A 24-YEAR-OLD man accused of aiding Connor Tremble's killer "did not invite trouble, it found him" a jury has been told.

Grant Clemens, of Stockwells, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, denies perverting the course of justice following the teenager's fatal stabbing.

It is alleged that on February 13 he and his co-defendant Bradley Jones helped Will Blencowe by providing him with clothes and organising him a lift out of Oxfordshire.

Blencowe, of Oxford Road, Banbury, admits stabbing Connor 15 times at his flat in Fairacres Road, Oxford,  but denies murder and says he was acting in self defence, as well as suffering from a mental condition.

But the prosecution alleges the 21-year-old deliberately killed his teenage "love rival" because he was jealous of his relationship with his former girlfriend Aimee Harrison.

Today Lauren Soertsz, defending Clemens, said her client was not even a real friend of Blencowe, but was really just an old acquaintance.

She said: "It seems unlikely that Grant Clemens would involve himself in offending on Will Blencowe's behalf.

"He says to you 'I did not know what was unfolding in the background, these men pitched up on my doorstep.'

"Grant Clemens did not invite trouble, it found him."

She told the jury Clemens admits providing trainers after Blencowe asked for them, and top because he was shivering, but these were really acts of kindness.

Miss Soertsz said: "He was not helping someone who he thought was an offender, but someone who appeared in need. Someone he thought was desperate."

Jones, 21, of New Road, Bledington, also denies perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.


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