A DESPERATE mother begged magistrates to jail her 16-year-old son for a New Year's Eve stabbing that left another teenager in intensive care.

But the victim, Adam White, 19, - who was stabbed in the neck - said the 52-week detention and training order imposed was 'disgraceful' and vowed to appeal against it.

"As soon as I found out I started having flashbacks," said Mr White, from Cashes Green, Stroud.

"I am going to campaign against this.

"What he did is as good as attempted murder. He almost killed me. "This sentence is a joke."

Mr White sustained a 6cm neck wound when the boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - attacked him near the Brewers Arms pub in Gloucester Street, Stonehouse.

The assault damaged his spinal chord and left his right arm paralysed. Doctors hope a nerve graft will allow him to regain movement in his arm.

The hearing yesterday, Tuesday, at Stroud Youth Court heard the defendant, who is from Stonehouse, had drunk 10 pints of lager on the night of the attack.

He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Thomas said the boy spotted Mr White and a friend and shouted: "Next time I see your brother he's dead - and his mate."

She said Mr White replied: "No you won't, he's family."

Ms Thomas explained how a scuffle broke out during which Mr White was stabbed with a three-inch blade the boy had purchased six months earlier after being assaulted by a gang of youths.

The court was told that as Mr White's friend tried to help him, the boy said "You come any closer and you'll get stabbed as well."

The boy's mother told magistrates custody was the only way to stop her son, who has a history of violence, from re-offending.

"For the last two years I have fought to get my son help for his drug problem and his alcohol problem," she said.

"I'm a parent who's crying for help but there's no help out there. "Two years ago he was a perfectly happy well adjusted child.

"If this can happen to him, I feel it can happen to anyone's child."

Magistrates declined a request from the SNJ for the boy's automatic anonymity to be lifted.