Sentence increased to three years in custody

Cartwright was standing outside a shop in Tweedle Hill, Blackley, Manchester, with a group of others on April 19.

He was intoxicated, having drunk two pints of lager and a large number of alcopops, Lord Justice Holroyde told the Appeal Court.

He had also taken cocaine and had a machete in a sheath strapped to his chest.

The judge described it as a ‘frightening looking weapon’ with a 30-centimetre blade and inscribed with the words, ‘The Hunter’.

When teenagers Nathan Meek and Brogan Cunningham walked past the shop, Cartwright shouted at Meek.

The victim told him to ‘chill out’ but Cartwright punched him in the eye. He pulled the knife from the sheath and began to swing it.

The two teenagers ran off but Cartwright pursued them, brandishing the machete.

When Mr Meek stopped and turned to face him, he swung the weapon at him about five times.

One of the blows struck the victim’s arm causing a ‘long, deep wound’, which cut through to the muscle.

He was taken to hospital and was left with a seven-centimetre scar, as well as a reduction of the strength in his left arm which is expected to be permanent.

A probation officer’s report said that Cartwright, who had no previous convictions, was ‘genuinely remorseful’.

And, in the three months prior to his crimes, he had associated with a different group of peers, the court heard.

He had been sofa-surfing, drinking and taking cocaine on a daily basis at the time of the attack.

The class A drug gave him a feeling of ‘invincibility’, but also made him paranoid, the court heard.

Paul Jarvis, for the Solicitor General, argued that the machete attack was ‘so serious that a non-custodial sentence simply cannot be justified’.

Rick Holland, for Cartwright, urged the court not to increase his sentence, pointing to his good character, youth, guilty plea, and ‘comparatively recent fall from grace’.

Cartwright was not in court and the judge said he had ‘recently fallen entirely out of contact both with his family and those supervising him’.

“Some element of panic was at any rate understandable” due to the Solicitor General’s bid to have him locked up, added Lord Justice Holroyde.

Sitting with Mrs Justice Nicola Davies and Judge Jeremy Carey, he said the teenager had a ‘fearsome weapon strapped to his chest’.

The YRO was ‘unduly lenient’ and the court replaced it with three years detention in a young offenders’ institution. His sentence will start from the date on which he ‘surrenders or is apprehended pursuant to the warrant that has been issued’.