A BOY, 16, who stabbed another teenager in the stomach during an argument on a train at East Maitland last year has avoided serving time in a juvenile detention centre.
The boy, who cannot be identified, appeared in East Maitland Children's Court on Friday where he was ordered to serve an eight-month suspended control order sentence and a 12-month good behaviour bond.
The maximum penalty in the children's court jurisdiction is two years in a detention centre.
He had pleaded guilty in December to reckless grievous bodily harm and having custody of a knife in a public place after prosecutors agreed to drop other serious charges, including wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
According to police, the boy and another 16-year-old - who police said were known to each other - were on a train between Beresfield and Maitland railway stations about 7.20pm on May 28 last year when they became involved in an argument and the boy pulled out a knife and stabbed the other 16-year-old in the abdomen.
The injured teenager got off the train at Victoria Street railway station and approached a train guard for help, police said at the time.
Meanwhile, the driver locked the doors as the train left the station and the police were called.
Police boarded the train when it got to Maitland and arrested the boy.
He was initially refused bail by police and spent the night behind bars before he was granted strict bail the next day in Broadmeadow Children's Court on the conditions that he abide by a curfew and not consume alcohol or access social media.
The injured boy underwent surgery, police said in May, and was said to be in a stable condition.
