A JUDGE has named and shamed a 17-year-old tearaway boy from Reading who described himself as “HMP’s finest” today (September 16), for slashing a man’s throat with a knife during an argument involving “racial slurs” in a public house.

Kyrese Cashley, who was jailed for four years, can now be named after the judge said the young boy had “an extremely worrying record for violent offences”.

Following a press application, it can now be revealed that Cashley was the 15-year-old youth who was spared jail and given a lenient youth rehabilitation order by a different judge, after he caused a cyclist to have a heart attack and suffer brain damage by beating him with a plastic pole while the victim was out grocery shopping in 2018.

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Cashley, originally of Whitley, but now of HMP Feltham, was branded a “menace to society” by the cyclist victim, who heard the news of his anonymity being lifted.

The teenager appeared at Reading Crown Court today (September 16) by video link from HMP Feltham to be sentenced for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, which he was convicted of following a trial.

Judge Heather Norton had presided over the trial, which heard Cashley claim he acted in self-defence by swiping at Steven Amor’s neck with a stanley knife on March 17 this year.

Cashley already had a conviction for handling stolen goods and aggravated vehicle taking by the age of 15, but his offending took a dramatic escalation when he viciously attacked cyclist Richard Smart on May 20 2018.

The teenager had complained that Richard Smart "got rude to me" before joining forces with a 12-year-old, who performed a flying kick on the older man, to attack the victim.

Speaking about his ordeal, 56-year-old Mr Smart, an appliance specialist at Curry’s PC World, had said: "I was clinically dead for 10 minutes, some parts of my brain died.

"My memory is absolutely shot to pieces. I think about saying something to my partner and as soon as I open my mouth it is gone. It may never return.

"Since the assault everything has gone wrong. I am a totally different person."

Cashley was arrested and charged with causing section 20 grievous bodily harm without intent following the attack, which he and the 12-year-old admitted.

However, by October 2018 he committed yet another offence when he was caught with a knife, for which he received a youth rehabilitation order.

In October last year (2019), Judge Edward Burgess QC sentenced Cashley and the younger boy for the attack on Mr Smart, telling them: "What you did to Mr Smart was terrible. You could have killed him.

"He had a heart attack. He suffered life-changing injuries.

"It is always depressing when people as young as you two are in court and I hope the court does not have to see you again."

Judge Burgess sentenced Cashley to a 12-month youth rehabilitation order, with a supervision requirement, 60 hours of reparation and a three-month curfew added on to one he was already serving, as well as a five-year restraining order preventing him from seeing Mr Smart.

Just one month later, Cashley was summoned back to Reading Crown Court after the judge heard he had breached his youth order.

The boy did not attend, telling the judge he had a bad back.

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When Cashley was brought in on a warrant two weeks later, a furious Judge Burgess told him: “I am not some glorified social worker, I am a Crown Court judge. I am not here to be touchy feely forever and a day.

"You may think this is all stuff and nonsense from some windbag judge sitting here in a silly cloak, but it is not. Frankly, I think you have been taking the mick since I imposed this order on you."

Giving Cashley a final chance, Judge Burgess spared him jail once again, but by January this year the teenager was back again, having shown shown "flagrant disregard" for the youth order.

Calling the breaches “concerning and upsetting”, Judge Burgess detained Cashley in a young offender’s institute for four months.

On the day of his release, March 6, Cashley posted a picture of himself on Facebook with the caption “fresh home” and described himself as “HMP’s finest”.

Within a short number of days, Cashley was remanded in custody after wounding Steven Amor in front of his partner on March 17.

Judge Norton, summarising the case, said: “You went to the Pheasant Pub in Reading in possession of a Stanley knife. You maintained at trial that that was a knife you had taken from a friend's car for safe keeping.

“You said that you had forgotten you had that knife in your pocket when you went to the pub. That account is not what you told the police that night, when you told them that you made a decision to go to the pub that night with a knife.

“When in the pub, you got into a confrontation with the victim. Who started it was, and to me still remains, unclear. I am willing to accept that there was an element of provocation and that there may well have been some racial comments made, as you claimed immediately after the offence.

“Whatever the provocation was, that cannot in any way justify the use of a knife in any circumstances and certainly not to wound Mr Amor in the way that you did, by slashing him across the throat. Fortunately, the injury sustained by Mr Amor was very minor, but it could so easily have been extremely serious indeed. Indeed, it could have been fatal.”

While awaiting his trial on May 28, Cashley posted a picture of himself on Facebook with the caption: “A6333EL this is my prison number I am Feltham if anyone wants to contact shout me.”

Judge Norton told him his posts, included in an application submitted by Hyde News & Pictures Agency, had influenced her decision to lift the reporting restrictions which had prevented the press from naming the boy in all of his previous court appearances, stating "you put yourself in the public domain".

The boy defendant was detained in a young offenders institute for four years for one count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, which he had denied and one count of possession of a knife in a public place, which he admitted.

Cashley received no separate penalty for breaching a conditional discharge, which was imposed on January 22 for an offence of battery in relation to another incident when he accosted a stranger in a pub.

Judge Norton, before sentencing the boy, pleaded with him to change his ways, saying: “You are young and although from all that has been placed before me, you seem to want to go down the path of offending, there are still people out there who have faith in you and your ability to succeed in life. Take that support”.

Cashley, who had laughed and smirked while sitting at the video link booth in HMP Feltham, promised he would take the help on offer.

Richard Smart, hearing the news of the judge's decision, said: "It is absolutely brilliant. He needs to be taught a lesson, he has been doing this since he was a child.

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"He is a nuisance on the street, even while he was inside he was boasting.

"It is not a joke that he has ruined people's lives and the community has got to be on guard. It is not fair."