Three men jailed to more than 28 years for vicious machete attack in Walsall park
A judge has spoken out against "the scourge of everyday knife crime" when jailing three men guilty of carrying out a vicious machete attack on three other men in a busy Walsall park.
Judge Simon Ward said the public and he personally "would not accept the use of machetes, zombie knives and other bladed weapons on a daily basis".
The remarks came as he jailed Awais Butt, Adam Sidat and Fidal Butt for a combined total of more than 28 years at Wolverhampton Crown Court. The trio were all found guilty of wounding the victims in Palfrey Park on May 1 last year, prompting West Midlands Police to impose a two-day dispersal order.
Part of the defence of one of the defendants was that carrying the knives was "common behaviour".
But in his summing up before sentence Judge Ward said: "I don't accept that as a defence. Or the fact that hardly a day goes by without someone being stabbed with a machete, knife or other weapon so it is something like common practice. The public won't accept that behaviour as a justification for others to do the same and I won't either.
