'Yet another knife crime' as would-be killer given 21 years for machete park attack
A senior judge has decried "yet another instance" of someone carrying a knife as he locked up a man for more than 20 years for attempting to murder someone in a park.
Judge Michael Chambers KC has been outspoken about the 'scourge of knife crime' in the Black Country, and addressed the issue again in his summing up before sentencing 22-year-old Obeidulla Waffa on Thursday.
Waffa, of Cheshire Road, Smethwick, was last month found guilty of the attempted murder of a man in Victoria Park, Smethwick, on August 19 last year.
He stabbed his victim twice with a machete-style instrument, leaving him needing life-saving surgery. The weapon was never recovered.
A few weeks later, on September 13, he was caught in possession of a hunting knife in the Windmills Shopping Centre, Smethwick.
