A teenager was caught with a 20-inch machete hidden in his trouser leg just months after attacking a stranger in a Co-op.
Tino Williams, 19, was seen walking around the city centre with the outline of the blade visible through his trousers in July last year.
He tried to flee but was arrested, and whilst being bundled into the police van, officers found another knife measuring ten-inches.
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Minshull Street Crown Court heard that baseball bat-wielding Williams smashed his way into a family in Ramsbottom in April, last year, with others.
The group were looking for a specific person in relation to a drug debt, of which Williams wasn’t involved in, but was there to ‘enforce it’.
After the police arrived, he tried to flee, but once they drew their tasers he stopped.
When he was arrested he was found with a hammer and a pocket knife.
Four months later, on August 14, Williams, of Tottington, Bury, and another man were approaching the Co-op store at around 9.15pm when they came across a man who was standing outside on the phone.
“At the time, for no reason, this defendant decided to throw money at him. He later said in his police interview that he thought it was somebody he knew,” prosecutor David James said.
“When the defendant went into the shop, the complainant followed him and challenged why he had assaulted him in this way.
“This defendant started to goad the man, saying ''Come on then” and then threw a punch at the complainant's face.
“The complainant responded by rugby tackling him to the ground and holding him there.”
Williams and the other man began to punch the victim, members of staff intervened and removed them all from the store, but the attack continued outside with Williams trying to provoke the man.
The man went to walk home and they followed him, to the point he turned round and saw that Williams had a hammer in his hand, the court heard.
He started to back away before he was struck to the back of the head with the weapon.
Williams wasn’t said to have used the hammer but he was charged with the offence of wounding as he took part in a joint enterprise.
The man was left with a one inch cut to his temple.
In a statement, he said he had been left with pain, discomfort and headaches.
He also said that it was an ‘unprovoked attack whilst he was going about his daily business’.
The man has since died, but it was said that this was not caused or contributed to by the attack.
Williams was then sentenced for the burglary matters in January 2021, to which he was handed a community order.
However, on July 16, police in Manchester city centre became concerned when they saw the outline of a machete in his trousers.
“They tried to stop him but he attempted to run away and resisted the officers,” the prosecutor continued.
“They found black gloves with reinforced knuckles and a large machete in his waistband, measuring twenty inches long.
“As he was being placed in the back of a police van they found a second blade; a ten-inch kitchen knife.”
He was on police bail at the time and serving his community order.
Mitigating, Kristian Cavanagh said his client has had a ‘first taste of custody’.
“It has allowed him to reflect on his behaviour,” he said.
Judge Mark Savill intercepted: “He is going to kill someone or he will be killed. Once these weapons are brought into the street anything can happen.”
“He is naïve and unsophisticated,” Mr Kavanagh said.
“He has never committed an offence before - he is determined to put himself away from this sort of offending.”
Sentencing him, Judge Savill said: “I must observe, I have deep concerns about how somebody of your age has so quickly and repeatedly involved themselves with serious weapons being carried on the streets and which gratuitous violence can be used against any member of the public.
“When these weapons are taken out in public somebody can be gravely injured, if not killed.
“You seem to have little understanding of the real dangers involved in carrying such weapons.”
Williams, of Bury Road, was jailed for 24 months.
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