Boy, 14, pleads guilty to stabbings in Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett

A teenage boy has pleaded guilty to stabbings in Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett.

The 14-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted two charges of grievous bodily harm with intent at Swindon Magistrates’ Court this afternoon (Thursday).

As previously reported, the youth sliced both wrists of a teenage boy near the Link Centre in Swindon and stabbed him in the abdomen on 29 October last year.

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The victim in the case suffered “significant lacerations to both arms which sliced through all layers of the skin and tissue”, prosecutor Pauline Lambert told an earlier hearing.

Police at the scene of the Link Centre stabbing last year

Whilst on bail, he stabbed another boy with a machete near New Road Park in Royal Wootton Bassett at around 4pm on New Year’s Day 2023. The fleeing victim had slipped over before being repeatedly jabbed with the blade.

The youngster sustained a “significant wound” to his bottom, a stab wound to the centre of his back and another to his face in the attack – which was witnessed by a dog walker.

District Judge Joanna Dickens sent the case to Swindon Crown Court for sentence in April. He was remanded in custody.

She told the youth: “These are really, really serious offences, people could have died. It’s so serious, even though you’re so young, you’re just a child, this will have to go to the crown court.

“This crown court will decide what’s doing to happen to you, I don’t really want to talk to you about that now. You know and I know you will very likely go to prison.”

Grievous bodily harm with intent is one of only a smaller number of offences that carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

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