Boy attempted to murder teenage girl, jury finds

A boy who stabbed a teenage girl over a vape sale has been found to have attempted to murder her.

The 15-year-old has been made subject of a hospital order under the Mental Health Act after being deemed unfit to stand trial.

The teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, met his victim at Cadoxton railway station in January, in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, before plunging a knife in her back.

Alexander Greenwood, prosecuting, told Merthyr Crown Court the "young man is suffering from a mental disability".

Because the boy was deemed unfit to stand trial the jury was asked to decide whether he had committed acts alleged.

The jury found he tried to murder his victim, was in possession of a knife and committed an act intending to pervert the court of justice.

The victim spent a week in hospital after the attack.

After the assault he sent her a text saying: "Say something and you are dead."

The jury was shown screenshots of messages written in "youth speak" sent by the boy to friends after the stabbing.

In one the boy was asked if he stabbed the girl to which he answered that he did and "regrets it".

In another message, he told a friend he was "handing myself in tomoz".

The court heard one friend told him he was going to jail for 40 years.

Another advised him not to hand himself in if he had not been caught.

The boy messaged that the "Feds" came to his door.

In messages before the attack, the boy told friends that the victim was "going to die today", that he was going to "stab her", "kill" her and "might need to go on the run".

Another message said: "I've got my knife on me as well" and that it was digging into his leg.

He sent messages to his girlfriend - who urged him not to do it - saying: "I die or [she] dies. I don't care any more. This is what I do."

Mr Greenwood told the court the boy arranged to meet the girl to buy a vape off her.

When asked why, he replied that the girl had spoken about his mother and he "wasn't going to let it slide".

At the time of the attack, the victim did not realise she had been stabbed, saying it felt like "she had been punched."

It was only after she received a message from the boy saying "say something and you are dead" she realised what had happened.

A member of the public called the emergency services and the girl was taken to the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.

There they found a 4cm (1.5in) stab wound to the right side of her back. The right side of her abdomen and right groin was also tender to touch.

Further examination found her right kidney was displaced by the attack.

The boy, from Cardiff, was arrested by officers the day after the assault.

The court was shown CCTV of the brown-haired boy in a dark puffer jacket and blue jeans as he met the girl.

She wore a black hoodie with white logo at the station car park.

Before the attack, the victim said the boy was in a "highly agitated state".

The footage showed them chatting, along with two friends, before the boy follows the girl and her friend into a lane near the station.

British Transport Police's Det Con Daniel Murdoch said he then "struck (her) in the back with his right hand" before the footage showed him running with a friend into the night.

Det Con Murdoch told the jury the boy was wearing a glove on his right hand, which is shown on CCTV before the attack and after.

CCTV last captured the boy going through the ticket barriers at Cardiff Central and catching a train to Cwmbran - and exiting the station at 22:41 and walking off.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins said he was satisfied, given all the circumstances of the case and defendant's background, that a hospital order was appropriate.