Gangster 'wannabe' jailed for machete attack on man in his own Harehills home
A thug who wanted to impress gang members has been jailed after he tried to attack a man in his own home with a machete.
Baby-faced Joshua Spruce was part of a group that force their way into a shared house in Harehills in a revenge attack on the man. The victim was able to stop the gang entering his room in the house of multiple occupancy but only after 18-year-old Spruce had tried to stab at him through the broken door.
Spruce, of Clifton Avenue, Harehills, admitted a charge of aggravated burglary at Leeds Crown Court today and was handed a four-year sentence in a young offender institute.
The court was told that the victim had received a phone call from an unknown number on the evening of February 2, telling him people were coming to “do him in”, over an alleged joke he had made about the death of someone’s child, prosecutor Catherine Duffy said.
CCTV footage of the incident that followed was played to the court, showing several females entering the property on Nowell Place later that night and bang on the door of the victim’s room, before two males joined them, including Spruce.
The footage showed the second male wearing a mask over his face, followed by Spruce, whose face was not covered. Trying to get into man’s room, a panel from the door was broken during the melee. Spruce then pulled the machete from the other man’s trousers and was swinging it around through the gap in the door.
They then left the scene. Spruce was arrested on April 22 and told officers it was a “stupid mistake” he had made. During his police interview, he claimed he did not know the man had a machete.
He has two previous convictions for affray and a dwelling burglary with an intent to steal. He had been given referral orders for both offences because he was a youth at the time.
Spruce appeared in court via video link from HMP Lincoln, where he was being held on remand. The court heard that the other male involved is still at large.
Mitigating, Celine Kart said: “He takes full responsibility for the circumstances he finds himself in. In his words, he found himself on a bad path. He accepts he has done entirely wrong by stepping into that property and doing what he has done.”
She said he has PTSD, ADHD and suffers from depression and anxiety. She said he was previously the victim of two attacks with a knife and a machete, having been stabbed 11 times.
Judge Richard Mansell KC conceded that the other male was the “lead offender”, but concluded that Spruce had been on the “fringes of gang culture” and had become involved to gain credibility.
He told him: “It must have been a terrifying ordeal for the victim and the other residents.”