A NELSON-born teenager has spoken of his relief after walking free from court having been accused of kicking a 13-year-old school-boy to death.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was one of seven teenagers charged with the murder of Lithuanian pupil Deividas Strizegauskas, who died from brain injuries following a fight in East London last April. The Old Bailey heard this week how a fight had broken out between two gangs from rival schools. Strizegauskas died the day after his head was kicked "like a football".

On Wednesday Judge Martin Stephens QC halted the trail - for reasons that cannot be reported because five of the youths will face a retrial - and let the 16-year-old go, along with a 15-year-old boy from Kent, because the prosecution offered no evidence against them.

The teenager had to spend 10 months living with his uncles in Nelson before the trial began two weeks ago.

He told the Telegraph of his huge relief, but also anger that he had "suffered for 10 months for something I didn't do."

He said: "When the judge said I was a free person I was relieved, because I wasn't allowed to enter East London at all while the case was put together.

"I was away from my immediate family and friends, and I didn't know what was going to happen.

"I was never really involved in the fight, I was just walking home from school when the fight broke out on the route I used to take. I knew I hadn't done anything, but I didn't think it would be sorted out as quickly as it was."

He has now returned to his parent's home in Plaistow, where he lives with his older brother and younger sister.

"It's good to be back home, but it's all a bit strange at the moment, because I've been away from my life for almost a year, it's been on hold," said the teenager, who turns 17 in June.

"I was arrested two weeks before I was going to take my GCSE exams, which I was pretty sure I as going to get good grades for, but I couldn't take them. I had to leave the school straight away.

"Now I need to think about what I'm going to do. If this hadn't happened I'd be thinking about which university to go to by now."

But he added that the experience had given him a new perspective on life.

"I realise what life is about now, what I could have lost, so I'll appreciate whatever I do in the future more."

The retrial for the five youths, three aged 16, and two aged 15, who all deny murder, manslaughter and violent disorder, will begin at the Old Bailey on Monday.