A teenager who "catastrophically" injured a 16-year-old boy in a machete attack was jailed after armed police caught him trying to flee the country.
Sayam Ali slashed his victim with a 12-inch blade in broad daylight on June 14, leaving the 16-year-old bleeding so heavily he thought he was going to die. Through his solicitor, he told police he would hand himself in but he never showed up and instead plotted to leave the country, the MEN reports.
Ali was travelling to Malta with four large suitcases on June 29 when armed police swooped on him at Manchester Airport. Police body-cam footage released by Greater Manchester Police shows Ali being escorted away by armed officers as holidaymakers watch on in the background.
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Asked whether he has anything to say when he is read his rights, the teenager shakes his head and replies quietly "no". Ali attacked the youth on Sheriff Street in Rochdale in a revenge attack for losing drugs he had given him to sell.
The court heard that when the victim's mother found the drugs and flushed them down the toilet, the teenager told her: "I'm going to get chopped up. I'm in deep s***. I can't get out of this. You don't know what will happen to me. We need to give them back. I don't know how I'm going to get out of this." CCTV footage played at Minshull Street Crown Court showed Ali chasing his victim across the street before slashing him across the shoulder with the weapon.
After the youth had identified his attacker to police, officers uncovered an Instagram post by Ali that day which read: "They f***ed me. Raise alert. Armed and dangerous." After he was arrested, Ali made no comment in his police interview except to deny it was him in the CCTV footage of the attack. He refused a video identification parade.
His victim had a plate and screws inserted during surgery to 10 to 15cm wound which left him with a broken bone in his left shoulder and damage to his muscle tissue. He was left with "significant restriction" in movement of his arm but doctors hoped he would recover and would lose only some motor skills in his hand, the court heard.
In a statement read out to the court, the victim said he was bleeding so much that he thought he was "going to die". He said he was left "scared"and "in a great deal of pain" in hospital but worried most of all whether he could ever return to his "previous life". He said the morphine he was prescribed "wasn't touching" the pain.
He said: "I have been left traumatised by what happened and every time I go to bed I hear shouts and screams. I hear them shouting 'I want your arm - I want your leg'. Sometimes I have to ask my mum to come and sit with me."
Referring to his attacker, he said: "I feel for the position that he's in but I didn't deserve this."
The judge, Recorder Abigail Hudson, told Ali: "You attacked (the victim) and you did that with a machete in broad daylight and you did it because, having been recruited by you, his friend, to run drugs, he lost them. You then then tried to flee the country and you posted aggressive, arrogant comments on social media.
"You used a weapon. It was a dangerous weapon. It was taken to the scene for the purposes of this attack. It was a revenge attack and it was pre-planned."
Referring to a letter the defendant wrote to the judge, Recorder Hudson said: "You say you are sorry to (the victim) but for the most part your letter is a recitation of how this has affected you. You talk about what you won't be able to do, what you are missing out on and the difficulties you are experiencing rather than expressing any real remorse for what you did to (the victim)."
Ali, of Hayes Close in Rochdale, who has only one motoring offence on his record, showed no reaction when he was jailed for five years and four months on Thursday after he admitted GBH with intent at a previous hearing. He will be eligible for parole two-thirds of the way through his sentence. He was also handed an extra two years on top of his licence period.
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