A THUG who stabbed a teenager 14 times in a “violent and cowardly attack” has been jailed for nine years.

Nes Kisoka, 19, left his 17-year-old victim with serious injuries, including a collapsed lung, after the attack at the Kursaal, in Southend, on April 15.

Basildon Crown Court heard the victim was brawling with another youngster after a private party at the venue.

Charlotte Davison, prosecuting, said the victim went to the club with three friends but they noticed other associates arguing with a group on the way out.

When the row turned physical, the victim got involved and began exchanging punches with another youth.

Miss Davison said: “They went to the floor. It is quite clear from the CCTV that before the defendant gets involved the victim is on his side.

“It shows him, in a grey tracksuit, making stabbing motions towards him. The victim only recalls the first stab.”

The victim received nine wounds to his back, three to his stomach, one to his arm and one to the top of his shoulder.

He suffered a collapsed lung and damage to his spleen and stomach, and a fractured vertebrae. The youth spent nine days in hospital and has been unable to work since.

Miss Davison said: “Friends of the victim describe him lying on his back having trouble breathing. They describe his eyes starting to roll back.

“He states that at that point he thought he was going to die.”

Kisoka, of Eastern Esplanade, Southend, grabbed the knife and fled the venue with another male and a female. He then went to a flat in Penny Steps on the Kursaal estate.

Security guards who followed him heard a female voice say: “Where’s the shank?”

Kisoka later emerged wearing a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops before trying to hide his bloodied clothes in a bush.

He was arrested moments later but refused to “snitch” on the people who helped him.

Miss Davison said in interview Kisoka tried to claim he acted in self-defence but he later admitted a charge of unlawful wounding with intent.

Mr Greg Foxsmith, mitigating, said Kisoka has no previous convictions and is “baffled” by his own actions.

He said: “It was a gratuitously violent and cowardly attack. He had the knife, as many young people do, because of bravado and a false sense of wanting to defend himself.” Kisoka was jailed for nine years for the stabbing and 12 months for possession of the knife, to run at the same time.