This is the face of a thug who chased a man around a busy shopping centre brandishing a two-foot machete.
Lewis Rimmer, 22, threatened to chop up his victim as he went after him in the Concourse shopping centre in Skelmersdale.
Rimmer was jailed for four years at Liverpool Crown Court and must serve an extended three years on licence.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that there was a background of bad feeling between him and his victim Robert Crinks after an allegation was made against Rimmer by a member of Mr Crinks’s family, which was never formally pursued.
Bernice Campbell, prosecuting, told how Mr Crinks was in the shopping centre on October 14 when Rimmer wielded the blade and shouted at him: “I’m going to kill you.”
Mr Crinks, fearing for his life, ran off pursued by Rimmer past shoppers and children in a play area before Mr Crinks found a security guard.
When arrested a week later, after being found hiding in a loft space of a house, Rimmer admitted he had chased after his intended victim “to cut him up.”
Rimmer said he had been “stoned” on cannabis at the time of the incident and the court heard that he claimed he was also under the influence of drugs when interviewed.
Rimmer, of Harsnips, Skelmersdale, admitted making threats to kill, affray and breaching his bail.
Judge Andrew Menary, QC, told him: “You chased him through the shopping centre brandishing the machete for all the public to see and threatening to kill him.
“You were determined to catch him up if you could and our intention was to chop him up and kill him. That was your avowed intent which you repeated several times.”
He added, “It is clear you are a dangerous offender.”
Kate Morley, defending, said that Rimmer admitted intending to harm Mr Crinks but denied intending to cause serious harm.
She said: “He did not want to kill him and would not have used the weapon, he was using it to frighten him.”
She said that at the time of his interview Rimmer had been under the influence of drugs and there was an element of bravado.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/