A TEENAGE girl who stamped on a 12-year-old as she lay unconscious on the floor of a 303 bus in Mill Hill has been locked up.

The 14-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced on Monday to ten months' detention and training after being convicted last month of the attack.

A second girl, also 14, was given an 18-month supervision order and told by Judge Ronald Moss she had escaped jail by the skin of your teeth'.

Both were found guilty of robbery and attempted robbery, although it was accepted the second girl had not taken part in the physical attack.

Harrow Crown Court heard how the 12-year-old victim spent the night at Barnet Hospital after suffering a broken eye socket, bruised chest and swollen face. The girl's father said that, although his daughter is now physically fine, the attack had been 'life-changing'.

He said: "She's more wary now when she goes out. I think this her attacker being imprisoned will help her. When she was convicted it was a big relief for her."

He added that the prison term was 'appropriate'.

In August last year, the jailed girl had approached the victim and a friend at the back of a bus with up to nine friends in tow, demanding she hand over her bracelet. She then tried to snatch the victim's phone and attacked the girl, smashing her head against a seat rail and knocking her unconscious. She was then dragged to the floor by her hair and stamped on. The gang then fled.

The victim's screams and those of her friend were ignored by fellow passengers, the court was told.

CCTV footage was used to identify the attackers and the jailed 14-year-old was singled out as the leader of the gang.

Of other passengers' failure to help his daughter, the victim's father said: "They should be disgusted with themselves. If they were scared to get involved they could have used their mobile phones."

During the trial, Judge Ronald Moss said there was a suggestion that the 14-year-old had asked if the victim was Jewish. But she was not charged with a racially-aggravated offence, so that aspect of the case should be ignored.

"They were absolutely isolated and frightened at the back of that bus," the judge told the impassive ringleader' as he sentenced her.

"You can see on the CCTV video how much some of you were enjoying that.

"You physically assaulted her... perhaps to reinforce the aura of intimidation; the aura that you were the boss. It was a very unpleasant and frightening incident, particularly when the girl went to the floor and you kicked her."

The violence she had used was 'unnecessary and gratuitous', he added.