A 19-year-old man has pleaded guilty to attempting to murder a youth left seriously injured with multiple stab wounds in a "brutal, frenzied attack".

Michael Swansborough was warned he could face an indefinite sentence after entering the plea at Maidstone Crown Court on Tuesday.

Swansborough, of Bridge Street, Wye, and Trevor Moore, 21, of Western Gardens, Willesborough, had previously admitted wounding victim Lloyd Dawson Smith with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The pleas were not accepted by the prosecution and a trial date was set for next month. But prosecutor Cairns Nelson said Moore’s plea to wounding with intent could now be accepted. He will enter it formally on March 31.

Moore also admitted possessing an offensive weapon, an axe, and stealing a mobile phone and Swansborough admitted possessing a knife.

Mr Smith, 18, was left in a critical condition following the attack in an alley behind a newsagent’s shop in Hythe Road, Ashford, on October 15 last year.

Louis French, for Swansborough, requested a psychiatric report. His parents, he said, had previously sent him to the Priory Clinic.

"There has been a history of problems or temper," Mr French told Judge James O’Mahony. "There is going to have to be an assessment for dangerousness. You will be told this was a very serious attack. It is described as a brutal, frenzied attack."

Mr Nelson said the stabbing was captured on CCTV film which would be shown to the court when sentence was passed on May 19.

Remanding Swansborough in custody, the judge told him: "You know as well as I do you have pleaded guilty to about the most serious matter there can be and you can face an indeterminate sentence."

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