A 17-YEAR-OLD boy jointly accused with six other youths of murdering teenager Shakilus Townsend was “not the leader of the gang”, the Old Bailey heard today.

David Whitehouse, the lawyer representing the teenage defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court: “The fact that co-defendant Andre Johnson-Haynes says my client is the gang leader is bound to put you under some psychological pressure.

“It's designed to make you think 'he must have been there if he was the gang leader. I can't let off the gang leader'.

“But that is the sort of thinking that can lead to a grave injustice. My client was not the leader of the gang.”

Mr Whitehouse also denied prosecution claims the teenager was responsible for stabbing Shakilus with a broken piece of a mirror.

Instead, he said, small wounds to the back of Shakilus's legs were caused by other gang members "duking" him with the point of a knife.

He added: “Duking injuries are caused when young people on the streets want to cause minor injury to each other.

“They hold the knife by the blade so that a little is exposed at the top and it's pushed in.

“The idea is to humiliate someone because they have showed disrespect.

“I submit that the injuries to Shakilus's thigh and legs were caused from duking.”

It is alleged that Shakilus, of Tanners Hill, Deptford, was set upon by members of the Shine My Nine (SMN) gang and that they beat him with a baseball bat, kicked him and stabbed him several times with one or more knives on July 3 last year.

Shakilus had been going out with a 15-year-old girl who was also seeing one of the accused, Danny McLean.

The prosecution say the girl, now 16, acted as a "honey trap", luring Shakilus to Beulah Crescent in Thornton Heath to be ambushed and attacked by the accused.

McLean, 18, and Tyrell Ellis, 19, both from Thornton Heath, and Andre Johnson-Haynes, aged 18, of Croydon, deny murder.

Also charged with murder are a 16-year-old girl and three 17-year-old boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

They all deny the charge.

The trial continues.