Three men have been jailed after armed gangs ran amok in Nottingham city centre. Footage showed two groups, some armed with knives, come together in the Market Square following an argument in a nearby nightclub.
In the clip, played at Nottingham Crown Court, weapons can be seen brandished and punches thrown as the rivals stage a running battle in front of other early morning revellers. The CCTV shows 27-year-old Dureece Smith flee from a pursuing gang down Exchange Walk where his friend Chris Gerald “blindsides” one of the other men with a savage punch leaving him hospitalised with fractures to his face.
Jailing the heavily-convicted St Ann’s 29-year-old, who was once sent to prison for six years for possessing guns and ammunition, for 33 months, Recorder Mark McKone said: “This was a large-scale disturbance in Nottingham city centre in the early hours of June 22. A number of men were fighting and many of them had knives which the police recovered.
“Your case is that you were holding a lighter in your hand when you blindsided the victim.
“I regard it as unlikely it was a lighter seeing as the others used knives and you have a history of carrying knives. But (with no other evidence) I sentence you on the basis you were holding a lighter.
“You approached him from behind and struck him, leaving him with serious injuries – a fractured eye socket, fractured by his nose and a 2cm injury to his left eye socket but thankfully they were not life-changing.”
Police cars blocked off Exchange Walk on Saturday morning
(Image: Deb Sherriff)
An earlier trial heard how the groups came together in Old Market Square following a disagreement in Fusion Nightclub, in St James’s Street. Prosecutor Luc Chignell played footage of the melee which showed knives being produced and swung and punches thrown.
On the clip Smith, of no fixed address, runs from the square down Exchange Walk being chased by a man who has not been prosecuted. Gerald is then seen to follow them both and aim a punch at the victim while holding an item he says was a lighter, in his hand.
Mr Chignell said: “The Crown cannot prove what the item was. ”
That defendant, of Hungerhill Road, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and to an unrelated charge of possession with intent to supply cannabis from October 15, 2021, when he was caught carrying the drug while riding an e-scooter in Lincoln Street in the city centre. He has 15 previous convictions for 25 offences including the gun charge, robbery and affray.
Dominic Shelley, mitigating, unsuccessfully urged the judge to impose a suspended sentence order saying his client has become “an enhanced prisoner” since being remanded seven months ago.
Smith was cleared of affray but found guilty of possession of a bladed article at a trial and was jailed for 18 months. A third man, 23-year-old Tionne Loftman, of no fixed address, denied any involvement at the disturbance and also took his case to trial where he was found guilty of affray and possession of a bladed article.
He was sent to prison for 27 months. Nottinghamshire Live has asked Nottinghamshire Police for custody photographs of the three jailed men .
Police cars at the entrance to Exchange Walk in Nottingham
(Image: Submitted)