An 18-year-old Croydon youth has been jailed for stabbing a boy with a screwdriver at Purley railway station.

Kevin Patrick McBarron, from Eldridge Road, Croydon, pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm following the incident on October 12.

The court heard McBarron confronted the 16-year-old boy at the station at around 9pm and the pair were involved in an altercation.

The victim attempted to leave the main entrance of the station when he was followed by McBarron and stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver.

He was taken to hospital suffering a puncture wound which doctors say narrowly missed his jugular artery.

McBarron was arrested four days after the incident and was charged with the offence.

He was sentenced in the Croydon Crown Court yesterday to eight months in a young offenders' institute.

British Transport Police Acting Detective Inspector Sam Blackburn said the victim in the case was lucky to be alive.

"This was a very serious assault, which could have proved fatal.

"CCTV proved very useful throughout this investigation and assisted us in making an early arrest."

Last month, McBarron was convicted of common assault on an elderly man who was asleep on a train travelling between Charing Cross and South Croydon on June 28 last year.

McBarron was sentenced to 80 hours unpaid community work after he was found guilty of striking a 61-year-old passenger over the head with a rolled up newspaper.