A ROBBER who knifed a man 10 times before stealing £9 from him at Bolton bus station has been freed after spending eight years behind bars.

Alex Li – also known as Porya Sahampour – was given a potential life sentence as a teenager in 2006 after admitting three counts of robbery and one of assault.

The now 24-year-old won his freedom at a Court of Appeal hearing yesterday, having been caged indefinitely for public protection.

Before the ruling, Li could not be freed until the authorities decided the danger he posed to society had passed.

Li, who was 15 when he committed the first crime, took part in a series of brutal muggings around Preston and Bolton in December 2005.

In February 2006 he and his accomplices targeted a man who had fallen asleep on a bus bound for Bolton.

At Bolton bus station, Li and two accomplices trailed their victim around the forecourt before cornering him and demanding cash.

When he bravely refused to hand anything over, the gang battered him to the ground and Li threatened to knife him.

He then "stabbed the victim several times to the head and body", Mr Justice Hamblen told the court yesterday.

The man suffered 10 stab wounds in the attack and was robbed of £9.

A pre-sentence report made in 2006 indicated Li was "completely out of control" and pinpointed him as the ringleader in the bus station robbery.

Mr Justice Hamblen, sitting with Lord Justice Fulford and Judge John Wait, noted that Li, of Mancroft Avenue, Bolton, has spent more than eight years behind bars.

The judge found that the indefinite sentence was unjustified in light of his youth when he began offending.

Directing Li's immediate release, the Appeal Court substituted a five-year detention term, plus a five-year extended license period.