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Billhook attacker has sentenced reduced
A man who attacked a rival with a billhook, inflicting the worst stab wounds a paramedic had ever seen, has won a cut in his jail term at London's Court of Appeal.
Amandeep Singh Sandhu, of Townsend Road, Southall, was jailed for a total of 13 and a half years at Harrow Crown Court on May 11 after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, as well as possession of cocaine with intent to supply and having a prohibited firearm.
But last week, Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart, sitting with Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Irwin, said that the "totality" of the sentence which Sandhu received was too long.
The court heard that the 22-year-old had expressed remorse after being arrested for the attack on a man named in court only as "Marley".
Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart cut the sentence to 12 years.
In November 2007, following bad blood between Marley and Sandhu, the latter attacked the former with a billhook near a canal in front of a group of his friends.
All the fingers on one of Marley's hands were broken during the incident, and he was repeatedly slashed with the billhook and needed more than five hours of surgery to treat the wounds inflicted.
A paramedic who treated him at the scene said Marley had received the worst stab wounds he had seen in seven years on the job.
Initially Sandhu was charged with attempted murder, but the prosecution later accepted a plea of guilty to GBH.
When Sandhu was arrested for the attack on Marley six months after it happened, police searched his home and found a sawn off shotgun hidden in a cricket bag, and cocaine weighing 54g.
At the Crown Court, Sandhu said he had been given the shotgun the night before by someone who had asked him to look after it, and had found the cocaine.
Both those bases of pleas were accepted by the Crown.
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