Teen jailed for axe attack on Cardiff traveller family

A teenager who threatened to force a family out of Cardiff while brandishing an axe has been locked up after a terrifying attack rooted in a long-running traveller community dispute.

Dominic Janes was just 18 when he led a revenge assault on Michael O’Brien’s home at Shirenewton caravan site in St Mellons last November. The victim was relaxing in bed watching television when the sound of smashing windows shattered the peace of the evening.

Outside, Janes was wielding an axe and making chilling threats. He shouted: “I am going to show you what I am going to do with you now,” before warning he was “going to kill him.”

The attack quickly escalated as other members of the group deliberately drove vehicles into parked cars belonging to the O’Brien family, causing extensive damage. Janes hurled a cane at Michael O’Brien whilst making even more sinister threats: “I am going to kill you stone dead, all of you will have to leave Cardiff. You think I care about the police? I am bare faced.”

When Michael’s parents emerged to investigate the commotion, his mother was struck and injured in the ankle after Janes threw an object at her.

In a victim impact statement read at Cardiff Crown Court, Michael O’Brien described the lasting fear the attack has caused his family. He said: “Myself and the whole family have had issues with the Janes family and their associates for years. I lived in fear they would attack my family and that has not changed. I am worried they will seek revenge and violence will happen again. They came with weapons and injured my mother, rammed our caravan and cars and caused mindless damage. I wish my family will be left alone and the place I live to feel safe once more.”

The court heard this wasn’t Dominic Janes’s first violent confrontation. Over a year earlier, in December 2023, he and his brother Tommy-Joe Janes, 20, had been involved in a brawl at a Lifestyle Express shop on Wentloog Road in Rumney.

CCTV footage captured the brothers fighting with Tony Coffee and Michael Doran inside the store, with punches thrown and crates hurled between the groups. The violence reached another level when Dominic Janes produced a machete and began swinging it at Mr Doran before chasing him with the blade whilst Tommy-Joe continued throwing crates.

Both brothers, from New Road in Rumney, admitted affray charges relating to the shop incident. Dominic Janes also pleaded guilty to a second affray charge and possessing an offensive weapon in connection with the caravan site attack.

Defence lawyers told the court Dominic Janes had “inherited a family feud” within the traveller community and described the November incident as a “cultural misunderstanding.” They also highlighted that he was a “talented boxer” who had represented Wales in competitive bouts against England and Scotland.

Tommy-Joe Janes’s barrister James Hartson argued there was a “positive and realistic prospect of rehabilitation” for his client.

Passing sentence, Judge Shomon Khan addressed Dominic Janes directly, stating: “This was some sort of revenge attack, trying to drive this family out of Cardiff. You said you would kill Michael O’Brien and didn’t care about the police. This family just wants to live their lives without fear of a revenge attack.”

Dominic Janes received 14 months detention in a young offenders institution. His brother Tommy-Joe Janes was handed a one-year sentence, suspended for 18 months, and must complete 100 hours of unpaid work.