Yahoo News Three teenagers jailed for over 30 years for 'shocking' meat cleaver and knife-point robbery spree
Three teenagers who who threatened victims with a knife and meat cleaver during a weekend robbery spree have been sentenced to over 30 years in prison.
Iosif Filipache and two friends, aged 15 and 16, struck five times between November 16-19 last year in Birmingham, before making off with phones, cash and bank cards.
Filipache was handed a 17-year jail term during sentencing at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday.
The 16-year-old and 15-year-old boys - who cannot be named for legal reasons - were sent to a youth offenders institute for 11 and six years respectively during an earlier hearing.
A 24-year-old man, the gang’s first victim, suffered a brain haemorrhage and needed life-saving emergency surgery as a result of being being punched and kicked to the ground on a canal towpath near the NIA on the evening of 16 November.
Later that evening, they threatened two Aston University students with a meat cleaver in a Lancaster Circus underpass.
They then attacked another man on the same night in Perry Barr, and held a knife to the victim’s leg.
Three days later on November 19, the gang left cafe owner with severe facial injuries following another subway robbery in Lancaster Circus.
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The court heard that while Filipache splashed out on the man’s stolen bank card, the two younger thieves robbed two more students at the same location while armed with a meat cleaver.
But the 15 and 16-year-old teens were spotted by CCTV cameras while carrying out the final attack, before West Midlands Police response officers to the scene.
Detective Constable Lucy Mooney from West Midlands CID Robbery Team said: ‘This was a shocking series of attacks. Shocking in their severity and the use of weapons – indeed one victim nearly lost his life – but also given the age of the offenders.
‘Thankfully, that man has gone on to make a significant recovery but given his injuries this could easily have become a murder enquiry.
‘CCTV operators witnessed the final attacks on two students as they happened and quickly alerted our response crews.
‘The two younger offenders were arrested at the scene and Filipache detained the following morning from his home.
‘I’m pleased we managed to get all three in custody very quickly as they would no doubt have gone on to commit more nasty robberies.’
