Leeds teenager spared jail after 'learning lesson' from vicious knife and machete attacks

The judge at Leeds Crown Court said the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, would only be jailed as a “last resort”.

Instead, he was given a three-year youth rehabilitation order with a supervision requirement, meaning he must meet regularly with probation. He must also stay indoors on an evening for nine months as part of a curfew order, and ordered to stay out of Harehills for 12 months.

But Judge Andrews Stubbs KC warned him: “If this goes wrong , we will meet again. If I have made a mistake I will put it right.”

The youngster was just 16 when he was part of a gang who ran after a man who had left Harehills Working Men’s Club on the afternoon of March 18 last year.

All wearing face coverings, they were calling the man a “grass” and caught up with him, with the teenager stabbing in the chest with a four-inch blade.

The man was taken to the LGI with the punctured lung, while the lining of his heart was also pierced. He did not require surgery. The teenager confessed the stabbing to police, but was later released under investigation. He later pleaded guilty to Section 18 GBH.

But on the afternoon of October 11 last year, he was part of a gang who attacked a man waiting for a taxi on Coldcotes Avenue in Harehills. It was thought it was a case of mistaken identity, but the defendant, then 17, walked towards the man and raised the “four-foot-long” machete above his head before striking down on the victim, who raised his arm in defence.

He suffered a broken ulna and a 5cm laceration. The teenager was identified through nearby CCTV. The youngster denied the attack, but was found guilty of Section 18 GBH after a trial.

However, he was involved in a third incident in which a van was seen trying to steal a mini digger from outside a house on Manston Lane in Cross Gates on November 11 last year. After police gave chase, they caught up with the all the occupants, including the teenager, who later admitted an offence of handling stolen goods.

Mitigating, Charlotte Noddings said the teenager was a “victim of child criminal exploitation” and had been “coerced” into crime. She said that he was also suffering from acute stress disorder having been attacked himself.

But she said he had since worked with probation extensively and they had supplied references as testimony to the hard work he was undertaking.

Judge Stubbs told the boy: “The guidelines say I should only send you to custody if it’s a last resort. It seems to me that you have stopped getting into trouble, and it looks likely you have learned your lesson.

"I’m going to give you the chance to keep it up. If I lock you up, it might undo all the good work. You were lucky that nobody died.”