Murder accused denies infatuation
A man accused of raping and murdering a pregnant teenager at her flat in Newport has told a jury he was not infatuated by her.
Carl Whant, 27, of Bettws, Newport, is accused of stabbing Nikitta Grender, 19, to death in an attack that also killed her unborn child last February.
On the first day of his defence at Newport Crown Court, he told the jury he was invited to have sex with her.
He denies murder, rape, arson and child destruction. The trial continues.
Ms Grender's body was found in a burned out flat in Newport on the city's Broadmead Park estate.
Mr Whant's DNA was discovered on her during a post mortem examination.
She had been due to give birth to a girl two weeks after her death.
Taking to the stand just before lunchtime on Wednesday, Mr Whant told the jury that he had been invited to have sex with her on the day she was stabbed to death.
He said Ms Grender's boyfriend Ryan Mayes, who was his best friend and second cousin, called him into the bedroom from the kitchen in the couple's flat, where he was having a cigarette.
He told the court that Mr Mayes, who he also worked with as a double glazing salesman, left the room and that "Nikitta seemed willing - it was unexpected, it just happened".
He added: "Afterwards I was like: 'How the hell did that happen'?"
Mr Whant told the court it was not the first time he had sex with one of 17-year-old Mr Mayes' girlfriends.
"We did everything together - we played football, we watched films and sporting events and we'd go out in the evenings and do drugs together," he said.
"I was always around him when he was growing up. As he got older we got closer.
"I went to the flat that he and Nikitta shared almost every day for social visits."
The jury has heard Mr Whant was out with Mr Mayes in Newport on the night of Ms Grender's murder on 4 February last year.
He is accused of leaving a house party and going to the flat where Ms Grender and Mr Mayes had just decorated a nursery ready for the arrival of their baby, who they had already named Kelsey-May.
Asked if he left the party to rape and kill Ms Grender and then set her flat on fire, Mr Whant replied: "No I never - not at all."
'Hyperactive little dog'The defendant, who has a bad stammer, denied being infatuated with Ms Grender, saying: "I've known her ever since Ryan met her about four years ago.
"I thought she was all right - as far as I was concerned she was fine with me.
"It was only through other people that I found she wasn't too keen on me."
He also described her as a "hyperative little dog who barked at him and everyone else whenever he visited her flat".
Ms Grender was stabbed in the neck and stomach causing the death of her unborn baby.
The court heard the bed she was found lying on was deliberately set on fire.
Prosecutor Greg Taylor said: "This was an attempt to cover up these crimes making it appear Nikitta Grender had died in a tragic house fire.
"The man who did that was Carl Whant.
"It was common knowledge that Nikitta disliked Whant - he was a self-confessed cocaine user and she thought he was a bad influence on Ryan."
Mr Whant is due to continue giving evidence on Wednesday.
The trial continues.
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