A teenager has been jailed for a minimum of 16 years and 36 days for murdering his 12-year-old friend after luring him to woodland and attempting to decapitate him.

The 15-year-old boy, who can now be named as Marcel Grzeszcz, repeatedly stabbed Roberts Buncis on ground off Alcorn Green in Fishtoft near Boston, Lincolnshire, on December 12 last year, just two days before his 13th birthday.

The teenager’s trial at Lincoln Crown Court was told he stabbed Roberts “in excess of 70 times”, with a wound to the neck that was “consistent with a decapitation attempt”.

The youth admitted manslaughter midway through his trial but denied murder.

The defendant claimed the victim had taken the knife to the scene and he “lost control” when the youngster attempted to stab him, but jurors dismissed his argument and concluded he was “motivated by anger”.

Sentencing the youth on Monday, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker told him: “When the two of you met up in the wooded area, I’m satisfied while the deceased was unarmed and unaware of what was to take place, you came armed with a large knife and with latex gloves intending at that time, at the very least, to cause him serious bodily harm.”

The judge lifted a reporting restriction barring naming of Grzeszcz following an application by the PA news agency.