Ex-private school boy is locked up for stabbing gang rival

Former Kelvinside Academy pupil Emerson Mitchell left his 14-year-old victim with a collapsed lung after a "night of madness" in Glasgow's West End.

Mitchell and his friends Maxwell Devlin and Conner O'Neill, all aged 16, viciously punched and kicked the boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - to the ground. Mitchell then plunged the screwdriver into his victim's back.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard they were part of a group of 40 teenagerss - two gangs of around 20 - which had gathered at Hughenden Lane in March last year.

Passing sentence yesterday, Sheriff Charles McFarlane QC told Mitchell: "Your conduct that night is, in my view, totally unacceptable and requires to be marked with a custodial sentence. It gives me no satisfaction whatsoever to have to impose a period of detention when someone is so young but the public has to be protected from such conduct."

Sheriff McFarlane sentenced Devlin and O'Neill to 225 hours of community service and told them both they were lucky to be escaping a custodial sentence.

O'Neill was also placed on probation for a year.

At an earlier hearing, Mitchell, of Hughenden Road, Glasgow, admitted assaulting the boy by punching and kicking him and repeatedly stabbing him with a screwdriver on March 20, last year.

Devlin, of Hughenden Lane, and O'Neill, of Princes Terrace, Glasgow, admitted punching and kicking the schoolboy.

Devlin, who is already on probation for another assault, was also caught with a claw hammer in his pocket when police arrived at the area after being called by residents.

Prosecutor George Macleod told the court that there were two main groups of youths involved in the disturbance - one from the Whiteinch and Yoker area and the other from the area around Hughenden Lane.

Mr Macleod said: "Words had been exchanged between some of the individuals present at that time and the accused Devlin ran towards the complainer and commenced an assault on him.

"He was punching and kicking him and then Mitchell and O'Neill also joined in that assault and thereafter the complainer was repeatedly punched and kicked on the head and body.

"Mitchell had a screwdriver in his possession and while the complainer was on the ground, he repeatedly struck him on the body with the screwdriver."

The court heard that once the incident came to an end, Mitchell left the scene with others from the group bragging that he had stabbed someone.

The victim was treated for seven stab wounds and bruising and also had to have a chest drain fitted for a collapsed lung.

Defence advocate Joe Cahill told the court his client was usually a quiet boy but had became involved in a "night of madness" after consuming valium and cider.

Mr Cahill said: "Mr Mitchell is not a normal knife-carrying youth that we unfortunately have to deal with so often in these courts.

"However, he accepts full responsibility for his actions and has displayed remorse for what he has done and sympathy for his victim. He has never touched alcohol or drugs since this incident and his parents now closely monitor his activities.

"This was completely out of character for him."

Lawyers David Hall, representing Devlin, and Paul Hannah, representing O'Neill, both said that their clients were also ashamed of their actions. Mitchell is believed to have left Kelvinside Academy before this incident took place.