Court of appeal judges have overturned a two-year suspended sentence on a London teen who attacked a car with a large ‘zombie’ knife in broad daylight, ordering he be imprisoned for three and a half years.

There was public outcry after Joshua Gardner was given the suspended sentence for committing the attack in May 2018 in Croydon, south London, when he was 17 years old.

At the time of the original sentencing in November 2018, Judge Anuja Dhir QC handed down the original sentence based on the defendant having “reduced… culpability” after the court had heard Gardner had been “kidnapped” weeks prior, the judge also taking into account the youth’s difficult upbringing.

On Wednesday, Court of Appeals judges overturned that sentence after the case was referred by Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC for being “unduly lenient.”

Sir Brian Leveson, onf of the three appeals court judges, said, “one of the great problems our society is facing is knife crime, in a subculture where people do not assist the police and young men are losing their lives.”