Teenage boy jailed for Amesbury stabbing

26 April 2019, 14:42 | Updated: 26 April 2019, 14:44

A 13-year-old boy has been jailed for two years after pleading guilty to stabbing a 15-year-old girl in Amesbury last year.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had previously pleaded guilty to Section 18 wounding with intent and possession of a knife.

He approached a group of girls last Halloween night as they were trick or treating in Jaggard View, Amesbury.

They did not know him, but he tried to engage them in conversation before pulling a knife from his pocket and stabbing one of the girls in the shoulder.

The victim was taken to Salisbury District Hospital and treated for a stab wound, which luckily had not caused serious injuries.

Officers were at the scene within six minutes and quickly found the defendant and arrested him.

Det Con Hannah Agate, from Salisbury CID, said: "This was a frightening but isolated incident which understandably caused concern amongst the community of Amesbury.

"It was incredibly lucky that the victim did not suffer more serious injuries, although the emotional impact on her should not be underestimated.

"I hope today's sentence will bring some closure to the victim and some reassurance for the local community."

Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon Angus Macpherson praised the officers for their handling of the case and highlighted the work the Force has been doing to tackle knife crime.

He said: "Firstly, I must commend the actions of our officers who responded so quickly to this incident and were able to make a swift arrest.

"We know the public are concerned about knife crime, and I'm sure the people living in Amesbury will have been disturbed by this crime.

"However, I must stress that this has been something we have been working hard to tackle and we have actually seen an 18 per cent drop in knife crime over the past year.

"This is something that police cannot do on their own - we need a strong multi-agency approach, including working with the local authority and the youth offending teams, to get help in place at an early stage to stop young people getting caught up in knife crime."