A teenager who lunged at a care home worker with a blade he had snapped in half to make it sharper has been spared a sentence of youth detention.
The 16-year-old grabbed a knife from the kitchen of the north Cumbria premises on the night of 15th December, Carlisle’s youth court was told.
Prosecutor George Shelley said: “He has grabbed a knife from the kitchen area before snapping it in half to make it sharper. In the living room he has threatened a member of the care home staff and lunged at them with the knife without making contact.”
Two other members of staff witnessed the incident. “These two, together with the care worker, had to lock themselves in an office before the police arrived,” said Mr Shelley. In the meantime, the boy had damaged photographs inside the property.
When brought to court, the teen admitted affray and criminal damage. He had spent several weeks in youth custody before being sentenced on Friday.
Defence solicitor Trystan Roberts said the youth had travelled to the home on 15th December in handcuffs without much of a break during the day. He was in a “heightened state of emotion” and things had escalated.
Statements had been provided by the two witnesses but not the worker the boy had lunged at. “I think it is a spur-of-the-moment, very quick decision,” said Mr Roberts of the knife possession. “He then takes his frustration out on pictures on the walls. He doesn’t continue to target these people.”
District Judge John Temperley considered a detailed background report, the teen’s recent engagement with his solicitor and a difficult upbringing.
He told the boy, who cannot be identified because of his age: “I have got to look at what is in the best interests of you; look at your welfare and the best way of preventing yourself from getting into the kind of trouble that has brought you here today.”
Instead of youth detention, the district judge imposed a youth rehabilitation order comprising 12 months’ supervision, an activity requirement and three-month night time curfew.
