HERO Liam Attwell was stabbed to death by a teenage boy as he tried to stop a gang stealing a mobile phone from a Chippenham schoolboy, a court was told.

Good Samaritan Mr Attwell, 25, stepped in as the mob of six youths surrounded and tried to rob three schoolboy skateboarders in Bristol.

But a scuffle erupted and the brave chef was stabbed through the heart by a 17-year-old boy, it was said.

Doctors were unable to save tragic Liam, who died in hospital from the single stab wound three days later.

Richard Smith, prosecuting at Bristol Crown Court on Monday, said: "The defendant unlawfully killed Liam Attwell.

"It was a deliberate act. He must have at least intended to cause Liam Attwell serious harm. After all, what else could he have intended?''

Mr Smith said the three schoolboys were enjoying an afternoon skating in Canons Marsh, Bristol, last October.

They had travelled to Bristol to skate because the skatepark in Monkton Park, Chippenham, had been closed down by North Wiltshire District Council.

The council had been forced to close the skatepark after neighbours complained about the noise.

The boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were approached by a gang of six youths, five black and one white.

Mr Attwell, of Southville, Bristol, saw that the boys were in trouble and ran over to help.

But the white gang member, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, struggled with Attwell and stabbed him through the heart.

One of the three skaters told the court of his terrifying ordeal when his friend was threatened at knifepoint by the defendant.

The 17-year old boy, who lives in Chippenham, said: "The defendant reached into his back pocket and pulled out a knife.

"He put the knife in my friend's face and said 'don't make me put this in your face'.''

The court heard how the gang then turned their attention to Mr Attwell and started hitting him over the head with a bicycle saddle.

Yesterday the court heard that the defendant, who denies one account of murder, had told another remand centre inmate that he didn't mean to stab Mr Atwell in the heart

Stephen Bryant, a supervisor at the Ashfield centre, told the jury: "He said the knife had gone into the heart. I heard him say 'I meant to stab him in the stomach but he leant forward and I stabbed him in the heart'."

Earlier, Mr Attwell's friend Rebecca Kelly, 18, told the court how a confrontation took place between the group of youths and Mr Attwell.

The trial continues.