THREE teenage thugs have been jailed for a total of 12 years for stabbing a taxi driver in the head and breaking a soldier’s jaw.

Police say Kyle Jones, Jamie Allen and Benjamin Chesterton progressed from petty scrapping to random, vicious violence.

Jones, 17, of Regent Gardens, College Estate, Hereford, was convicted of wounding the driver and vomited in the dock on receiving a five-year youth custody sentence.

Judge John Cavell lifted orders banning his identification, saying the seriousness of the crime made it in the public interest. It followed an application made on behalf of the Hereford Times by reporter Paul Ferguson.

Allen, aged 18, formerly of Regent Gardens, was convicted of assault in relation to the same attack and got four years youth custody.

Chesterton, also 18, received three years youth custody for breaking a soldier’s jaw in a mob assault outside the Co-op store, where the gang would hang out. The victim will have a metal plate in his jaw for the rest of his life.

Birmingham Crown Court heard how taxi driver Javed Ali came within inches of death when Jones plunged a blade into his head.

Antonie Muller, prosecuting, told the court that Jones, already on electronic curfew, had been drinking heavily with Allen when they called a taxi for Staunton-on-Wye at around 2am on June 28 last year.

Mr Muller said Jones could not pay the advance fee, and told Allen he would stab the driver if he refused to take them.

“The driver asked them politely to leave because they couldn’t pay the £59 in advance,” said Mr Muller. “Jones said ‘make us’ and without warning plunged a knife into the driver’s head. The knife snapped off. Just as the driver reacted to the blow, Jones plunged the broken knife into his forearm, where it stuck and he had to pull it out. He got out of the car, as did Jones and Allen, and Allen struck him with a silver object he found nearby.”

The pair ran off, while Jones calmly answered a call at 2.19am about breaking his curfew.

Staff at Hereford County Hospital were, the court heard, stunned when Mr Ali walked into A&E with a three-inch blade stuck in his scalp. He also suffered scarring behind his left ear and on his back, and endures nightmares and flashbacks of the attack.

Neil Treharne, for Jones, said his client had “got involved with the wrong crowd” but was now making good progress away from drink, drugs and his peers.

Lee Marklew said Allen lacked discipline and had to fend for himself after years of moving between homes in Herefordshire and elsewhere.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Cavell said that Mr Ali could have died had the blade moved “a centimetre in either direction.”

Chesterton, the court heard, broke a soldier’s jaw because he didn’t like the man singing in the street. The early hours attack prompted several others to join in, with Chesterton kicking the prone victim “like a football” several times, leaving him needing the metal plate for life.

Tom Walkling, for Chester-ton, urged the court to sentence his client on juvenile, and not adult guidelines.

Speaking after the case, investigating officer Det Con Beth Wells, praised witnesses who stepped up to see the three sent down.

Jones, Allen and Chesterton were, said DC Wells, part of a 10 to 15-strong gang that would gather outside Hereford’s College Road Co-op store.

The gang first came to police attention through reports of anti-social behaviour in the area, with Jones said to be the ringleader.

“But they progressed from kids scrapping on the corner to random acts of violence,” said DC Wells.

She saluted the bravery of witnesses who came forward for the attack on the cabbie and the soldier. Their bravery was vital to the successful prosecution of the three.

“The sentences rightly reflect the gravity and malicious nature of these incidents and the dangerous nature of the offenders,” said DC Wells.