Teenager jailed for knife attack on Regent’s Canal towpath

Published: 20 August, 2010
by DAVID ST GEORGE

A SCHOOLBOY who stabbed two strangers “for nothing” has been jailed for seven years after an Old Bailey trial.

But his identity, protected under the Children and Young Persons Act because he is still 15, will not be disclosed.

Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith made the ruling in favour of anonymity for the youth despite his conviction for cannabis possession and using a knife to threaten the life of an Islington estate agent.

Passing sentence on the teenager, said to have a “troubled” background, the judge said he was being spared a life term because of his age.

The attacks on the Regent’s Canal towpath on January 24 came within minutes of each other and 400 yards apart. The boy, living nearby with his mother, claimed he had been mistakenly identified. 

He did not give evidence at his trial when a jury convicted him on two counts of wounding with intent to inflict serious injury.

Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay said the accused had “a propensity to stab” and local police officers identified him from CCTV in the canal area, near the Packington Estate.