Shocking footage shows warring gang members fighting an horrific knife battle in front of families and young children in a busy shopping centre.
They left a trail of blood across the floor of The Mall in Luton following the brazen fight in broad day light in the middle of the afternoon.
The attack was recorded on the centre’s CCTV that was played to a judge at Luton Crown Court. Members of the public also captured the drama on their phones.
Armed police had rushed to the scene following reports that three youths had brandished a machete, a large kitchen knife and a hunting knife.
Trails of blood were left as Che Stephens, Luca Sanni and Imani Pobi Da Silva, who are now all aged 18, become embroiled in the dangerous and bloody knife fight.
Shocking CCTV footage captured Stephens stabbing Pobi Da Silva, who was then aged 17
Sanni (pictured on the floor) suffered a life threatening injury and was lucky that a medically-trained passerby decided to stop and help him
Shocking CCTV footage captured Stephens stabbing Pobi Da Silva, who was then aged 17.
Seconds later, Sanni confronted Stephens with a machete, which left his hand as he swung the weapon in his direction.
Stephens was caught on CCTV stabbing Sanni, before calmly fleeing the scene.
Sanni, of Luton, was sentenced to five years after being found guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm and affray.
He was also jailed for eight months, to be served concurrently, after pleading guilty to possession of a bladed article.
Pobi Da Silva, of Luton, was sentenced to 12 months after being found guilty of possession of a bladed article.
Stephens, of Bedford, was sentenced to seven years and six months for wounding with intent and 18 months after pleading guilty to possession of a bladed article.
Trails of blood (pictured) were left as Che Stephens, Luca Sanni and Imani Pobi Da Silva, who are now all aged 18, become embroiled in the dangerous and bloody knife fight
Both sentences are to run concurrently.
In sentencing the teenagers, judge Barbara Mensah described the violence as ‘a prolonged confrontation with shocking consequences in a public place’ in which they had all gone out armed with knives.
She said: ‘That horrifying spectacle was not taking place in a film in a cinema or down an alley away from public gaze. It took place in broad daylight.
‘CCTV shows children and families going about their business. It was something they had to see.’
The judge said there is a suggestion that the teenagers have backgrounds which are linked with gangs and rejected the idea that the violence had been over an ex-girlfriend.
The judge told the teenagers: ‘Who knows why you decided to meet. It might have been drugs territory or gangs – only the three of you know and you have chosen not to disclose it.
Armed police had rushed to the scene following reports that three youths had brandished a machete (pictured), a large kitchen knife and a hunting knife
‘You were all culpable. I am also satisfied that each of you knew that the others were carrying a knife.’
She said Sanni and Pobi Da Silva were ‘very lucky not to be fatality statistics’ and described Stephens as having been ‘very obviously hyped up and dangerous’.
Stephens was armed with a large kitchen knife, Sanni with a machete and Pobi Da Silva with a large serrated hunting knife.
Sanni suffered a life threatening injury and was lucky that a medically-trained passerby decided to stop and help him, according to prosecutor Martin Mulgrew.
Sanni suffered a 2.5cm long clean cut to the lower thigh which penetrated the muscle and was bleeding from the vein.
Mr Mulgrew said: ‘Sanni was helped in that one of the passersby was an ex-Army medic who applied a tourniquet which saved his life. He was blue-lipped and received life-saving treatment from a vascular surgeon.
The attack was recorded on the centre’s CCTV that was played to a judge at Luton Crown Court. Members of the public also captured the drama on their phones
‘A vein had been nicked. Police had expected to turn this into a murder investigation.’
Sanni and Pobi Da Silva, who suffered a deep wound to the left arm, were taken to hospital for treatment where they were arrested and later charged.
Stephens was arrested in London.
Mr Mulgrew said: ‘There was clear hostility between Stephens and particularly Sanni. There was squaring up by Sanni, getting into Stephens’ face.’
Mr Mulgrew said the group were in a ‘more discreet’ passageway when the defendants ‘engaged in a dangerous knife fight which Stephens instigated when he produced a knife from his waistband and stabbed Pobi Da Silva in the left arm’.
The court heard that Stephens stabbed Pobi Da Silva.
Sanni, who had his hood up to try and thwart identification, produced a large machete which he had been carrying down his trouser leg.
The prosecution said Pobi Da Silva had passed his knife on to an unknown male. Police later found the knife under a stairwell, the court was told.