Liam Cromie, 20, insisted he was "acting big" by telling a friend he had stabbed Mr Cornall in a Preston park when in fact he had nothing to do with it.

"I thought it would get respect. I feel low on the estate, being bullied," he told the court.

He said he was not a member of a gang and felt "not one of them".

Cromie told the court he knew that the person he had "confessed" to would spread it around about him being the murderer.

His barrister, Andrew O'Byrne QC, asked him: "So it was all telling a lie, to gain his respect and the respect of others?"

Cromie said this had been the case.

The court has heard that the conversation in which he claimed responsibility for the killing had been secretly recorded.

In part of the recording Cromie is heard discussing an article in the Lancashire Evening Post about police finding what was thought could have been the murder weapon.

Cromie told the court in evidence that he "didn't think of the consequences" of making his false confession and never knew the conversation was being recorded.

Mr O'Byrne asked him: "Did you have anything to do with the death of David Cornall?"

He replied: "No."

The trial has heard that 30-year-old Mr Cornall suffered a single stab wound to the top of his back as he walked to his home in Hesketh Close, Ribbleton.

The knife went 13cm into his body.

He managed to stagger from Ribbleton Park to his home but despite emergency surgery died within hours.

Cromie, of Waldon Street, Callon, pleads not guilty to murder.

At the beginning of his evidence from the witness box he told the Preston Crown Court jury that the Callon estate where he lived was "very rough".

There was constant trouble between rival gangs from Callon and Farringdon Park but he said he was not a member of either.

He told the jury that on the night of Mr Cornall's death in February he was at home in Waldon Street and only went out when he crossed the road to his grandmother's home.

Cross-examined by Gordon Cole QC, for the Crown, he was asked: "Do you feel sorry for the family of David Cornall?"

He replied that he did feel sorry for the family but did not murder Mr Cornall.

Asked if he knew who the murderer was, Cromie said he could not name the person who had killed David Cornall because: "I fear for my life."

(Proceeding)

>> Vote in our latest web poll