Girl, 13, sentenced in school slash attack

LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) A 13-year-old girl who slashed another girl across the face in a revenge attack at their Sheffield school last year was given a two-year supervision order today.

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been found guilty yesterday of unlawfully wounding Shanni Taylor, leaving her needing 30 stitches.

But she was cleared of the more serious charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Sheffield Crown Court was told the girl was an orphan from Somalia, according to media reports.

During the three-day trial it emerged that Taylor had punched the girl the day before the attack and banged her head against a wall, the reports said.

Photos of Taylor with two bloody scars crisscrossing her face, narrowly missing her eyes, were splashed across newspapers in Britain and stoked concern over the level of violence in schools.

Both girls were 12 at the time of the attack last October.

A supervision order is aimed at stopping the defendant from offending again and protecting the public. It requires regular progress reports to be made to the judge who issued the order.

REUTERS SHB ND1730