A recovery truck driver accused of murdering his teenage girlfriend by crushing her against a lamppost told jurors he lied about the hit-and-run because he 'panicked'.Mohammed Azim is accused of using his flatbed truck as a 'weapon' to pin 19-year-old Lily Whitehouse to a lamppost during an argument in Oldbury on his 41st birthday on November 5 last year.The teenager, who was a mother to a newborn baby fathered by another man, suffered catastrophic chest injuries. Azim is on trial for murder at Wolverhampton Crown Court, which he denies.He told a jury that he accidentally hit his girlfriend after dropping her off near her home.However, he initially told police another vehicle had hit her and fled the scene.Rachel Brand KC, prosecuting, told Azim he had lied repeatedly about how Ms Whitehouse came by her death.Azim told police and paramedics that he had seen Ms Whitehouse get hit by a car that had driven off and left the scene, a story which they found 'strange'.However, he told his trial he had accidentally run her over as he tried to leave her and go home. Lily Whitehouse had just been to visit her baby in a neonatal intensive care unit when she was allegedly crushed against a lamppost in Oldbury, West Midlands Mohammed Azim was arrested after claiming he had seen somebody else hit Ms Whitehouse as she crossed the road'You were angry with her that night and you chased her down the road in your truck, didn't you?' Ms Brand asked the defendant.He replied: 'No that's 100 per cent not true, there was no need for me to chase her… when I was about to leave, she wanted to come back with me, that's the truth.'Ms Brand said the defendant told the 999 call handler he had seen her hit by a car because he was trying to protect himself.'When you told that lie, you were thinking of yourself, weren't you, because you didn't want to get the blame,' Ms Brand said during cross-examination.The defendant replied: 'I didn't believe myself that this had happened. I was lost, my head was all over the place.'Ms Brand added: 'You kept up these lies when paramedics and police arrived, you told them it happened down there, you pointed at an SUV type vehicle and said it was like that one.'You said "I wish I could have chased him", didn't you? You also said "That motherf*****, if I could catch him I would kill him", didn't you?'Accepting he had said that, Azim said: 'I wasn't in control myself, I was totally lost.'The prosecutor said Azim had also lied repeatedly to doctors who had visited him while he was in custody, claiming he did not have a romantic relationship with the victim.He also told doctors that he could not speak to one professional because there was no Mirpuri interpreter, and that he could not have dropped Ms Whitehouse off at her home in Amber Drive, Oldbury, on the night of the fatal incident because there were 'drugs people after her'.Azim said he could not remember saying these things because he has been on medication.Ms Brand said: 'Your main thought has been to pretend it wasn't your fault, isn't it?'The defendant replied: 'No… it didn't feel real to me, my head was all over the place, I panicked.'Asked why he told police after his arrest that he could not remember what had happened to Ms Whitehouse, Azim said: 'I wasn't in control, I was lost, I panicked.'It was shocking, it was a shock.'Ms Brand asked: 'Didn't you want to tell the police it had been a terrible accident?'The defendant replied: 'It took me a long time to recover from this trauma, I was lost.'Wiping his eyes with a tissue as he was asked by his defence barrister Imran Shafi KC how his mental state was, Azim said he is no longer under observation due to concerns he may take his own life, but was still on medication.He said: 'If I could give my life to bring her back, I would.' Miss Whitehouse is seen being pushed by Mohammed Azim's truck seconds before Lily was struckCCTV from a nearby school then captured the sound of Azim's recovery truck idling just out of view of the camera for around 16 minutes before the truck comes into view and Miss Whitehouse is seen walking quickly along the road on the driver's side.Miss Whitehouse, who was just 5ft 3ins and weighed less than seven and a half stone, suffered severe injuries. Jurors were previously told she had got out of the truck and was running along the road as Azim pursued her in the vehicle before hitting her, on what was Azim's 41st birthday. After Miss Whitehouse was injured, Azim, who had been in an on-off relationship with her since 2023, is alleged to have picked her up and put her in his truck while dialling 999. The defendant told the emergency services he had seen Miss Whitehouse being hit by a vehicle that did not stop at the scene. In the frantic 999 call, Azim is heard saying: 'I need an ambulance please, please… it's crazy… she is bleeding, she got hit by a car and they drive off… they drive off.'Asked by the call handler what had happened, Azim replied: 'I don't know she got run over… she was crossing the road… She's in my truck, she's in my truck… Oh my god… it's messed up man.' He stopped the truck in nearby Park Street and put her on the pavement before the emergency services arrived. Police body-worn video footage captured Azim, with blood on his face, describing what type of car had hit Miss Whitehouse, comparing it to another vehicle in the road. He told officers: 'Man he was fast, that's why man, or he didn't see her, I don't know. Oh my god.' After paramedics and police found Azim's story about a hit-and-run 'strange', he was arrested on suspicion of murder, the court was told. Azim held his hands to his face as he said 'I have never seen something like this man' in the back of a police car before he was handcuffed. The trial continues.