A TEENAGER threatened to knife a ten-year-old girl unless her elder sister handed over her bag and money on a Southampton bus – just days after he had been released from jail.

Now the 17-year-old has been told he will receive another term behind bars.

“It’s only a question of how long,” said Recorder Malcolm Gibney after he had been convicted of attempted robbery.

Jurors then heard the youth – who cannot be named for legal reasons – had two previous convictions for robbery and two of attempted robbery.

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He had been out of a young offenders’ institution for less than a fortnight when he targeted the two girls who were returning home.

They had got on the Shirley bound service near the Central Station at about 1pm and were sitting alone upstairs when the youth who had been sitting in a rear seat asked for the time.

In a videotaped interview, played at the city crown court, the elder girl, a 17-yearold student, said her sister thought he was “scary” because he had been staring at them and throwing things out the window.

The tracksuited stranger demanded her bag, threatening “or else I’m gonna do your sister right now”.

He pulled out a Stanley knife and put it close to the younger girl. She offered him a deal to leave her alone and he demanded £20.

The two girls then began shouting in the hope someone would come upstairs.

But he got closer and told them: “I’m going now, so you can give me the money or I’m just going to leave this bus and cut your sister now.”

He eventually left empty handed.

Wiping away tears, the 17-year-old said: “I thought he was going to hurt my little sister. I felt so responsible because she was my sister and I was supposed to be taking care of her. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to upset him and then he would hurt my sister.”

Asked how scared she felt on a scale of one to ten, she replied: “Ten and a half ”.

The youth, who denied attempted robbery, was remanded in custody pending sentence on June 19.