A 16-year-old boy accused of murdering Ipswich teenager Tavis Spencer-Aitkens is in the witness box at Ipswich Crown Court.

The teenager, who is one of six defendants who have denied murdering 17-year-old Tavis, was cross-examined by barristers representing his five co-defendants.

In the dock with the 16-year-old, who cannot be identified because of his age, are Adebayo Amusa, 20, of Sovereign Road, Barking, Aristote Yenge, 23, Callum Plaats, 23, Isaac Calver, 19, all from Ipswich, and Leon Glasgow, 42, of no fixed address.

They all deny murdering Tavis in Ipswich on June 2.

Questioned by Graham Parkins QC for Yenge, the 16-year old told the court he was with Yenge, Calver and Amusa in Alderman Park, Ipswich, several hours before the attack on Tavis.

He said he, Yenge, Amusa and someone called “M” had been given a lift in a delivery van driven by Glasgow, who he hadn’t met before, to Iris Close but Calver had not come with them.

The 16-year-old, who has admitted being a drug dealer, claimed he had spent more than an hour at a “drug house” in Iris Close dividing up crack cocaine into deals and had not been in the delivery van when it left Iris Close.

Cross-examined by Rudi Fortson, for Leon Glasgow, the boy said he hadn’t seen the van leave Iris Close.

It has been alleged the attack on Tavis was the result of rivalry between “J-Block” from the Jubilee Park area of Ipswich and the “Neno” gang from the Nacton area of town for what “J-Block” perceived to be a loss of respect following a row between the 16-year-old defendant and Yenge and two of Tavis’s friends earlier on the day in question.

During his evidence the 16-year-old accepted that his DNA was found in the van and claimed he had scraped his finger on metal welding while he was doing pull-ups in Alderman Park before getting into the van.

During his evidence Yenge, whose DNA was also obtained from a bloodstain in the delivery van, claimed he had cut his thumb on a tuna tin during the early afternoon of June 2.

The trial continues.