A witness told a jury yesterday of how he wrestled a knife from Justis Smith - the man accused of stabbing a woman in Dockyard.

Jamie Raynor, 18, from Warwick, said he saw a crowd of people by the Dockyard gates as he left Showtime nightclub with friends early hours of February 2.

The group got out of the car but later saw someone trying to escape in it and so challenged him.

Mr. Raynor told the Supreme Court jury: "He was playing with something in his hand.

"I grabbed his hand with my two hands. I couldn't tell what it was. I reached in the car and pulled his hand out through the window."

The pair wrestled said Mr. Raynor, and then he saw a red Swiss army knife, about three to four inches long.

"It eventually dropped into my hand and I threw it. I don't know where it landed."

Raynor admitted being more than tipsy but denied being drunk after drinking at Showtime.

He later went back to the scene with Police but could not locate the knife.

Smith, 25, of Sunset Mews, has denied unlawfully wounding Shanae Outerbridge, 21, with intent to do her grievous bodily harm, during a fight in Pender Road last year.

Smith has also denied allegations of punching Ms Outerbridge's cousin Hanifah Taalibdin and possessing a penknife in a public place.

Mr. Raynor admitted that he had been in Police custody shortly after the incident but denied defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher's suggestion that his story about grabbing the knife had been suggested by Police as he played the reluctant hero.

She said: "You never received any weapon from Justis Smith or anyone." Mr. Raynor said: "No, it wasn't like he gave it up, I took it."

Earlier Trevor Mills, a 20-year-old apprentice electrician, said he had been in the car with Mr. Raynor but said he remembered little of the incident, despite getting out to watch.

He denied Ms Christopher's suggestion that he had been involved in fighting or that his group had an enmity towards people from town.

Nicole Taylor, a 21-year-old shop assistant from Southampton, was in the taxi with Ms Outerbridge that night.

She took the stand to say she had seen the victim bleeding and holding her stomach and refuted suggestions she and her friends had cooked up a tale of Smith hitting Ms Taalibdin.

The case in front of Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons continues today.