JAILED: Machete attacker almost sliced off victim’s foot during drugs debt brawl
A machete-wielding attacker who almost sliced off his victim’s foot when a drugs debt brawl erupted has been jailed.
Phillip Hall stuck his thumbs up and strolled out of the dock smiling after he was locked up for wounding Lee Michael Jack.
The 53-year-old left his victim fighting ‘life-changing’ injuries in intensive care after prising the blade from Mr Jack’s hand during the struggle.
Sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Patrick Thomas QC jailed the defendant for four years and nine months.
He said: “This is plainly a very serious case because the injuries that were caused to Mr Jack were extremely serious and involved the use of a very significant weapon.
“It’s right to deal with you on the basis that Mr Jack went to the scene seeking vengeance for something he believed, on the basis of no real evidence at all, you and your partner had done to him.”
Mr Jack armed himself with the machete before going to Hall’s Wednesbury home to settle ‘some sort of financial dispute’, prosecutor Ms Michelle Henley QC said.
He threw himself at Hall with the blade before the defendant managed to grab it and strike the victim on July 9.
The victim was left with a 12cm wound to his ankle, which ‘severed all the way through’ the leg muscle and Achilles tendon.
He was cut to his arm, head and elbow, and suffered a fracture near his eye socket.
Part of Mr Jack’s finger was amputated by medics, with the former scaffolder now unable to work following the attack, Ms Henley told the court yesterday.
Hall, who claimed he was acting in self defence, was left nursing ‘relatively minor injuries’ including a cut to the ear and hand.
Defence barrister, Mr Andrew Fisher QC, said Mr Jack had taken drugs from Hall’s partner without paying earlier in the day.
The defendant snatched the weapon from Mr Jack after he later threatened his partner, who was with two children.
Hall, of Friar Park Road, admitted wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
