Snapchat group chat.
"He said someone had been killed on the road where we was last night," the defendant said.
"What was going through your head?," he was asked by his barrister Siobhan Grey KC. "I just couldn't believe it," the defendant replied.
"It was devastating to find out what had happened. I didn't know."
Jurors have heard that he made a number of online searches, including 'how long do you serve for killing someone' and 'how much time do you get for knife murder'. "I started panicking, searching online, researching basically what was going to happen to me," Mr Pottinger said.
"I had no idea what was going to happen." Ms Grey asked him: "Why did you think you had done something wrong?"
"Well because I had a knife, and I had injured someone."
Mr Pottinger said he didn't intend to cause Mr O'Connor 'really serious harm', adding that his intention at the time was to 'get away'.
The defendant previously pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article but said it was for carrying out work on his skateboard.
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