
It was from this injury that the teenager almost died on the operating table-twice, police tell me. One in the chest-that was the light wound-and another in the abdomen, six inches deep, which pierced his kidney and liver and necessitated the removal of his gallbladder.

The boy is tall for his age, but slight, with olive skin, a long crooked nose, and dark, intelligent eyes framed by thick black brows poised for flight.


Sometimes, as night falls over Greater Manchester, the ingenious adolescent returns to the place where he was stabbed last year, when he was 14.
