A geeky 16-year-old boy was jailed for life today after attempting to butcher a 12-year-old girl to death.

Cameron Cleland donned surgical gloves and told her: “I’m going to have to kill you.”

The A* student stabbed the terrified girl in the throat with a penknife before trying to strangle her – after rehearsing the murder he referred to as like “gutting a pig”.

Prosecutor Michael Smith told Bradford crown court the defendant had been infatuated with the girl, staring at her on train journeys and videoing her on his phone.

Dressed in a hoodie, he attacked her on April 21 after luring her to a secluded spot outside Ilkley, West Yorkshire – by vowing to kill himself in text messages if she refused to meet him.

The attack ended when Cleland was disturbed by a passer-by and the victim was airlifted to hospital.

Cleland’s barrister, Nick Johnson, said he was described by his head teacher as intelligent but “slightly geeky”.

Cleland, from Bradford, admitted attempted murder.

Sentencing him to life with a minimum of seven years, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said: “You wanted to take her life at the age of 12.

“The degree of risk you pose of causing the most serious harm, if not death, is overwhelming.”