Kasey Gordon had a "brilliant future" in front of him when he was murdered yards from his school

A man accused of stabbing a 15-year-old schoolboy to death and injuring three other pupils told a court he feared they were going to kill him.

Serif Aslan, 34, claimed he was trying to protect himself from “five or six” teenagers on busy West Green Road, South Tottenham, as they attacked him for staring at one of their girlfriends.

Kasey Gordon was fatally stabbed in the heart in front of horrified onlookers during the incident, not far from his school gates on January 20 last year, the Old Bailey heard.

A 16-year-old boy was also stabbed in the chest, a 14-year-old was knifed in the hip and a fourth youth was left with cuts to his face and hand.

Aslan, who has a history of paranoid schizophrenia, admits taking out a knife but said he did not realise he had stabbed anyone when he left the scene.

“I didn’t see anyone who was dying, anyone who was injured. I didn’t see any blood,” he said.

“I didn’t mean to harm anyone. I’m not the kind of person who harms anyone. I don’t like making trouble for myself.”

He said the boys picked a fight with him in “a planned trap against me,” and had bought the £1.49 knife a week earlier as he feared that “people were going to kill me”.

He denied staring at the schoolgirl as he made his way to a cafe from the Ashness Care Home in Philip Lane where he was staying.

Prosecutor Richard Horwell QC also told jurors that paramedics carried out open chest surgery in an attempt to save his life as he lay in the street outside Perfect Chicken.

He said: “He had a stab wound to his left upper chest. He was very pale and deeply into clinical shock.”

He added: “An emergency team arrived in a fast response car. By then Kasey Gordon was in cardiac arrest. He had suffered massive blood loss and a thoracotomy was performed, opening the chest to treat injuries to the heart and remove blood accumulated around the heart.

“There were at least two holes to the heart and a laceration to the left lung. Despite these attempts, Kasey Gordon’s heart did not start beating again.”

Aslan, of Philip Lane, South Tottenham, denies murder, two charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and one of assault causing actual bodily harm. The trial continues.