Classroom-chair argument led to bloody machete attack on Pontefract student
A teenager who became embroiled in a dispute over a classroom chair at college then brutally attacked a student with a machete.
The victim suffered a 2cm-deep gash to his head from the violence meted out by Dylan Burnside.
The 18-year-old was given a custodial sentence this week at Leeds Crown Court after the judge said it was “far too serious” for any other punishment.
The court heard that a petty argument about the chair broke out between two students at the Yorkshire Construction Academy in Pontefract on October 9 last year.
It became so heated the matter was taken outside so the boys could fight, but it was broken up by staff, prosecutor Allan Armbrister said.
The students moved back inside but around 50 minutes later it erupted again, and the group made their way onto the street where the matter could be “settled” with violence.
Burnside, a friend of a boy involved, then arrived in a taxi with the inference that he had been called as back up.
Mr Armbrister said: “We say he was there was one purpose, and one purpose only - to see what happened to his friend and join in if necessary.
Burnside and another then attacked a student, swinging and punching him to the face before it was broken up.
Burnside and the other male then move down the alleyway off Fairfield Avenue.
Mr Armbrister said: “They were in no danger and nobody was going towards them. It was easy for them to walk away, but instead you see the defendant produce the machete.”
Unable to remove the sheath, Burnside then stepped forward, lifted the weapon above his head and brought it down on the head of the victim.
The cut was 7cm in length, 3cm wide and 2cm deep. It also caused a blood clot in the victim’s head.
Burnside, of Duke of York Avenue, Wakefield, was later arrested and gave a largely no-comment police interview.
The attack was captured on CCTV, and when played the footage, denied it was him.
He later admitted Section 18 GBH with intent, ABH and possession of an offensive weapon.
Burnside, who only turned 18 last month, has been held in youth detention for around four months. He has previous convictions for violence, which Mr Armbrister described as an “appalling record”.
Mitigating, Safter Salam said Burnside had a difficult upbringing and was even born addicted to heroin due to his mother’s drug use.
He was placed in grandparents’ care aged two. Mr Salam said since being held on remand, Burnside had “made efforts” by working in the servery and in waste management.
He said he was just 17 at the time of the attack, and reminded the judge that incarceration should only be the last resort for a young offender.
He added: “He has expressed remorse and accepts his role in the incident.”
In response, the judge, Recorder Jeremy Hill-Baker said: “It’s too serious for a community penalty, it’s a factor of length [of the detention sentence].”
He gave him 26 months’ detention, which had been vastly reduced to take his age into account.
He told Burnside: “You were phoned by your friend because he was having problems with others at college. It was out of misguided loyalty, you were posturing or showing off.”
He warned the teenager that as an adult now, he will now begin to receive “significantly longer sentences” should be become involved in violence in future.