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A shocking video shows the moment a young thug brandished a machete on a terrified teenager’s doorstep.
CCTV footage of the incident shows two young men first backing their victim up along the road outside his home in Faversham, before he is twice knocked to the ground.
CCTV captured the attack
The victim, who is autistic and was 17 at the time of the attack, then gets to his feet and attempts to defend himself as he retreats towards his front door, followed by the two thugs.
One of the attackers then remains outside the victim’s home, while the other disappears, returning moments later with a machete.
The 17-year-old is threatened with the blade out of view of the camera, before the thugs swagger away down the street with the victim’s phone, leaving him bleeding from a “nasty wound” to his nose.
The victim’s father says his son, who was “in fear for his life” during those moments, is still suffering as a result of the terrifying ordeal.
“It’s affected him quite badly,” he said. “He hasn’t been out for the last eight months because of it, and he won’t go anywhere on his own.
“He was supposed to get counselling, but that hasn’t been put in place because of Covid, so that hasn’t helped at all.”
Two 20-year-olds from Faversham - Tyler Pomeroy and Kenny Harmsworth - have now been convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm following the incident, which took place in December 2019.
At Canterbury Crown Court, it was heard how the pair had gone to confront their victim because they suspected he was still involved with Pomeroy’s girlfriend.
Judge Simon James said: “You were both aggressive from the outset and you both prosecuted a physical attack upon him in order to gain access to his telephone, which you believed might include evidence to substantiate your suspicions.”
Having watched the CCTV footage, Judge James said he rejected the defendants’ claim that their victim had been the aggressor and had been first to brandish the weapon.
Harmsworth, of Tanners Street in Faversham; and Pomeroy, also known as Tyler Pearson, both pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm in relation to the incident.
Pomeroy also pleaded guilty to “threatening a person with an article with a blade or point”.
Sentencing the pair on January 21, Judge James said Pomeroy’s use of a machete escalated the “overall seriousness” of the sustained, two-on-one attack.
“Weapons like this have a capacity to main and kill, and their production can only inflame situations like this,” he said.
“There can be no doubt in my mind that both of your offending is sufficiently serious to justify the imposition of an immediate custodial sentence.”
But he said: “You, Harmsworth, have no previous convictions and in the circumstances, considering the unprecedented pressure placed on the prison service as a result of the pandemic, I am not satisfied that it is necessary to send you to prison today, considering that you have kept out of any further trouble for over a year.”
Addressing Pomeroy, he added: “Had you not had the good sense to plead guilty, I consider that you would have faced a sentence of two years imprisonment.
“You also have a previous conviction for using violence, albeit as a juvenile.
“Because of your use of a weapon, I am obliged to impose an immediate custodial sentence of no less than six months unless I am persuaded that your personal circumstances make such unjust.”
He added he must take into account Pomeroy’s age, “relative lack of offending” and efforts to “stay out of trouble and gain employment” since the attack, along with current pressure on the prison system.
“I have also had regard to the assistance you provide your mother, in caring for your siblings, and the difficulties they will be caused because of your stupidity,” he said.
But the judge said he still considered the offending to be “so serious that it must be marked with a custodial sentence”.
Pomeroy was sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders’ institute, suspended for two years, while Harmsworth was given an 18-month community order.
Both were also ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and to each pay £250 compensation to their victim.
Pomeroy was additionally made subject to a four-month electronically monitored curfew, in place from 8pm to 5am.
The victim’s father has since expressed his dismay at the sentences.
“My son was in fear of his life in those moments,” he said. “It’s a joke, what they got.
“I was disgusted with £500 compensation for what he went through. Carrying an offensive weapon, threatening someone with a machete, and it’s on CCTV.
“I thought they were coming down seriously on knife crime.
“I just feel let down - I know it’s not the police’s fault, it’s the sentence.”
