Teenager Jay Kensett was fatally stabbed through the heart with a kitchen knife in a fight with two brothers, a court heard today.

Darren Mateer, 31, stabbed 16-year-old Jay in the back after his brother, Jonathan Mateer, 27, set on the teenager in Whitehawk Way in March last year, Lewes Crown Court heard today.

Jonathan and Jay were fighting when Darren stepped forward, pulled a knife from his back pocket and plunged it into Jay's back, Camden Pratt, QC, prosecuting told the jury on the opening day of the trial.

The scuffle broke out after Jay and a group of teenage friends shouted obscenities at Mateer's sister Leanne as they got off a bus, Mr Pratt said.

Jay, of Pulborough Close, Whitehawk, and his friends caught a bus from Churchill Square towards Whitehawk at about 11pm on March 26, last year. In Elm Grove, Jonathan Mateer and his sister Leanne got on the bus and the whole group got off near The

Winner pub.

As they began to walk towards a tunnel in Warren Road, one of the teenagers shouted something like "Get your legs out, or show us your tits" to Leanne, the court heard.

The jury heard there was an exchange between the group and a confrontation between Marina High School pupil Jay and Jonathan, who were pushing and shoving each other.

They parted and Jonathan and Leanne went down Wiston Road while Jay and his friends stopped at a wall in Whitehawk Way to talk to some friends. But Jonathan returned to the group with his brother, Darren. Darren kept his right hand behind him, the court heard.

Mr Pratt told the court Jonathan demanded to know who had confronted him and Jay said it was him.

He said: "Jonathan Mateer kicked the young 16-year-old in the groin and stomach and a fight took

place. This was a fist fight. At first Jay appeared to be winning, even though Jonathan was 27.

"However Jay went to the ground and Jonathan was

sitting on top of him and hitting him.

"It then appeared one of the other young men, Gary Tipping, struck the defendant's brother on the back of the neck with a beer bottle.

"At that stage Darren Mateer stepped forward and plunged the knife into the back of Jay. He had produced the knife from where he had been concealing it in his back pocket."

The court heard Darren Mateer then told his brother he had stabbed Jay, grabbed his brother and fled.

Jay lost consciousness almost immediately and by the time an ambulance arrived his was not breathing. He was taken to the Royal Sussex Hospital but was found to be dead.

The jury heard the next day police went to the house in Wiston Road where Jonathan and Darren had come from the night before. Their cousin Deborah Simpson told police the knife had come from her kitchen.

Darren Mateer, of no fixed address, denies murder.

Jonathan Mateer was sentenced to 12 months in prison for affray after a court hearing last year.

The case continues

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