In the first instance the news media reported the case openly: “Law student who jumped out of taxi to fight with machetes given second chance.” “Gavin Maleka, 20, has appeared in court.”
“A Leeds law student jumped out of a taxi to fight with two men while holding a machete. Gavin Maleka, 20, was riding in the taxi in Chapeltown on July 28 this year when he spotted a man and lay in wait before attacking him with the weapon.”
But then reporting of the case at Leeds Crown Court took a different turn.
“Prosecutor Joseph Bell told Leeds Crown Court on Friday: “At around 3.30pm, a phone call was made from someone at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Louis Street, Chapeltown to report they could see two men fighting with machetes.”
“The defendant had been in a taxi and asked the driver to stop and left the vehicle and a fight broke out with two men in the street. CCTV footage from the taxi shows the defendant picking up a knife from a man and getting out a machete secreted in his trousers.”
His Honour Judge Menary told the court: “The defendant said the taxi was being chased by someone else and he asked the driver to pull up around the corner and someone comes around with a knife and he and the defendant have a scuffle. Someone else comes and they swing at each other when he pulls out the machete.”
Mr Bell said: “Thankfully no one was injured and the defendant got back into the taxi.”
“Maleka was arrested and went onto admit affray and possession of a bladed article in a public place. He had no previous convictions on his record.”
Mitigating, Sam Roxborough said: “He has never experienced custody before and it is something he tells me is extremely unpleasant. The reality is this was, thankfully, a short-lived incident which was serious and no doubt frightening to those who witnessed it, but short and ended a minute after it started. He understands the seriousness of his actions.”
The court heard Maleka is currently studying at university to be a mechanical engineer and is about to go into his second year. He secured A-Levels in maths and qualifications in law and finance before going to university.
Mr Roxborough said: “The Probation Service is clear moving away from Leeds is going to be a helpful factor… He has two young children and sees them every week and for significant periods of that week. He has a consistent presence in their lives and the reality is he hopes to support that family moving forward and people there for his children.”
“The judge handed Maleka a sentence of 12 months suspended for 18 months, during which he must complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.” Unbelievable!
The court accepted that he found custody unpleasant! “He has never experienced custody before and it is something he tells me is extremely unpleasant.”
Why was there this level of tolerance for the offences? There is supposed to be a campaign in Leeds to stamp out knife crime in the city and yet here we have a criminal case before the Crown court because he was fighting in the street in the middle of the afternoon and had a machete!
Note:
It has been difficult to find a photograph of the defendant Gavin Maleka, perhaps the mainstream news media made a decision to protect his identity, but given his name and the location of the offence (note to readers from outside the Leeds area, Chapeltown is a district of the city where the White British are a minority population).
Is this once again a situation of Two-Tier Justice because the accused in the case ticks certain boxes for a ‘Woke’ court room? What if this had been a White working class lad, a Leeds United fan caught fighting in the street armed with a machete in the middle of a Friday afternoon?
Credits:
Main Image: Stock Image.
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