Teenage machete attacker locked up after leaving victim with bleed on brain
A youth who was aged 15 when he smashed an older teenager over the head with a machete has been locked up for more than three years.
The attacker had been jilted by his girlfriend and was desperate to get back together with her, a judge heard.
She did not want to restart the relationship and confided in a girlfriend who was possibly the girlfriend of the 17-year-old victim, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
The defendant called the pal of his ex in an effort to speak to the former girlfriend but the phone was passed to the older youth who told him he was banned from contacting her, said Mr Hugh O’Brien Quinn prosecuting.
The 15-year-old knew where they were and went to confront them while armed with the machete that was hidden in his waist band on February 6 last year.
Other young people were also at the scene when he came across them in Wolverhampton.
“As he ran towards her he went passed the defendant who called ‘Oi’ making him stop and turn towards the defendant who pulled out the machete and struck him over the head,” continued the prosecutor.
The victim left the scene but later went to hospital where he had nine stitches in his head wound and had a seizure while under treatment.
He was given a scan that showed the blow had been so forceful it caused a depressed fractured to the skull and a bleed to the brain. The defendant was arrested that night and blood was found on his clothes.
Mr O’Brien Quinn said the victim, now aged 19, had to leave university after five months following the outbreak of ‘thunderclap’ headaches and the development of Bell’s Palsy – an inability to control facial muscles – which may be linked to the injury.
The defendant, from Wolverhampton, now 17, admitted possession of an offensive weapon and pleaded guilty to wounding. He was given three years, seven months detention.
He had taken the machete in the mistaken belief he faced the prospect of violence from the older youth, said Mr Simon Hanns, defending who added: “It was a single blow and an aberration he is unlikely to repeat.”
