A TEENAGER who waved a knife around while ‘shadow boxing’ as well as threatening a girl so she would drop a stabbing case has been jailed.

The 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons appeared at Oxford Crown Court yesterday after he was convicted of witness intimidation, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and having a bladed article.

Despite a challenge made by this newspaper seeking to reveal the teenager's identity, presiding Judge Ian Pringle QC imposed a reporting restriction guarding the anonymity of the Oxford teenager in light of his youth.

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Outlining the case at the hearing prosecutor Cathy Olliver said that a teenage girl – who also cannot be named – had complained to police that she had been stabbed.

The defendant who was allegedly present at the stabbing then contacted that girl, she said, and offered to pay her £400 if she dropped the case.

Ms Olliver said she told him to keep the money and she was called ‘a snitch.’

After that she received a missed call from an unknown number and believed it was the defendant trying to call her.

She later received a Facebook message from him which read ‘I am going to f**k you up tomorrow.’

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The 17-year-old later claimed that during the offending in July he had only sent the message to the girl ‘as a joke.’

At court yesterday prosecutors also revealed another incident involving the same defendant in which he waved a knife around in front of a CCTV camera at an address in Oxford.

His defence team said he was ‘shadow boxing’ with the weapon during that incident.

Prosecutors also revealed that he had a history of previous convictions including for battery and assaulting police.

In mitigation, Francis Howard, defending, said: "The crown did not suggest that he acted on these threats."

Speaking of the knife incident he said: "You can see him shadow boxing with the knife in front of a camera waving it.

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"He has not threatened anyone with it.

"It can be properly said he has had a traumatic young adult life so far."

He went on to say that his client was 'intelligent' and had 'coherence of thought' and 'could be an engineer' before saying the offending was an example of 'bravado' and his immaturity.

Sentencing, Judge Ian Pringle QC said: "The production of knives in public in this country is becoming epidemic and must be wiped out.

"You have a very poor record and you are going to have to decide what you are going to do with your life."

For intimidation of a witness he was handed a 15-month jail term to run concurrently with nine months for conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.

That tally of 15 months will run consecutive to a further penalty of 18 months in prison for possession of a bladed article, totalling 33 months.