A 20-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed for nine years after stabbing two teenagers in the space of five minutes in separate random attacks.

William James, of Beckenham Road in Beckenham, was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on Friday (January 14) after previously pleading guilty to two counts of wounding with intent to do GBH.

The court heard James used a knife to slash the face of a 16-year-old boy, causing two cuts, outside McDonald’s in Orpington High Street at around 10.35pm on June 12 last year.

Five minutes later James approached a 19-year-old man outside Tesco and punched him in the face before stabbing him in the back, leaving the victim needing hospital treatment.

Witnesses and CCTV identified James as the attacker, and he was arrested at a flat in Crofton Road, Orpington, on June 17.

He was also given four months in prison after pleading guilty to assault and battery in connection with the attack on the 19-year-old, which will run concurrent with the nine year sentence.

James had only been out of a young offenders institute for just over a month when he stabbed his victims, after being sentenced to 18 months detention at Croydon Crown Court on June 25, 2007.

He had pleaded guilty to four counts of assault, two counts of theft and one count each of battery, affray, robbery and criminal damage.