A FRIEND of stabbed teenager Ben Hitchcock says the 16-year-old died after armed gang members came “out of nowhere”.

Ben, of Blean Grove, Penge, was stabbed during a fight which broke out after he and friends from the Penge Boys gang tried to go to a party attended by Lewisham gang members.

Daniel Elliott, 18, told the Old Bailey today (June 2) how he, Ben and friends tried to go to the party in Copers Cope Road, Beckenham, on June 23 2007.

Mr Elliott said the host of the party told him there were three boys in there from a rival gang and not to start any trouble.

But Mr Elliott and his friends were denied access to the flat where the party was being held and went outside.

The witness said one of his friends had “a confrontation” with a Lewisham boy who was “chatting rubbish” and that the group was soon moved on by police.

But he said after one of his friends was told the Lewisham boys had left the party, the Penge group decided to “go back to get the youths”.

The witness said his group got on a 54 bus and were followed by some other friends in a Fiat Punto car until they saw the Lewisham boys.

Mr Elliott said: “We saw the boys walking up, then we started creeping off the bus.”

He said the Penge group started chasing the boys from the party who joined up with friends coming down the Southend Road towards them.

Mr Elliott said: “It was mad. They just turned around.

“There were more of them coming, like they were coming out of nowhere.”

He said the rival group had now grown from as little as 15 to between 45 and 60, with the new arrivals throwing bricks, bottles, sticks and dumbbells.

The witness said: “I didn't see no knife but obviously my brethren got stabbed, innit.”

Mr Elliott said one member of the group shouted to Charlie Murray, a friend of Ben's: “Charlie, you're dead.”

He said: “He was just running his mouth, pushing them forward, telling them to fight us.”

The witness said he then decided to “move out” from the scene.

Later, he said his friend received a call from a Lewisham boy saying: “Your white boy's dead in a bush.”

Around a month later, the witness said he had another confrontation, in Sydenham, with Royston Thomas, one of the men accused of killing Ben, and others.

He claims Thomas was “shaking a chain” at Mr Eliott and his friends from the back of a car.

And he said someone shouted out: “Your brethren's dead already, you don't want to die as well.”

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.