A TEENAGER has appeared in court charged with stabbing a dog walker in Abingdon just days before his 18th birthday.

Oliver Welsby, now 18, is accused of stabbing Julie Faulkner in woodland at Boxhill Park as she walked her dog near Clifton Drive on Thursday, July 19.

He is accused of having carried out the attack just five days before he turned 18, magistrates in Oxford were told today.

Welsby, of no fixed abode, is charged with one count of GBH section 18 (wounding with intent).

The charge is in connection with an incident in which Ms Faulkner, who is in her 50s, was stabbed in her stomach in woodland near Clifton Drive at 10.30am on Thursday, July 19. 

The Abingdon woman was rushed to hospital and was treated by surgeons before being released two days later.

Welsby was arrested on Saturday and held by police until being charged today, appeared in front of magistrates this afternoon.

He is a former pupil of Chilworth House Upper School in Oxford and had previously lived in Abingdon before moving to Reading.

Welsby was committed for trial to Oxford Crown Court with a first appearance before a judge on August 31.

No application was made for bail and he was remanded in custody.