A 14-year-old schoolgirl will be sentenced at Juvenile Court next month after admitting attacking another teenager at Hamilton bus terminal.

The youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was due to stand trial after she initially denied unlawful assault causing bodily harm to a girl of the same age from a different school on February 19.

But she changed her plea to guilty yesterday on the advice of her lawyer Marc Daniels after he viewed closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the fight.

The incident sparked a public debate on youth violence earlier this year when a strongly worded complaint to the defendant's school from a witness was circulated around the Island via e-mail.

Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney outlined the prosecution case to The Royal Gazette after yesterday's hearing.

He said the episode was captured in its entirety on CCTV and showed the defendant walking up to the victim and punching her in the face.

"[The victim] responded by hitting her back," Mr. Mahoney said. "The accused proceeded to punch [the victim] several times in the face and kicked her and kneed her. The complainant fell on the ground and I think she kicked her in her mouth."

Mr. Mahoney said the attack was sparked by a male school friend of the defendant who told her to "deal with" his ex-girlfriend as he believed she was spreading rumours about him.

"The argument was that if it's a guy you can't hit a girl, but if it's a girl hitting a girl, no problem. He admitted he was wrong, came forward, apologised and gave a statement."

Mr. Mahoney said the victim, who suffered a split lip and bruises, was at court to give evidence but did not have to testify due to the change of plea.

Magistrate Tyrone Chin asked for a pre-sentence report and set sentencing for September 28, when Mr. Daniels will have the chance to offer mitigation.

The defence lawyer told this newspaper that after viewing the footage last week he advised his client to admit the charge. He said she had been involved in a car accident since the fight, causing memory loss.

"The CCTV is not conclusive but what will be apparent from the pre-sentence report is that [my client] had a bad accident and there are segments of the incident that took place that she can't remember. There will be a medical report regarding that.

"It is not exactly clear on the CCTV when the fight started but I thought it more prudent, in the circumstances, to advise her to change her plea."

This newspaper was not present at yesterday's hearing as there was no notification that the trial was brought forward from August 19.