A feud between people caught up in the murky world of hard drugs in Bedford ended in bloody street violence with a ‘revenge attack’.
Samson Ngoy, a young man in his 20s was chased across a road and after being cornered behind a parked van was mercilessly attacked by two men armed with an axe and a machete.
Mr Ngoy, who had been drinking heavily, was repeatedly slashed about his head, face, neck and hands in the attack in Alexandra Road, which was captured on CCTV. It only ended, Luton crown court was told on Thursday, September 16, 2021, when members of the public intervened.
The four men appeared in the dock for their part in the brutal 40 second assault. Two of them were jailed for a total of 10 years and eight months Judge Karen Walden-Smith was told that despite suffering injuries that kept him in hospital for at least two days, the victim has declined to assist the police in bringing his attackers to justice.
In the dock the two men who had brandished the weapon that night shortly before 9pm last October, 57-year-old Gary Lecky and Mohammed Hussain, 30, pleaded guilty to wounding Mr Ngoy with intent to do him grievous bodily harm and a second charge of having an offensive weapon.
Two other men, Giuseppe Contino, 49 and Anthony Honeybourne, 35, were alongside them each pleading guilty to assisting an offender.
Prosecutor Neil King told the hearing that all those concerned in the case were ‘loosely connected’ in the world of Class A drug dealing in Bedford.
He described Contino of Wood Lane, Cotton End near Bedford as a user and Honeybourne, of no fixed address, as a street dealer.
The court heard Lecky, of High Street in Bedford and Hussain of Westfield Road, Dunstable, were also part of Honeybourne’s drug circle of associates.
In an outline of the case, Mr King said four days before the attack on Mr Ngoy, the defendant Honeybourne had been stabbed ‘as part of a drug feud’.
He said Honeybourne hadn’t involved the police and said he and those connected with him believed that in some way Mr Ngoy had been involved. Mr King said the crown couldn’t say if he was or wasn’t.
However, the court was told the scene was set for what was to happen four days later. The two men who carried out the attack – Lecky and Hussain – were passengers in a silver Mercedes being driven by Contino on the evening of Saturday October 10, 2020.
Lecky had an axe stuffed down his trousers and Hussain had armed himself with a machete, which was hidden under his jacket.
Mr King said the pair were out that night looking for Mr Ngoy, who they thought had something to do with the earlier attack on Honeybourne.
Just after 8.40pm Mr Ngoy, who was heavily intoxicated, was making his way along Alexandra Road.
Minutes later the Mercedes arrived in the street and, on seeing Mr Ngoy, Lecky and Hussain got out while Mr Contino pulled into a side street.
The prosecutor said just after 8.50pm the pair attacked the man they had been looking for, chasing him into the middle of the road and cornering him behind a parked van.
He said the attack on Ngoy lasted 40 seconds and, during that time, the victim received slash type wounds to his head, neck, face and hands.
“The attack came to a stop because he drew the attention of bystanders, and a PCSO was quickly on the scene.
Mr King went on: “The crown accept Contino didn’t know the attack was to take place but he must have seen it happen, but he chose to drive them and the weapons away from the scene.”
The court was told Contino drove the men to an address in Turners Way, Bedford and soon afterwards Honeybourne was responsible for getting rid of the weapons that had been used.
The prosecutor said that when officers visited Ngoy in hospital two days after the attack, he made it clear he would not be cooperating with their investigation.
Mr King told the court the attack by Lecky and Hussain had involved a significant degree of planning and premeditation and they had even been in Tennyson Road in Bedford earlier looking for their victim.
He said because of the amount he had had to drink that night, Mr Ngoy was “obviously vulnerable.”
“It was a revenge attack against a background of Class A drug dealing,” said Mr King Passing sentences on the four, Judge Walden-Smith told them: “Samson Ngoy could not have had any idea of what he was going to face in Alexandra Road, a quite residential Street in Bedford.”
She said the attack that night was in “retaliation” for an assault on Honeybourne a few days earlier.
The judge then went on: “You Hussain and Lecky were hunting for Mr Ngoy as part of some sort of drug feud. This was a premeditated and planned attack with Hussain and Lecky setting upon Mr Ngoy who was isolated and helpless.”
The judge said Hussain had struck the victim five or six times with a machete while Lecky was seen to strike Mr Ngoy with an axe to his back.
She told the pair ”You had him trapped.”
Both Hussain and Lecky were each jailed for five years and four months; Honeybourne was jailed for 16 months and Contino was given a 16 month jail sentence which was suspended for 18 months.
He was told he would also be subject to a home curfew for the next 12 months when he will have to be at home between 9pm and 7am.
He was told he would have to pay £750 towards the cost of the prosecution.
