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Dad hits out at 'light' sentence

Kathryn Ryan
3/ 7/2008

THE father of a schoolboy paralysed after being stabbed has blasted the sentence handed down to his attacker.

He said locking the 16-year-old boy up for one year was ‘sending out the wrong message to today’s youth'.

A judge said the teenager would serve 12 months in detention then complete the remaining sentence on a restraining order.

But the victim’s dad said: "We have forgiven him and we hope that he can change his ways and recognise what he has done.

"But a one-year custody sentence might not be long enough for him to do that."

The man’s teenage son, also 16, was stabbed in the upper thigh after bumping into the teenager when the bus they were travelling on from Heaton Park to Radcliffe braked suddenly.

The boy was followed by the teenager along Radcliffe New Road and as he reached the junction with Nipper Lane he was stabbed and has been left paralysed below the left knee.

His father said: "I am not sure the sentence is long enough. What is the message this has sent out to other children?

"The judge is only doing what he is told by government guidelines, but he said if the boy had been an adult, he would have got six to eight years.

"This is saying to youths that if you are under 18, it is OK to nearly murder someone."

The knife narrowly missed the victim’s femoral artery and his father added: "I am surprised at the sentence. He was two inches away from murdering my son."

The attacker, from Bury, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.