A psychopath who killed 'Britain's worst pedophile' in prison and a kidnapper who drowned his ex-girlfriend and left her body in a tent in the woods were just two of the notorious criminals locked up in the UK last month.
Each week, courts hear some harrowing cases as criminals are brought to justice across the country.
Other offenders locked up in November include a rapist who carried out a string of sex attacks at a popular holiday resort and a burglar who squirted a chilli sauce mix in his elderly victim's face
These are some of the shocking court cases that were widely reported in the UK last month.
Shane Groves
A man who bit his brother's nose off at a birthday party was locked up for two years and one month.
Shane Groves, 27, admitted grievous bodily harm after a fight at his own party on April 5, last year, Nottinghamshire Police said.
Groves was at a private members’ club in Sutton-in-Ashfield, near Mansfield, when he began hurling homophobic abuse towards another man.
When his brother challenged him over his behaviour, he threw a chair and tried to head-butt him.
The pair began to fight and Groves bit off the tip of his brother’s nose, which "ended up on the club floor”, police said.
Despite attempts by medics at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, the nose could not be reattached and the victim is now awaiting reconstructive surgery.
Blagovest Hadjigueorguiev
A man was jailed for dousing two police officers with petrol and setting fire to one of them in a “wicked” attack.
Blagovest Hadjigueorguiev, 30, had been camping on Duchy of Cornwall land in Newquay without permission for months and refused to leave despite being served with eviction notices.
Devon and Cornwall Police officers were called to assist with removing Hadjigueorguiev and his belongings from the field, next to a school.
Hadjigueorguiev picked up a cider bottle containing petrol and threw it at two officers, Pc Darral Mares and his colleague Pc Alan Lenton, a court heard.
He then threw the remainder of the petrol from the bottle onto his camp fire – causing flames to “explode” over Pc Mares, 51.
Hadjigueorguiev had threatened to set them on fire, but the officers were “calm, professional and non-confrontational” before his attack, the court heard.
Hadjigueorguiev admitted charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Pc Mares and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent to Pc Lenton.
Hadjigueorguiev was jailed for 10 years and six months for the attack on Pc Mares, and six years for the attempted attack on Pc Lenton. The sentences will run concurrently.
In a victim personal statement, Pc Mares detailed how he underwent “excruciatingly painful” treatment in hospital for his burns.
Simon Finch
A disgruntled former defence worker disclosed “damaging” top secret details of a UK missile system.
Simon Finch, 50, could have put servicemen and women in jeopardy if the leaked classified material had fallen into enemy hands, the Old Bailey was told.
He pleaded guilty to recording and disclosing classified information, in breach of the Official Secrets Act, after a senior judge rejected his defence of “duress by circumstance”.
Finch, who had some autistic traits, also admitted failing to give authorities access codes to three electronic devices.
Finch, who had become disillusioned by British authorities, had not been under any “fear” or “pressure” as he put together classified information from memory at Swansea library and emailed it from a Frankfurt hotel, the court heard.
Finch’s life began to unravel after he reported being the victim of homophobic attacks in 2013, the court heard.
He began carrying weapons including nunchucks “for protection” when he went out in Southport in Merseyside.
He told the jury he had wanted to do something " to generate national exposure".
Finch was jailed for four and a half years, and made subject to a five-year serious crime and prevention order aimed at stopping him from disclosing any more classified information stored in his “near photographic” memory.
Martin Currie and Sarah O'Brien
A couple were jailed following the murder of two-year-old boy in Doncaster.
Martin Currie, 36, was jailed for a minimum of 22 years for murdering toddler Keigan O’Brien, while his mother Sarah O’Brien, 33, was found guilty of causing or allowing his death and child cruelty.
O'Brien was jailed for eight years following a trial.
Kiegan sustained numerous injuries in the weeks leading up to the “catastrophic” head injury that caused his death, the court heard.
The judge said heroin addict Currie was “apparently triggered by a fit of temper” at being interrupted by Keigan as he “lay in bed looking at porn” on his phone while O’Brien was out on the morning of January 8.
Currie “violently yanked” Keigan’s arm, fracturing his wrist, shook him and threw him down, hitting his head on a hard surface, before leaving him to “bleed on to his pillow”, the court was told.
The judge said Currie went on to search the internet for terms including “irregular breathing”, “unconscious” and “gurgling” and, “in a particularly pathetic sign of your self-absorption” made contact with his drug dealer - but he did not call an ambulance until around two hours later.
Keigan died from a bleed on the brain in hospital the next day, just three days after his second birthday.
Currie and O’Brien lied to the emergency services and the police, claiming to have found Keigan not breathing in bed and did not explain how he came by his injuries.
Dominic Chappell
Former BHS owner Dominic Chappell was jailed for evading more than half a million pounds in taxes on income from his £1 deal to buy the failed high street chain.
The 53-year-old’s offending was an “egregious example” of cheating the public revenue, Southwark Crown Court heard, with the businessman spending a fortune on a luxury lifestyle.
He was jailed for six years for evading VAT, corporation tax and income tax owed on his £2.2 million income from the BHS deal.
His lawyers claimed he became, and still is, “utterly broke” because BHS’s hugely underfunded “pension problem exploded” within two weeks of him controversially buying BHS from retail tycoon Sir Philip Green in 2015.
Rejecting his defence team’s suggestion that, had BHS not failed, he would have had the funds to pay his tax liability, a jury found Chappell guilty of dishonesty after deliberations over three days.
He had denied three charges of cheating the public revenue between January 2014 and September 2016, related to his bankrupt finance company Swiss Rock Limited.
A day after income tax should have been paid, Chappell had bought a £91,000 Bentley Continental as well as a pair of Beretta guns for £11,000, the court heard. He later bought a £33,000 Land Rover.
The judge gave the total figure lost to HMRC in unpaid taxes as £583,739.20, and told Chappell his crimes were so serious that “only an immediate custodial sentence is appropriate”.
Mark Fellows and Aaron Parkin
'Iceman' Mark Fellows was handed another life sentence for his involvement in a gangland attack in the months before he murdered Paul Massey.
Fellows, 40, who is already serving a whole life term, was given another life sentence after being convicted in relation to brutal attack on Aaron Williams, an associate of Salford's A Team gang.
Aaron Parkin, who the judge said played a 'critical' role in plots to attack Williams and another A Teamer, Abdul Rahman Khan, was jailed for 14 years.
He was responsible for trackers placed on Khan and Williams' cars prior to the attacks.
Sentencing, judge Sir Peter Openshaw said Fellows had been described as a 'gun for hire'.
"There was no gun here, but it is obvious he was recruited because he was the hitman," he added.
"Here, he was extracted by others to attack Williams and he did so with a ruthless determination."
The judge said Fellows is 'obviously' dangerous and handed him another life sentence, which will run alongside the previous sentence he received for the murders of Paul Massey and Merseyside gangster John Kinsella.
Parkin had previously admitted two counts of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to both attacks.
Paul Fitzgerald
A psychopath who raped and murdered “Britain’s worst paedophile” in prison will spend a minimum of 34 years in jail.
Paul Fitzgerald, 30, strangled Richard Huckle with an electrical cable sheath, inserted a pen into his brain through his nostril, raped him and penetrated his anus with a spoon handle in a 78-minute attack in his cell at HMP Full Sutton.
He said he would have like to have cooked and eaten parts of Huckle’s body and would have gone on to kill more inmates but was “having too much fun”, a court heard.
Fitzgerald said he wanted Huckle, who was given 22 life sentences at the Old Bailey in 2016 for an unprecedented number of offences against children aged between six months and 12 years, to feel what his victims had felt.
Fitzgerald went into Huckle’s cell at the East Yorkshire prison, on October 13 last year, armed with makeshift weapons, made out of a toothbrush and a pen, a ligature and items to gag him and bind his arms and legs.
The court heard that Fitzgerald, who suffers from psychopathy, anti-social personality disorder and gender identity disorder, has previous convictions for violent and sexual offences, starting from the age of 13 and including the false imprisonment of a female prison officer.
The judge said the only mitigating features of the case were Fitzgerald’s mental health issues, which were the result of physical and sexual abuse he suffered as a child.
Huckle, from Ashford, in Kent, awarded himself “paedo-points” for different acts of abuse against 191 youngsters and sold images of his depravity on the dark web.
Michael Emeofa
The leader of a county lines gang targeted by police after a spate of drug-related deaths in a Cumbrian town was jailed for nine years.
South Londoner Michael Emeofa, 22, headed a network which flooded Barrow-in-Furness with heroin and crack cocaine between March 2018 and January 2019.
Police acted following concerns about the over-supply of Class A drugs in the town, where 14 people died between December 2017 and early 2018.
Emeofa’s involvement with Barrow came through his friendship with two students, Daniel Olaloko and Peter Adebayo, who ran their own county lines enterprise from a student halls of residence in 2017 and 2018.
Emeofa, nicknamed Sprayz, initially acted as a runner for the men, who studied at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, but then set up his own mobile phone line to take drugs orders in direct opposition.
When police arrested Olaloko and Adebayo in April 2018 – who were both later jailed – Emeofa filled the gap and installed dealers in the town from London and also recruited drug addicts in Barrow to work on his behalf.
Among his recruits were two 17-year-old boys and two 15-year-old boys, one of whom had been reported missing from local authority accommodation in London.
Glyndwr Wayman
A killer who stabbed his 90-year-old neighbour to death will serve at least 30 years behind bars.
Glyndwr Wayman, 50, was found guilty of the 'brutal' murder of his elderly neighbour Nathaniel Suggitt, who was known as Terry.
West Yorkshire Police said the victim was found dead at his home in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, in October 2019.
When officers discovered him, he was on the living room floor with his trouser pockets turned out.
A number of items had been stolen from the property.
The force said Mr Suggitt died from multiple stab wounds.
Judge Simon Phillips QC sentenced Wayman to life in jail with a minimum term of 30 years.
Craig Mossop
A cancer nurse “loved by her patients” died when she was mowed down by a drink driver.
Susan Jackson, 50, died when Craig Mossop's Land Rover mounted a pavement in Bolton and struck the mother-of-two as she waited to meet her husband.
Mossop, who had no licence or insurance, did not stop and went on to drive through a red light at a busy junction and hit another pedestrian, causing him serious injuries.
CCTV played in court showed Mossop driving recklessly on the approach to the scene of the fatal collision in Chorley Street on August 23.
He mounted the pavement and drove along it for 40 metres before he struck Ms Jackson at a speed of 53mph in a 30mph zone.
Mrs Jackson was later pronounced dead at the scene with multiple injuries.
Mossop pleaded guilty to a string of offences including causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving, and drink driving and was jailed for nine years.
Thomas Broughton
A man drove a car into a group of six pedestrians outside a pub in a “revenge attack” following an earlier scuffle.
Thomas Broughton, 32, was jailed for 18 years after he struck and injured three men outside the Waterlily pub in Ipswich in the early hours of March 8.
Brandon Mann, one of the men struck by the car, said that before the incident there had been “some miscommunication” between groups outside the pub and Broughton thought he was being laughed at.
He said a “scuffle” broke out, Broughton left and then a car “swerved up onto the pavement” and hit them.
Two of the victims sustained serious injuries when they were hit by the car and were initially taken to Ipswich Hospital for treatment.
One of the men – aged in his 40s – was later transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge having sustained serious head and brain injuries.
He left a rehabilitation centre in August after five months of treatment and is currently only able to walk short distances with assistance.
Broughton was found guilty of dangerous driving, wounding with intent to cause GBH, and two counts of attempted wounding with intent to cause GBH, Suffolk Police said.
He will serve at least 12 years in custody, and will spend the remainder of his sentence on licence.
Mohammed Nawaz
A prolific criminal was jailed after bursting into a 90-year-old woman’s home and squirting her with a hot chilli sauce mix.
Mohammed Nawaz barged his way into the pensioner’s property in the Hall Green area of Birmingham on August 26, West Midlands Police said.
The 52-year-old, who has 36 previous convictions for burglary, robbery and theft, targeted his victim because he believed she was home alone.
But the pensioner’s son was visiting at the time Nawaz barged in and he confronted the robber.
The force said the defendant squirted the hot chilli sauce and water mix from a washing up liquid bottle at both victims – temporarily blinding the 49-year-old son – before running off empty-handed.
Nawaz was jailed for nine years and one month.
Police said Nawaz was also jailed for a similar offence in 2010 when he broke into a 93-year-old’s home in Sparkhill and squirted a substance in their face before stealing items.
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Abdirazac Hussein Abdi and Frank Kenfack
Members of a gang murdered a 16-year-old boy in a “mindless” machete attack on the driveway of a church in Coventry.
Abdirazac Hussein Abdi, 21, and Frank Kenfack, 18, were told the killing of Jaydon James was “as close to an execution as could be imagined”.
Abdi, a senior member of the city’s RB7 gang, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years, while Kenfack, a member of the same gang, was ordered to be detained for a minimum term of 17 years.
The trial was told that at least 14 incidents of violence involving members of RB7 and the rival C2 gang occurred before Jaydon’s murder in November 2018.
The killers had driven to the Wood End area of the city, which was 'C2 territory', and were engaged in an armed hunt for anyone they might find on the streets, the judge said.
Jaydon was stabbed in the back as he tried to run away from his attackers, the court heard.
Detective Inspector Stuart Mobberley, of West Midlands Police, said he believed Jaydon was “in the wrong place at the wrong time and his killers were simply out for revenge”.
Andrew Pearson
A stalker was jailed for kidnapping his ex-girlfriend and violently drowning her.
Andrew Pearson, 45, conducted a dry run and took photos of the various scenes days before he ambushed Natalie Harker and forced her into woodland in North Yorkshire, where he had hidden a tent.
Police found her bruised and naked body under a sleeping bag around 12 hours after Pearson had grabbed her when she was cycling along a secluded path to work in the dark.
The court heard how Pearson took her lifeless body into the tent after holding her underwater and stripped her of her clothes.
At some point Pearson had intercourse while Ms Harker was unconscious or dying, the court heard.
He did not summon help for the 30-year-old churchgoer, but messaged a friend in the US, saying: “Goodbye, I have killed Natalie, I’m going to hand myself in.”
He then spent 42 minutes on a FaceTime call with that friend while in the tent with his ex-girlfriend’s body.
Pearson did not confess to police.
Instead during a 999 call around 12 hours after he had abducted her, he tearfully claimed she had fallen into a stream and that he had dragged her out and then collapsed after trying to perform first aid.
The couple had split weeks before and Ms Harker, a popular and conscientious medical centre cleaner, had told family and friends she was scared of her ex who was pestering her by text.
Two days before she was killed she told people at her church she was worried she was being followed.
Pearson was convicted of murder and kidnap and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of almost 24 years.
Thomas Eaton
A gambling addict stole nearly £250,000 from his employers to feed his addiction.
Thomas Eaton, former finance director at Dunelm, spontaneously confessed to his bosses after he “hit rock bottom” following his decision to gamble money set aside for his family’s weekly food shop.
Leicester Crown Court heard the 34-year-old admitted forging an account book, submitting bogus expense claims worth £112,323 and fraudulently obtaining three company credit cards in order to steal cash.
Prosecutor Tony Stanford said Dunelm had spent around £100,000 investigating the fraud.
Eaton admitted five counts of fraud and one count of false accounting and was jailed for 27 months.
His defence barrister told the court he was “in the grip of a very severe gambling addiction”.
Shehroz Iqbal
A former carpet fitter made a video inciting a terror attack on London’s Royal Festival Hall and posted it to an extremist WhatsApp group
Shehroz Iqbal, 29, posted the mobile phone footage to a group of like-minded friends with the words “Attack, attack”.
Iqbal, of Ilford, east London, denied encouraging terrorism on WhatsApp and disseminating Islamic State propaganda on Facebook but was convicted after a trial at the Old Bailey and jailed for eight-and-a-half years.
The court heard the posts had been uncovered on his phone when Iqbal was pulled over later that month for possession of drugs.
Iqbal spent an hour-and-a-half at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank near the Royal Festival Hall and Waterloo Bridge making the clip.
He told the court he had gone for a ride that day and made the film to show off his bike.
He claimed that the reference to “attack attack” was him practising dog commands as he wanted a German Shepherd like a pet named Rocky he had when he lived in Pakistan.
He declined to give evidence at trial.
Jonathan Maertens
A man who recorded footage of himself sexually abusing girls as young as four was jailed for life with a minimum of 16 years.
Jonathan Maertens, 35, of Freshwater, Isle of Wight, had amassed 197,000 indecent images of children and 6,500 videos on his hard drives.
Of these, 2,500 pieces of footage and 12,000 images showed his own offending against girls aged between four and 17.
Hampshire Police said a specialist team of officers had identified all the children who the defendant committed offences against.
The force said Maertens had edited much of the footage and stored it on hard drives at his home.
The defendant pleaded guilty to 34 charges including 10 multiple-incident rape charges.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of assault of an emergency worker by beating, and one of producing cannabis.
Clinton Ferreira
A rapist launched a reign of terror at a popular holiday resort carrying out a string of sex attacks on women.
Clinton Ferreira, 38, was jailed for 20 years after he attacked a teenager celebrating her exam results, a tourist and then raped a woman.
He strangled two of his victims until they were unconscious and then filmed the attacks on his mobile phone – so he could “relive the experience” – and stole underwear.
The attacks were carried out over a three-month period from August last year in St Ives, Cornwall, a court heard.
South African-born Ferreira waited for his first victim to be alone and sexually assaulted her on a deserted beach.
Three weeks later he attempted to rape a lone tourist in a tent and the following month, while claiming to be helping a drunk woman, led her to his flat where he raped her.
He was found guilty of false imprisonment, assault by penetration, two charges of attempting to choke/suffocate a victim with intent to commit rape, attempted rape, taking indecent photographs of a child, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and rape.
Ferreira was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
June Weatherman
A fraudster who claimed she was a nurse was jailed for stealing from elderly hospital patients.
June Weatherman, 56, sneaked into a room at Peterborough City Hospital and stole a bank card belonging to bedridden 91-year-old Mary Banks in September 2018.
She spent more than £10,000 on the pensioner’s bank card, withdrawing cash from ATMs before visiting McDonalds, JD Sports and B&Q, Cambridgeshire Police said.
It was not until the following month that her crimes were uncovered when the victim’s son went through her bank statements after she had died.
Investigations revealed that Weatherman was responsible for the theft and fraud, as well as a number of similar offences in Norwich, York, Worcester, Kent and Sussex.
In November 2018 Weatherman claimed she was a nurse to two patients, both women in their 60s, at Worcester Royal Hospital.
One of the women asked her to leave her room and cancelled her bank cards when she realised they were missing while the other had jewellery and her purse, containing bank cards and £30 cash, stolen.
A nationwide hunt for Weatherman was launched in November 2018 and six months later she was found at a caravan park in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.
Weatherman was found guilty of nine counts of theft and five counts of fraud and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
