Two Men Swing At Each Other With Machetes In Middle Of Road

This is the chilling moment that two young men armed with machetes swung at each other in Newcastle city centre.

A court heard that an argument between Abdul Kefia and Twayne Bailey turned into a potentially fatal confrontation when Kefia pulled a blade from his hoodie.

CCTV footage then shows Bailey taking a large machete out of his friend’s rucksack, before the two men faced up to each other on George Street.

Cameras recorded Kefia, 26, running towards Bailey, 21, while swinging his machete.

Newcastle Crown Court heard Bailey then threw his weapon in the direction of the older man in a desperate bid to stop him in his tracks.

And as the machete missed Kefia, landing on the road next to him, Bailey turned and fled the scene while being ‘chased’ by the older man, the court heard.

Now both men have been sentenced for affray and possession of an offensive weapon after a judge told them: ‘People arming themselves with offensive weapons can’t be tolerated by this court.’

Recorder Andrew Haslam jailed Kefia, who denied the offences but was convicted after a trial, for 20 months.

But he suspended Bailey’s 11-month prison sentence for two years, telling him, ‘You are in something of a different position.’

The judge said Bailey had pleaded guilty to the offences on the basis that a few weeks before the confrontation, he had been attacked by a group of men whilst out in the city centre – and Kefia was one of those men.

He said to Bailey: ‘On August 22 you were again out with your partner when you were told someone was looking for you.

‘You started to talk and argue with the male who approached you. You had been warned the male carried weapons.’

The court heard that Kefia had started to walk away, but ‘within a split second’, pulled out the machete he had concealed in his hoodie.

The judge said: ‘You [Bailey] didn’t know one of your friends had a machete in his rucksack.

‘Your friend whispered to you to go in his bag – you didn’t know why but, fearing for your own safety, you did as you were told.

‘As you were approached by Kefia you produced [the machete].

‘You didn’t try to strike him with it, but threw it in an attempt to stop him moving towards you.

‘You accept your actions were not acceptable, you regret them, you acted on the spur of the moment in complete panic.’

But he warned both men: ‘People arming themselves with offensive weapons can’t be tolerated by this court.’