A teenager accused of stabbing a neighbour to death told a jury that she had acted in self-defence and said she regretted what happened every day of her life.

Katy Bown, 18, who lived at Stanley Terrace, Great Yarmouth, stabbed neighbour 21-year-old Shane Boulton after an argument involving him and his girlfriend Claire Matheson, a Norwich Crown Court jury was told.

Bown has denied murder.

Giving evidence, Bown claimed that she had seen Mr Boulton with a knife and said she felt scared and frightened she might be attacked again.

She said she had waved the knife around to get Mr Boulton away from her: 'I did not want to harm anyone. I did it in self defence.'

Asked if she had meant to harm him, she replied: 'No I really did not and regret it every day of my life.'

She added: 'I was really scared. It happened all so quickly and I just wanted to keep him away from me. I did not want to kill him.'

Bown said that the argument had started after she asked Mr Boulton to keep the noise down from his motorbike.

'I asked him politely and he said no problem and he went away.'

She said that she had then got into an argument with Ms Matheson as she had told her she was 'sick' of her attitude.

Bown said that Ms Matheson had been aggressive and pulled her hair and she said: 'I pushed her away from me and pulled her hair back. She started beating me.'

She said that Mr Boulton then appeared back with a knife in his trousers and started hitting her.

'I felt scared and angry because I wondered why they were hitting me.'

She said her friend Daniel Baldwin had then intervened and she said she remembers him saying to Mr Boulton that he should not have hit Bown.

Bown said that she had gone back to her house and phoned her father and had picked up a knife to keep Mr Boulton and Ms Matheson away from her.

'I was very scared. I did not want anything to happen.'

She said she then went round to her friend's to wait to get picked up by her father and claimed that she feared she might be attacked again when she saw Mr Boulton and Ms Matheson on the street.

'I waved the knife and said keep away I have got a knife. He started hitting me with a fist. I put my head down.'

She said she had not been aiming at any part of his body when she had hit out with the knife and had not meant to kill him: 'I just wanted him to keep away from me.'

She added: 'I did not mean to do it and I am truly sorry. I was just trying to protect myself.'

She said she did not realise at first how badly hurt he was.

Cross examined by John Farmer prosecuting, Bown denied she had been lying about what happened.

The trial continues.