Schoolboy who stabbed a pupil from another school in the back is locked up

He was in school uniform and on his way home when the attacker, who is 16, struck on February 24, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The younger boy was walking with a friend who called the victim over to them after they had passed in the street and tried unsuccessfully to head butt and punch him, it was said.

Mr Bernard Linnemann, prosecuting, said: "Without warning the defendant produced a knife, swung his arm towards the complainant and struck a blow into the left, lower back.

"The complainant was briefly chased by the defendant and the other person until they turned round and ran off. Then he discovered that he was bleeding from his back."

He was taken to hospital where he was found to have an inch long wound but a precautionary scan revealed no significant damage and he was discharged the following day, the court heard.

The attacker had been cautioned in October 2012 for having a bladed article in school, which cannot be named for legal reasons, and on another occasion had been excluded from lessons for fighting, it was said.

Mr Jasvir Mann, defending, said: "It was a short lived incident involving a single stab that was not delivered with a great deal of force. Since the commission of the offence he has turned his life around."

The teenager, who also cannot be named but who comes from Wolverhampton, admitted wounding and was given an eight-month detention and training order by Judge John Warner who said: "This was not a premeditated crime but you were carrying a knife and individuals do that for one reason. That is to use it when the person with the knife feels it necessary.

"It has to be made clear that if people stab somebody in the back, even if the outcome is not serious, then this court and others throughout the country will take a very serious view of it."