Teen Gets 11 Years For Stabbing Supply Teacher

A teenager who used racist language before stabbing his teacher in the stomach has been sentenced to 11 years in detention.

The 14-year-old muttered the words b****** and n***** before he knifed supply teacher Vincent Uzomah in front of his classmates after a row over his mobile phone, a court heard.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Uzomah said he thought he was going to die when he was stabbed by the pupil, who planned the attack and brought a "substantial blade" into school.

The teacher said he could not understand 69 people who "liked" a Facebook post in which the boy - who pleaded guilty to inflicting GBH with intent - boasted about the stabbing.

Around 20 minutes after the attack, he wrote on the social network: "The m*********** getin funny so I stick the blade straight in his tummy."

Judge Durham Hall accepted that the attack was racially motivated and that the boy - from a Pakistani background - could not handle being disciplined by a black man.

The judge also rounded on those who "liked" the pupil's Facebook bragging about the attack.

He said: "It's an appalling reflection on a small microcosm of our society that within minutes or hours after posting, 69 people 'liked'. How sick."

Mr Uzomah, a committed Christian, said in his statement that he had been left "psychologically scarred" by the incident, but that he and his wife still found time to pray for his attacker.

The teenager sat throughout most of his sentencing with his arms folded, briefly looking up at his victim and yawning when the judge explained the seriousness of his crime.

Prosecutor Jonathan Sharp told the court the boy had boasted to a friend at Dixons Academy in Bradford the day before the attack that he was planning to stab a teacher.

When Mr Uzomah, 50, asked the pupil to surrender his phone, witnesses said he was "getting angry, red in the face and putting his head down and muttering the words b****** and n*****".

Speaking outside Bradford Crown Court, Mr Uzomah said it was important that a strong message was sent out to children that using violence against teachers was never acceptable.

He said he forgave his attacker and prayed that he would take the chance to become "a changed person".

The Crown Prosecution Service said the boy's sentence was made up of a six-year custodial term and five years on licence - meaning he could be back on the streets in 2018.