A TEENAGE knifeman has been jailed after committing a second armed robbery within a year.

Vernon Williams, 18, and his accomplice Tyrone White, 19, forced their terrified young victim to sit on the floor while they waved knives, including a machete-style blade in his face, forcing him to dodge the blows.

Williams and White robbed Christopher Mundy, 18, of his trainers when he said he had no money and he was forced to run home from the attack in his socks.

In a previous attack, Williams, of Marney Road, Grange Park, knifed a pub landlord in the face during a drunken attack in May.

After cutting Norman Fenton, the landlord of The Falcon in Westcott Place, across the nose, Williams had his nine-month sentence suspended when he told a judge he had stopped drinking and got a job as a dustman.

Describing the latest attack, Lynne Henderson, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the victim was walking across a park in West Swindon, at about 7pm on Monday, November 12, when he noticed White in front of him carrying a knife at his side.

Mr Mundy described it as machete-style with a two to three-inch blade, which was jagged on one side.

Williams then appeared out of a bush and pointed his blade at Mr Mundy's chest and demanded he gave them his money. "He thought he was going to die," said Miss Henderson.

"He begged not to be killed or hurt. At the forefront of his mind were recent stabbings in the area he had heard about.

"He was then told to run and did so, making it all the way home in his socked feet - only calling the police the following day as he was so scared about what had happened."

Williams and White, of Gerard Walk, Grange Park, both admitted the robbery.

Andrew Hobson, representing Williams, said the offence was committed to raise money for cannabis, which he was taking at the time.

Rob Ross, for White, said his client had been working with his uncle as a bricklayer but got laid off .

Rather than getting another job he said he drifted and started taking crack cocaine, which he was on at the time of the robbery.

Jailing the teenagers Judge David Smith QC said: "Robbery by two men with knives must have been a terrifying ordeal for the victim and something that I am sure he will remember for a long time."

Both were sentenced to 18 months, with Williams given an extra six months for breaking his previous suspended sentence.

Swindon police said the convictions were a sign of its dedicated robbery team working at its best.

Det Con Nick Bishop, of Swindon CID, said: "This was a particularly nasty robbery. The victim was a young man and he was threatened with weapons.

"We take knife crime extremely seriously.

"This was a good investigation by the robbery team in which these two offenders were quickly identified, brought in, charged and have now been to court and sent to prison."

The jailing of the pair comes just a week after the Advertiser revealed someone in Swindon is a victim of knife crime every two and a half days.

Freedom Of Information figures obtained by the Advertiser showed 146 people were stabbed or threatened with knives in 2007.