A BOY of 15 was critically injured with his heart close to stopping after he was stabbed in the chest in a Bradford park, a jury heard today.

Dr Michael Parsons, a forensic pathologist, said the teenager had sustained a wound to his right side produced by a sharp object wielded in a thrusting motion.

He told Bradford Crown Court he had a specialist interest in the mechanism by which injuries were caused and their impact on the human body.

Dr Parsons was giving evidence in the trial of a 16-year-old boy who denies attempted murder, wounding with intent and having an article with a blade or point. He is accused of stabbing the complainant in Grosvenor Park in Manningham at 5.15pm on Saturday, March 11, after youths had arranged to fight there.

Prosecutor Adam Birkby alleges that the 16-year-old, who cannot be named because of his age, intended to kill the boy. The jury has been told that the defendant accepts that he was at the park. He had picked up a small metal pole but denied being in possession of a knife or stabbing the boy.

Dr Parsons said the wound was in the upper half of the right side of the chest, about 11cms below the armpit. It was approximately 3.3cms in length on the surface of the skin. It wasn’t possible to say if there was twisting or rotation of the weapon.

He suggested that the wound was a minimum depth of two to three centimetres, tracked from back to front and penetrating the chest cavity.

The boy’s right lung had collapsed and was re-inflated by emergency medical treatment. The force of the blow was likely to be ‘mild to moderate,’ the jury was told.

The teenager’s heart was close to stopping and he was critically ill.

“It was undoubtedly a life-threatening injury and the outcome could have been very different had he not received prompt medical attention,” Dr Parsons said.

The stabbed boy had no defensive injuries.

Mr Birkby has said that there were two incidents of violence in the park that afternoon. The first was towards the north end when the defendant and two others had a violent confrontation with some young males. The second incident was near the south entrance when he produced a knife from the waistband of his trousers and stabbed the victim, it is alleged. The stabbed boy was bleeding profusely and gasping for air. He was taken to Leeds General Infirmary where he had emergency surgery but suffered brain damage due to oxygen deprivation.

The trial continues.