A teenager has been jailed for stabbing someone three times at a birthday party after an accusation he had been "touching his girlfriend’s bottom.”

The attack was so severe it forced the 17-year-old casualty and his family to move out of the area.

The victim had gone to the get-together in Oaktree Road in Ashford when he was set upon by the five youngsters.

Barry Rossiter, 19, of Nickley Wood, Shadoxhurst, was jailed for four and a half years for wounding the teenager with intent and also assault.

Canterbury Crown Court heard the victim was ordered outside the party where Rossiter brandished the blade.

"Then it got a lot more sinister. You Barry Rossiter had a knife, you stabbed him three times..." - Judge Rupert Lowe

Judge Rupert Lowe said: “You all arrived at the party and Rossiter went up to the victim and said don’t jump around me or I will fold you like a deck chair.”

He explained how a 17-year-old member of the group accused the victim of touching the bottom of Rossiter's girlfriend before ordering him outside.

When Rossiter took a swing at the victim he fought back - the other boys joined in the attack as the victim tried to flee over a garden fence.

Sam Smith, 19, kneed him in the face causing a heavy nosebleed before Rossiter, previously of good character, pulled out the blade.

Judge Lowe continued: “Then it got a lot more sinister. You Barry Rossiter had a knife, you stabbed him three times.

“All of you cooled off while other people tried to stem the bleeding.

“Somebody came back to pick up the knife and chucked it away.

“The effect of that attack was so bad that him and his family had to move to another part of the country, that is your doing.”

Judge Lowe told the group that the attack on September 15, 2017 was “a very serious offence.”

Rossiter, who was found guilty of wounding the teenager with intent and also assault at a previous hearing, will serve his sentence in a juvenile detention centre.

Charlie Leeming, 19, of Beaver Lane, and Sam Smith, 19, of Leaveland Close, both Ashford, were sentenced to a two-year community order and placed on curfew after being found guilty of actual bodily harm.

The two 17-year-olds from Ashford and Willesborough, also found guilty of actual bodily harm, were sentenced to a 30-month youth rehabilitation order and placed on curfew.

Judge Lowe told one of boys: “You are extremely immature and very stupid.”

He told the group: “You complain about peer pressure, but you are peer pressure for each other.”