A landscape gardener has relived the moment when he plunged a kitchen knife into a retired accountant after being propositioned in a public lavatory.

Mark Malone, 30, told the Old Bailey he was only defending himself from the advances of Jeff Akers, 50, at the known “cottaging” spot.

Mr Akers, who lived in Wallington with a male partner of 22 years, staggered from the toilets with an eight inch knife embedded in his back to the hilt. He was airlifted to hospital but died of the wound.

On Monday, Malone told jurors he was unable to recall the exact details of the stabbing in Walton on February 19 because it happened “so fast and instantly”.

But he added: “I moved a little away from him. He slowly turned himself towards me, exposed himself and made a comment, ‘Is this what you’re into?’.

“I immediately turned my back on him and then he placed his hands around my waist. A fight then broke out between us.”

Malone, of Walton-on-Thames, claimed he had borrowed the knife from a nearby burger van to protect himself against travellers.

He told the court he was unsure whether he had “done a good job”. Asked what he meant by this, he replied that he did not know whether he had “injured the gentleman properly”.

Malone also denied that the fight had broken out because he was homophobic, saying he had “no opinion” about gay men.

It has emerged during the trial that Malone had previously punched an autistic man on a bus because he was “freaked out” about how the man was looking at him.

Malone denies murder. The case continues.