Scissors attack schoolgirl guilty

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A schoolgirl has been found guilty of stabbing a fellow pupil in the eye with scissors during a lunch break at a Surrey secondary school last November.

The 15-year-old victim was lucky not to lose her sight after being stabbed several times in the eye, head and back, Guildford Crown Court heard.

The judge warned the defendant, who was 14 at the time of the attack, that she was facing a custodial sentence.

The jury will consider verdicts on two other girls, aged 14 and 15, on Monday.

'Serious offence'

The co-defendants are both charged with perverting the course of justice by hiding the scissors used in the attack. They both deny the charges.

The defendant was found guilty of one charge of wounding with intent, which she had denied.

Judge John Crocker told her she had been found guilty of a "very serious offence indeed".

She is due to be sentenced at a date to be decided.

The court had heard how she had taunted her victim in the dinner queue.

Price tag

Nick Wood, prosecuting, told the jury of six men and six women that the attacker and two other girls had been making fun of their victim's long hair and started asking around the canteen for a pair of scissors to cut it.

It was told that the 14-year-old told police the victim had started the fight by calling her names and grabbing her by the hair.

She told officers that her friend had borrowed the scissors from a fellow pupil in order to cut a price tag off her new bag and did not realise they were still in her hand when the fight started.

But during the trial, the victim told how she had suffered at the hands of bullies for most of her school life.

Eyelid punctured

She said she had been threatened, and had even received prank calls at home, because she was labelled "a metaller" - a reference to her preference for heavy metal music.

On the day of the attack, the court heard, she had decided to "stand up for myself for once".

She said she called the girl a name and pleaded with her to leave her alone, which prompted her attacker to launch at her with the scissors.

She described feeling the blade puncture her eyelid, and of feeling further blows to her head and back.

The teenager denied suggestions that she had begun the fight by racially abusing the defendant or making aggressive moves.