A teenager has been caged after he stabbed another boy using a potato peeler.

The 15-year-old plunged the kitchen implement into his victim’s back – after the youngster was battered over the head seven times by a hockey stick-wielding accomplice.

The teen tearaway, who despite having an extensive criminal history cannot be named after a judge's ruling, was sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders’ institute at Swindon Youth Court.

District Judge Joanna Dickens said she was sympathetic to the boy, who had faced significant family difficulties in his youth. But she added: “The problem for other people is that the offending you’ve been doing is really serious. The offending that you have been doing can hurt people a lot and you’re really lucky in terms of the offences you have committed that things haven’t been an awful lot more serious.”

The court earlier heard the boy was part of a group of around eight young men riding their bikes in Old Walcot on May 28. Three of the youths – including the defendant – had their faces covered.

A boy was walking past the group on his way to a nearby school, where he had agreed to meet a friend.

The three youths with their faces covered set upon him. One of the youths, who last month admitted a wounding charge, hit him across the head with a hockey stick seven times.

The second boy came up behind him carrying a potato peeler and tried to stick it in the victim. He turned to his friends and said “I’ve just stabbed him”, prompting the group to flee.

The victim suffered a cut to his head, which required stitches, and scratch marks to his side.

When he was arrested in early June police found a safe in the boy’s brother’s bedroom. In it were 29 deals-worth of herbal cannabis, a small set of scales. The cannabis weighed around 37.5g.

The boy had previously admitted wounding, possession with intent to supply cannabis, two charges of knife possession, possession of cocaine and breaching an anti-social behaviour injunction.

The first knife offence followed police being called about reports of youths being in possession of knives on Queens Drive. They found the group near the Texaco garage in Walcot. The boy had a large kitchen knife.

On April 16, CCTV showed him discarding a knife inside the garage on Kingshill, dumping it among bottles of water at the end of a shop aisle.

Defending, Emma Thacker said her client had had a lot to deal with in his family history as a young child. He had not been going to school for some time but, in the nine weeks since he had been in custody, had been doing well.