A TEENAGER has avoided detention despite pleading guilty to malicious wounding by breaking another boy’s jaw in two places.

The 15-year-old defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons but is from the Selby area, appeared before magistrates at York Youth Court on Tuesday.

The court was told he was with a group of friends outside Selby High School at 11pm on June 18.

A car pulled up with another group in it and one of them got out and went into the school grounds to find a crate of lager that had been hidden there earlier in the day.

There was then a confrontation between the two groups and the defendant punched his 17-year-old victim twice, breaking his jaw in two places.

Mitigating, Keith Haggerty said his client had never been in trouble before and he had not meant to cause such serious injuries.

He said the defendant had felt threatened by the other group but accepted he should not have reacted in the violent manner that he did.

Sentencing the 15-year-old, magistrates’ chairman William Sessions said the choice for the bench had been between detention and a referral order.

Mr Sessions said: “This has been a very serious offence.

“We understand you hit the victim twice and his jaw was broken in two places and his teeth were damaged. We’ve taken into account your early guilty plea and we’re going to give you a 12-month referral order.”

He said this would involve the youth having to address his crime and agree to a behavioural contract.

Mr Sessions also ordered that £300 in compensation be paid to the teenager whose jaw was broken.

Addressing the defendant’s mother, Mr Sessions, said: “That is a very low figure for a broken jaw. It would normally be several thousand, but we’ve taken into account your means.”

He told the defendant that he should get a summer job so he could pay his mother the £300 back.

There was no order for court costs.