Drugs supplier Malachi Halstead Jailed for 14years for chopping of Drug Dealer Teerath Mann's finger

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DJ jailed for chopping off man's finger with meat cleaver after he posts video of 'barbaric' attack on Snapchat

Malachi Halstead posted 'chilling footage' of the attack on Snapchat Credit: Wales News

• Telegraph Reporters

16 February 2017 • 4:40pm

A DJ who cut off a man's finger with a meat cleaver was caught by his own video when he filmed himself saying: "See that? I chopped that off."

Malachi Halstead, 35, posted "chilling footage" of the attack with the meat cleaver on social media network Snapchat.

Halstead then turned the camera on himself, holding the meat cleaver as he said: "Say hello to my little friend."

The video was released after Halstead, known as DJ Madskie, was jailed for 14 years after driving Teerath Mann, 23, to a graveyard to cut off his finger.

He must have been petrified. It was an utterly barbaric attackRecorder Christopher Clee QC

Halstead posted the video of himself saying: "Anyone f---- with me, this is what I do to him, I chop off their digits."

Pointing to Mann holding a tea towel to his bloodied hand, he said: "See that? I chopped that off."

A court heard Halstead drove Mr Mann to the secluded spot because he suspected he was stealing from him.

Prosecutor Heath Edwards said Halstead lured Mr Mann into his car before telling him: "Tonight you're losing something."

Mr Edwards said: "Halstead drove to a nearby place and parked up, and both got out of the vehicle.

"Mr Mann was made to place his finger on a wooden pole, and when he did, Halstead chopped off a large part of that finger."

Cardiff Crown Court was shown the Snapchat recording showing Mr Mann's severed hand and Halstead.

A still image from Malachi Halstead's Snapchat message Credit: Wales News Service

Mr Mann was selling drugs for Halstead, the court heard, but the DJ suspected money had gone missing.

Halstead denied the attack and said a mystery man called Mr Biggs had ambushed Mr Mann while they were in the graveyard. But Mr Edwards said Mr Biggs was "a figment of Halstead's imagination".

Halstead, of Newport, South Wales, was found guilty of wounding with intent after a five-day trial. He admitted escaping police custody for running away from officers after initially being arrested.

His on-off girlfriend Nicole Seaborne, also of Newport, was cleared of allegedly providing him with the weapon.

The judge, Recorder Christopher Clee QC, called the attack "utterly barbaric" and said the filming had been done to make Mr Mann seem "pathetic".

The case was heard at Cardiff Crown Court Credit: Barry Batchelor/PA

Recorder Clee said: "Mr Mann was pleading with you. He must have been petrified. It was an utterly barbaric attack.

"Having carried out this vicious assault you used your mobile phone to film him making him display his injury and filmed yourself boasting.

"You manipulated the footage to speed his voice to make him look and sound pathetic. That footage is chilling."

After the case, Detective Constable Eirian Williams said: "Malachi Halstead enacted a terrible life changing injury on the victim on what was effectively a vendetta crime.

"We are delighted that this particularly violent individual has been convicted and we hope this lengthy sentence serves as a warning to others involved in organised crime."