Six people have been handed jail terms totalling more than 51 years for their role in a knife incident in an Ipswich park.
Shakur O’Connor, Malakai Greaves-O’Connor, Braydon Byng, Tiago Dos Santos and two teenage boys appeared before Norwich Crown Court on Thursday.
They were all charged with conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm following an incident in Westbourne Park in August last year, when two long machete-style knives were discovered by police.
The six each admitted the offence in September last year, while Dos Santos also admitted two counts of possession of a bladed article and two counts of possession with intent to supply.
O’Connor, 20, of Packard Avenue, Ipswich, was jailed for nine years.
Greaves-O’Connor, 20, of Highfield Road, Felixstowe, was also jailed for nine years.
Byng, 19, of Newnham Court, Ipswich, was jailed for eight years and six months.
Dos Santos, 19, of Belle Vue Road, Ipswich, received a nine-year sentence for conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm, as well as a total of two years and six months for the other offences.
Two 17-year-olds from Ipswich, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were also sentenced.
One received an eight-year custodial sentence, while the other was handed a seven-and-a-half-year sentence.
Following the sentencing, DC Jack Evans, of Suffolk police, said: “This incident and the subsequent sentence shows the police and the justice system’s zero-tolerance approach to violence in our county.
“Seeing young people making threats to kill while handling such lethal weapons is extremely worrying. However, officers were quickly at the scene on the day and this response on top of the investigative work carried out by numerous different teams afterwards, has led to this successful conviction.
“Hopefully this sends a strong message that we will do whatever we can to find and prosecute those that get themselves involved in criminal gangs and serious violent behaviour such as this."
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