Duo 'squared up' with machetes in shopping centre

Two men have been sentenced over a confrontation involving machetes inside Nottingham's Victoria Centre.

Kyron MacGregor and Tyeece Richardson were passing through the shopping centre in separate groups when they spotted each other at about 15:30 BST on 14 March.

"Without a moment's hesitation", Nottinghamshire Police said the pair pulled out machetes from under their clothes and "squared up to one another" before fleeing in opposite directions.

They both admitted a charge of threatening a person with a blade in a public place at Nottingham Crown Court on 17 April and were sentenced in the same court on Thursday.

MacGregor, 20, of Bailey Street in Basford, was jailed for 18 months while Richardson, 18, of Glaisdale Drive West in Wollaton, was told he would spend the same amount of time in a young offender institution.

Det Insp Julian Eminson-Ferry, of Nottinghamshire Police, described the pair's behaviour as "staggeringly reckless".

He said: "They clearly had no regard for the safety of themselves, each other, or other members of the public standing nearby, who must have been appalled by what they were seeing.

"While thankfully nobody, including either of them, was harmed, their actions were extremely dangerous and miles away from what right-minded people would ever consider acceptable."

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