Ben killers told rival gang: We stabbed your white boy

The killers considered the murder a "success" and boasted about what they had done, the jury was told.

Although the killing of Ben Hitchcock was not racially motivated he had stood out because he was the only white boy in the battle and he wore white clothing, the court heard.

He was a victim of the gang violence that broke out between rivals in the "blue borough" of Lewisham and the "green borough" of Penge.

The blues were named after the colour of the bins and lamposts in Lewisham.

Their rivals are known from the sign on the borders of Penge, "welcome to the Green Borough."

The battle started after Ben and some of the Penge gang arrived at a 13-year-old girl's birthday party near Beckenham High Street in June 2007.

Taunting started and a large and armed group of the "blues" quickly assembled and a fight broke out involving "bats, bottles, knives as well as fists and feet," said Edward Brown QC, prosecuting.

"Ben Hitchcock's murder was the direct result of a pitched battle between rival gangs which was, for all intents and purposes planned among most of those who took part," he told the jury.

"He was the victinm of a knife and by the end he laying on the pavement. During the fighting he suffered a fatal wound to the back.

"Although there seems to have no significance in it at all, he stood out to a degree. According to many he was the only white boy among the groups and he was also wearing white clothing."

Mr Brown continued: "Soon after the violence subsided, as the terrible results became clear and Ben lay dead or dying, it was as if it was something that was a success' in some people's eyes.

"There were boasts about having been responsible for his death."

Four teenagers said to be in the Lewisham Blue borough gang have pleaded not guilty to murder. They are Andre Lawrence-Bennett, then aged 16 and now 18, Mitchell Elliott, 19, Tunji Ololu, 18, and 19-year-old Royston Thomas.

The court heard that the young teenage girl who threw the party said that Ben was among a group of boys she did not recognise who arrived outside her front door.

She said he, wearing the white clothing, stood out as being "noticeably rude" and his group made veiled threats.

The police were called and Thomas, who with Ololu was already at the party, handed to a girl a sock containing a knife and gas canister.

When the police left the area Thomas retrieved the weapons from her before the fighting broke out, the court heard.

Elliot and Bennett, known by the street name "Younger Kaiser", were in Sydenham but were alerted by mobile phone.

"Bennett quickly became, described by one who saw him, hyper. He was plainly agitated. He said the Penge lot had come down' and how they had tried to gatecrash the party," said Mr Brown.

Bennett, Elliott took the bus to Beckenham and gathered with 20 or more who were "armed and anticipating violence."

This group joined their fellow gang members, including Ololu and Thomas, already in the area and far outnumbered the Penge "green" gang, the court heard.

The case continues.