Teenager who slashed open young man's stomach in homophobic Northampton attack jailed

Ibraima Tourey-Drammeh opened a 20cm wound in his victim's belly when he slashed him with a machete.

The fight that broke out near in St Katherine's Gardens in August last year started when Ibraima Touray-Drammeh threw a homophobic slur at his victim in the street.

It ended with the teenager pulling a machete out his trousers and opening a 20cm wound in the man's belly.

Even as the victim was left to struggle with his horrific injuries, the 17-year-old attacker knocked his phone out his hand so he could not call for help and then ran away.

But at Northampton Crown Court heard yesterday (May 23), Touray-Drammeh was told he was a danger to the public and was looking at 10 years and eight months in jail.

Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking told the teenager: "This is what happens when you carry weapons in public and injure other people.

"You walked through the town centre with a barely-concealed machete."

It comes after the teenager's friend Perry Bentley, 23, was jailed for 20 months after he watched the stabbing and did nothing to help.

The 17-year-old was handed a 10-year-old sentence and was told he was a danger to the public.

The court heard how Touray-Drammeh bought the machete just two days before the attack.

A video recovered from a phone and played in evidence showed, how just hours before the attack, the teenager joked in a group with Bentley about how he struggled to walk with the blade hidden in his trousers.

But when he saw his victim in an argument near to The Boston nightclub later that night, he hurled a homophobic slur at the man.

The judge said: "[Your victim] was obviously incensed by this... then you waded back into the argument you yourself had started and produced the machete.

The victim was called a homophobic slur before Tourey-Drammeh slashed him with the blade.

"You slashed him in the chest, in broad daylight, in public.

"You both ran from this badly injured man. He fell down bleeding, and saw his own intestines fall through his abdomen."

The victim's life was saved by immediate help from the police. Doctors had to place him in a medically-induced coma on the way to hospital and he needed extensive surgery.

The victim in the case took the stand in March to tell his attackers how the stabbing had devastated his life and self-confidence.

The incident saw several streets around the Boston Nightclub and St Katherine's Park closed by police for hours.

"When I first saw my scars in hospital I cried for over an hour at what these men had done to me.

"I have frequent flashbacks... I have nightmares of a man in my room at night.

"I have been left a shadow of my former self... I used to be outgoing and confident but I find going out just makes me anxious. I don't think I will ever be the same."

In court, Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking told Touray-Drammeh: "This offence is so serious it can only be met with an immediate custodial sentence... and I must impose an extended sentence in order to protect the public."

The 17-year-old was handed prison sentence of 10 years and eight months, and must serve a minimum of seven years before he is ever considered for parole.