Judge lets boy, 14, who stabbed girl 10 times walk free, saying prison is the 'last place' for a 'bright lad'
Judge Ian Lawrie, who handed the 14-year-old attacker a 12-month referral order after ruling prison was the "last place" he should be, despite the boy stabbing his victim at least 10 times.CCTV footage from inside the Cirencester shop where the boy stalked and repeatedly stabbed the girl after she rejected him, also knifing a shopkeeper who tried to intervene.
Judge Ian Lawrie KC told a 14-year-old boy who stabbed a schoolgirl 10 times with a six-inch kitchen knife that he was a 'bright lad' with a 'solid family background' who had done something 'out of kilter' — and handed him only a 12-month referral order and a three-year restraining order. The boy had stalked the girl in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, after she rejected him, waiting outside a shop before following her inside and stabbing her repeatedly in the neck, hands and face; a shopkeeper who tried to intervene was also knifed in the back.
The victim's mother called it 'absolutely disgraceful', saying: 'Does somebody actually have to die to get justice?'
Despite acknowledging the boy's 'behaviour dysfunctionality' and calling the CCTV 'frankly dangerous', Lawrie KC ruled custody was 'the last place' for him.
Parents of girls killed by ex-boyfriends called the sentence 'appalling' and 'misogynistic', while the Ministry of Justice said it is 'reviewing how the law can better protect victims in youth courts'.
