Scissor attack schoolgirl locked up
A schoolgirl who stabbed a fellow pupil in the eye with a pair of scissors was sentenced to three and a half years youth custody.
The 15-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons was trying to fit in with a group of girls who had been bullying Natashia Jackman when she started taunting the girl in the school dinner queue, Guildford Crown Court heard.
When Natashia retaliated, the girl, who was 14 at the time of the attack, responded by lunging at her with a pair of scissors borrowed from another classmate.
Her victim narrowly escaped losing her eye in the attack at Collingwood College in Surrey in November last year.
The girl was found guilty following a month-long trial at Guildford Crown Court of wounding with intent.
Two co-defendants, the girls who had befriended her, were also found guilty of perverting the course of justice after they hid the scissors following the attack. They were both sentenced at an earlier hearing to a 12 months community order.
Guildford Crown Court heard how the girl had never settled in Surrey after her family moved there from west London.
When she was moved up from year eight to 10, she was taken away from the few friends she had managed to make said defence barrister Barry Kogan.
He said: "With hindsight that was an unfortunate decision for her not least because she would have to make friends again with her new year group.
"She has never found it easy to make friends at Collingwood College." He said that in a bid to make friends she fell in with the two co-defendants who were girls with problems of their own at school.
One was identified by Natashia as she gave evidence as a girl who had repeatedly bullied her in the past.
Mr Kogan said that while the defendant's actions were "totally inexcusable" they were the actions of "an unhappy girl who really wanted to fit in".
Sentencing, Judge John Crocker said that he felt that the offence was so serious custody was the only option.
He said: "When the victim called you a name your reaction was to stab her in the eye. You showed no remorse then and you have shown very little since even though you were convicted on the clearest evidence.
"It matters not whether this offence (wounding with intent) is committed in the playground or elsewhere, it must be very severely punished."
He said he took into account the girl's age, she is only just 15, and her previous good character in setting a sentence of three and a half years detention.
