A BOY who threw a knife which penetrated another youngster's brain pleaded guilty to a reduced charge yesterday.

The 15-year-old victim was armed with a knuckle-duster and had taken drink and drugs when he turned up with friends at a house in Middlesbrough to settle a score with a boy of 14.

But he was walking away from trouble when the other boy's brother threw a Swiss Army knife into the back of his head, Tina Dempster, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court.

The accused, from Middlesbrough, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty yesterday to unlawful wounding on September 13, last year, and was remanded on bail to be sentenced by the Teesside Youth Court. He denied the more serious charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, which was accepted by the prosecution.

The knifed boy told a jury: "I felt something hit me on the head. I touched it and it was a knife. People came out of house to calm me down until an ambulance arrived."

Miss Dempster told Teesside Crown Court: "We say that if you throw a knife like that, you do intend to do a really serious injury.

"It was embedded probably up to the hilt and witnesses could see the handle protruding from the back of his head.

"It was thrown with a degree of force sufficient to penetrate his skull and it embedded a short distance into his brain."