Teen gang member, 16, burst into Leeds Halloween party wearing Kiss Me horror mask and stab vest then attacked rival with machete

A teenager forced his way into a Halloween party wearing a horror movie mask and a stab vest then attacked a rival gang member with a machete in front of terrified youngsters.
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A court heard horrifying details of the targeted gang-related violence at the party in Middleton in which the teenage victim was rushed to hospital with stab wounds.

The 16-year-old attacker, who cannot be identified, was locked up for four years over the attack on October 31 last year.

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Leeds Crown Court heard the incident took place after a 15-year-old girl invited friends to a Halloween party at her home in Middleton.

Leeds Crown CourtLeeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court

Felicity Hemlin, prosecuting, said one of the party guests received repeated phone calls from someone asking if anyone from the 'Niners gang' was at the property.

The prosecutor described the Niners as "a well known gang in the LS9 code code."

Later in the evening those at the party heard banging on the door and voices outside shouting: "Yo!"

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Ms Hemlin said the teenage defendant then entered the house with a group of other males.

He was wearing a 'Kiss Me' face mask from The Purge horror films.

He then attacked a male youth who had been invited to the party.

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The prosecutor said: "He had him laid on the living room table, stabbing and smacking him with a machete."

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The court heard the attacker appeared "nonchalant" as he inflicted the wounds, saying "what?" when the girls at the party began screaming.

The girls ran upstairs and barricaded themselves into a bedroom.

The teenager went upstairs, shouted "who else is in there?" and began kicking the door down.

The prosecutor said: "The girls were struggling to breathe and were terrified.

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"They feared for their safety as the man who had come into the room had already stabbed someone."

The group left when they saw no other males were in the room.

One of the girls used her phone to dial 999 to report the incident.

Staff at Leeds General Infirmary also contact the police when the victim arrived at the hospital with stab wounds.

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Ms Hemlin said the victim suffered wounds to his shoulders, hand and thigh but escaped serious injury.

The defendant was arrested in the Middleton area shortly after the attack.

He was still wearing the mask and stab vest.

He pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.

The court heard he has previous convictions for robbery, possessing offensive weapons, possessing cannabis and theft.

He has also previously failed to comply with youth offending service orders to prevent him reoffending.

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Jane Cooper, mitigating, said the defendant committed the offence shortly after his sixteenth birthday.

Ms Cooper said her client had used cannabis since the age of ten and there was evidence that he had been controlled by gangs.

She added: "The court cannot condone young men going to parties and carrying knives ."

Ms Cooper asked Deputy District Judge Timothy Clayson to consider not sending the teenager to custody due to his young age, so more work could be done in the community to prevent him refunding.

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The judge said the offence was too serious to impose any other sentence than immediate detention.

He said: "This offence, in my judgement, marks a substantial escalation of your already serious previous offending.

"It was planned. It involved gang-related violence.

"The premises were targeted. You were seeking to inflict violence to a person or persons in the house.

"Children were present. It was at night. You were disguised and you used a very dangerous weapon to inflict injuries."