Schoolboy blinded in one eye in Walsall stabbing 'can't sleep at night' after attack
A teenage boy left blind in one eye after being stabbed by another youth said he now avoids school and cries at night because of the injury inflicted on him.
The victim was aged just 13 when he was injured during a fight in the early hours of August 7 near Walsall.
A 14-year-old who admitted an offence of wounding with intent and an offence of possession of a kitchen knife was locked up for 40 months on Thursday for the stabbing. The youths involved cannot be identified because of their ages.
In his impact statement read aloud at Wolverhampton Crown Court the devastated victim described how he did not want to go to school anymore and that he was worried for his future work prospects due to the effects of the injury.
He stated: "I had medical treatment and at first I didn't really care about what happened, but I do now. I feel very sad and angry because I'll never regain the sight in my eye because of him.
"I planned to drive and get work. I cry at night time. I don't want other people to see my eye. I haven't really gone outside. I don't want to go back to school because of everybody asking about it.
"I have to go to hospital every week for check-ups. The top of my eye still hurts. When I try to sleep it keeps me awake. I keep bumping into stuff and and I keep nearly falling over," he added.
The injured youth was stabbed with such force that his eye socket was fractured during the "pre-arranged pre-planned" fight at 2.30am. He had expected a punch-up when he first took a swing at another boy, aged 14, but the other youth, who is in custody, pulled a kitchen knife from a bag and stabbed him.
The defendant had even "bragged about what happened afterwards" stating that he had "poked him in the eye".
The youths, who Judge Michael Chambers KC said should have been in bed at the time of the incident, had exchanged messages over social media platform Snapchat two weeks before the clash.
Mr Balbir Singh, mitigating barrister, said the defendant had come from a difficult background. Tests showed he had a mental age of 10, and he had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
There was no separate penalty for knife possession. He must serve half the three years and four months term before being released with support.
