Four teens aged between 15 and 17 robbed and terrorised members of the public with a machete during a five-hour car-jacking spree in Sadiq Khan’s London.
Their first victim was a taxi driver, whose car and GPS system were stolen following an assault in the early hours of January 21st, leaving him unable to work.
“I was scared for my life. They slapped and punched me to the ground. Every day I think about it,” he recalled.
The gang next attempted to box a woman in a Mercedes into a drive in Barking, East London, threatening her with a machete — but took fright after she sounded her horn.
Their next victim, another taxi driver who was recovering from a recent heart operation, was less fortunate, losing £1,000 in cash and mobile phones after the gang got into his cab and took control of it.
“They were tiny kids, they weren’t in masks or anything. I set off and they told me to stop, one of them grabbed me from behind and kept shouting, ‘Give me your keys’,” said 65-year-old Zaman.
“Another got out and held this huge machete to my temple, I had never seen a knife so big. I thought about resisting but I had just recovered from heart bypass surgery. If they hit me with that knife even once I could have died.”
The gang’s final victim was forced from a parked BMW with a machete at his throat, ultimately leading to a high-speech police chase which ended with one of the car-jackers being apprehended.
President Trump Highlights Deadly Knife Crime Epidemic in Khan’s London: ‘It’s Like a War Zone’ https://t.co/nuwlP1HVK1
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 5, 2018
Judge Sheelagh Canavan said it must have been “terrifying for everyone involved” but handed down fairly weak sentences, giving two of the gang members 48 months and the other two 36 months.
Unless they are non-standard sentences, all four will be automatically paroled halfway through their terms, with the remainder being ‘served’ on license in the community.
The case was reported just days before U.S. President Donald Trump told a National Rifle Association (NRA) conference that knife crime is spiralling out of control in London.
The President appeared to be referencing reports quoting Barts Health NHS Trust lead surgeon Mark Griffiths, who said military colleagues at his hospital believe the capital increasingly resembles a war zone.
“Every day an ambulance rolls up with a kid who has been stabbed. That can’t be right. We’re not at war,” said Griffiths, who added that he was treating victims of knife and gun crime as young as nine.
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