THE case against a 19-year-old accused of murdering Jourdan Griffiths is so weak it did not require him to go into the witness box, a defence lawyer told jurors.

Andrew Hall said jurors may be 'critical and disappointed' that his client, Lotto Williams, decided not to take the stand, but said “it is not an admission of anything”.

Williams denies killing Mr Griffiths, who died from a single stab wound to the chest in June last year. Christopher Joseph, 22, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons, also deny murder.

Mr Hall told jurors to understand why Williams lied to police about not knowing the other two defendants, saying he would have been scared of the person who used the knife 'unexpectedly' at the squat on White Hart Street.

He said Williams did not know anyone at the squat and suggested a plan to steal cannabis, possibly with the threat of violence, had “gone wrong”.

He suggested the stabbing was a spontaneous decision by a 'madman' among the three and was “sudden..tragic..and utterly pointless”.

He said there is no evidence so suggest Williams knew about the knife or joined in with the attack. Williams is a man of good character and has never been convicted of an offence, he added..

He warned the jury not to make assumptions with the evidence, saying: “In a few days time the biggest decision in that boy's life, Lotto Williams, will be made. He will have to live with the consequences of that decision and so will you.”

David Spens, defending Christopher Joseph, finished his closing speech yesterday morning and criticised the evidence given by a 'key' prosecution witness, Daniel Hare.

He said: “I don't accept Mr Hare's evidence for one moment...Do you really want to base a conviction for murder on anything that man says?

Mr Hare was wrong about there being four attackers, while scientific evidence was inconsistent with his account of people stamping on Mr Griffiths in the hallway to the squat, said Mr Spens.

He said Mr Hare may have been hallucinating after taking ketamine that night, which Mr Hare has denied.

Mr Spens pointed to discrepancies in Mr Hare's evidence and also called him “biased”. He said: “Something was driving him to improve the case against the defendants...he seems to want to achieve a result for Jourdan Griffiths.”

He accepted jurors would find it 'unhelpful and unattractive' that Joseph did not give evidence to the court.

He told jurors: “You may have come to the conclusion that he's not the brightest of people. His vocabulary is pretty crude and he is not really capable of expressing himself in an intelligent way.

“You may think that a contest between him and Mr Donnellan [crown prosecutor] would have ended up with only one winner.”

Tim Raggatt, defending the 17-year-old, began his closing speech yesterday by saying the prosecution's case is based on "bogus speculation". He will continue his argument today.

The trial continues.