A 16-year-old boy who held a two-foot-long machete to a taxi driver’s throat in a terrifying attack has been locked up.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has previously served custodial sentences for brutal assaults committed when he was 14 and 15. Now he is beginning a new sentence over the attack on Mohammed Asghar in Dundee last November.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard the boy had attended a party in Mossgiel Crescent then left around 3am to go to another address in a taxi with three friends.
On the way back to the party Mr Asghar feared they were going to run off without paying and told the four they needed to pay their fare before exiting the car.
The teen then pulled out a machete, which was shown to the court, and held it to the driver’s neck.
He fled the taxi screaming for help prompting one of the other boys to steal a drawstring bag containing the driver’s change before the boys then went back to the party.
One of the boys, 16, of Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of assault, while the other, also 16, of Dundee, admitted a charge of theft.
Sheriff Alistair Carmichael handed the machete-wielding teen a 292-day custodial sentence.
He will also be supervised in the community for a period of nine months on his release.
The other teen was given a community payback order with 18 months’ supervision, 120 hours’ unpaid work and an electronic tag confining him to his home address from 7pm to 7am for three months.