A 15-year-old boy who mugged two young men in separate street attacks has been jailed for three years and four months.
Tommy Stephen Smith, who has 51 offences on his record, including several muggings, left both victims needing medical treatment.
One of them was threatened at knifepoint and the other received a cut face requiring 10 stitches, Leicester Crown Court was told.
Smith was with two accomplices when he accosted the first victim, aged 18, in the Caversham Road area of Eyres Monsell, Leicester, at 9.30pm on September 8 this year.
The man was grabbed from behind and his arms pinned behind his back.
Victoria Rose, prosecuting, said: "He was punched to the face and one of the robbers produced a knife and held it at his throat.
"They removed his phone, before punching him in the face causing him to fall to the floor.
"He was kicked in the stomach and legs."
He suffered swelling and bruising to his face, ribs and leg.
A short time later, Smith was alone in Saffron Lane when he stopped a man cycling home from a night shift at McDonald's Fosse Park.
He asked for a light for his cigarette and became intimidating, clenching his fists in a threatening manner.
Miss Rose said: "The next thing the victim remembers is waking up in the street covered in blood."
He suffered a cut to the face, needing 10 stitches, which has left him with scarring.
"He's now extremely self-conscious and feels vulnerable," said Miss Rose.
She said the police went to the children's home in Wigston where Smith was living and recovered the two victims' mobile phones from a bag hanging outside his bedroom window.
Smith pleaded guilty to both robberies.
Dominic Thomas, mitigating, said: "He's never had a father and has lived much of his life in institutions.
"He feels anger because he's been passed from pillar to post and never had any stability in his young life.
"He's an intelligent lad and when he sorts himself out he'll have a lot to offer."
Recorder Timothy Spencer QC said: "I've read about your upbringing and have sympathy with your position.
"It's, perhaps, not surprising you found your way into the criminal courts.
"You're still very young and there's hope for you.
"These are very serious offences and just imagine how you'd feel if you were on the other end of those robberies and if it was you going to hospital to have stitches.
"Your record, for someone of your age, is one of the worst I've seen."
The Leicester Mercury successfully applied for a court order - preventing Smith being named because of his age – to be lifted in the public interest, on the principal of "open justice."
