A GANG of teenagers stalked a nurse through a North Yorkshire town centre at night before stabbing, kicking and robbing him.

One of the youths stabbed the victim in the back, said Mark McKone, prosecuting at York Crown Court.

All three teenagers surrounded him and one of them said: "Stab him."

When the knife-wielding teenager brought the knife down in a “wide slashing” movement, it bounced off the victim’s eyebrow and landed on the ground two or three metres away.

The victim remembered lying on his back and hearing a woman say: “He’s dying, someone ring police.”

“I think she saved my life,” the victim later told police. “She was trying to tend my wound.”

The nurse was left with life changing injuries and was among those who were told to shield from coronavirus.

“He feels really bad he could not help those in need from the virus,” said Mr McKone.

The youngest of the boys was 13, the others were 15 and 16 at the time.

All three are from Harrogate and pleaded guilty to robbery. They are not being identified for legal reasons.

The 15-year-old also pleaded guilty to wounding the nurse with intent and carrying a knife.

The prosecution accepted the other two did not know their companion would use the knife. The 16-year-old accepted he knew the 15-year-old had a knife on him.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said he couldn’t think of a better object lesson on how matters can go wrong when knives are carried.

He gave the 16-year-old an 18-month detention and training order and the 13-year-old boy a referral order. Neither had any previous convictions.

The 15-year-old will be sentenced at a later date.

For the 16-year-old, Paul Abraham said he came from a difficult background and had already spent six months in Wetherby Young Offenders' Institution which will not count towards his sentence.

For the 13-year-old, Denise Breen-Lawton said he had a mental age of eight and was very suggestible.

He heard the others planning a robbery and stayed with them instead of leaving.

Mr McKone said the nurse was drunk as he took some money from a cash machine in Harrogate town centre. As he walked away, the boys stalked him.

He remembered everything going black and the next thing he remembered was seeing the woman.