
A schoolboy, who took a knife into a Bradford school and “accidentally stabbed” a fellow pupil has been spared being sentenced to a correctional facility.
The 16-year-old, who remains anonymous because of his age, was arrested after a student at Beckfoot Thornton School was stabbed in the shoulder in March.
His victim was left with a two-centimetre-long wound in his back just below the shoulder blade.
Bradford’s Youth Court warned the teenager about the dangers of taking knives into school and accepted that the incident was not intentional.
The court heard that after a joke between the two pupils regarding the knife, the defendant poked the victim in the shoulder, with the victim turning around into the blade as the defendant extended his arm.
Speaking on the incident, the youth’s solicitor Riyaz Shaikh said: “It was never his intention to go and cause grievous bodily harm. It was akin to using a compass in the old days to poke someone.”
In a sentencing hearing on Wednesday morning, Chairman of the Bench, Peter Alexander said the student would not be sent to custody, but instead ordered him to complete a 12-month referral order.