A double-killer who committed his third murder while on licence and an extremist who planned a terror attack at London's Hyde Park were among the worst offenders sent to jail in the UK in the final month of last year.
Other criminals facing lengthy jail terms include rapist multi-millionaire tech entrepreneur Lawrence Jones and a sex offender who raped a sleeping woman on the London Underground.
A nurse who drugged patients at a Blackpool hospital for an 'easy shift' and a teenage serial rapist dubbed the 'Brixton R Kelly' were also locked up in December.
READ MORE: Shocking moment man is stabbed in neck during unprovoked attack in busy pub
Read more court stories from the Manchester Evening News here.
Lengthy sentences are handed to some of the worst offenders each month. These are some of the most shocking court cases that have been widely reported in the UK in recent weeks.
Christopher Elgifari
Christopher Elgifari murdered a delivery driver by running him over with his stolen van. Mark Lang, 54, suffered fatal injuries when he was dragged hundreds of metres by his vehicle while trying to stop the 31-year-old thief from getting away.
Mr Lang, of Cyncoed, had parked in Laytonia Avenue in the Cathays area of Cardiff at about 12.40pm on March 28 this year, a court heard. The father-of-two was stood at the door of a house to deliver a parcel when Elgifari jumped in the van, which had been left unlocked with the key in the ignition.
Elgifari drove off at speed and turned the van around at the end of the street, hitting a garden wall, before driving back and hitting Mr Lang, who was in the middle of the road. He drove the van for more than 700 metres with Mr Lang, who was initially pinned to the bonnet before sliding down under the van, trapped underneath the two-tonne vehicle.
READ MORE: Beloved delivery driver murdered trying to stop thief escaping with his van
Elgifari, of Aberdare, admitted manslaughter and theft but was convicted of murder and robbery by a jury in a unanimous verdict at Cardiff Crown Court. The judge jailed Elgifari for life and ordered him to serve a minimum of 32 years in prison.
At his sentencing, he told him: “Mark Lang was well-known and well-liked as a delivery driver, who had for 15 years been delivering parcels to local residents. You murdered him. He was only 54. You took a son away from his mother. You bereaved his partner of 23 years. You deprived his two daughters of their father, a sister of her brother and his partner’s children of their father figure. He will never see future grandchildren. He will not enjoy retirement. The taking of a life is a terrible thing, not only because of the life that is cut short but because of all the other lives that are damaged as well.”
Lawrence Jones
Multi-millionaire tech entrepreneur Lawrence Jones was locked up for committing two rapes and a sexual assault.
In January last year, the 55-year-old was convicted of sexually assaulting a female employee on a business trip in 2013. Then, in November, jurors in a second trial found him guilty of drugging and raping two women decades earlier when he worked as a hotel bar pianist.
Jones, from Hale Barns, set up web hosting provider UKFast with his wife Gail from a spare bedroom in September 1999. The company went on to deal with more than 5,000 clients including the NHS, the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office.
Sentencing him at Manchester Crown Court to 15 years behind bars, Judge Sarah Johnston told Jones: “The three offences highlight that you thought you could behave with impunity. They are characterised by entitlement, dominance and a total lack of regard for the rights and freedoms of these three women and, in my view, an element of sinister premeditation.”
READ MORE: How emotionless Lawrence Jones reacted in court as he learnt his fate
READ MORE: Lawrence Jones' brave victims' final act that helped send him down for 15 years
Jones received a 14-year sentence for one of the rapes, a seven-year concurrent jail term for the second and a 12-month consecutive custodial sentence for the sexual assault.
Judge Johnston said he had enjoyed a period of “remarkable success in business… with all the wealth and privilege that comes with it” but had created a workplace environment that was “tainted by his attitude to women”. Jones would make inappropriate and sexual comments which he passed off as “banter”, said the judge, and women were subjected to unwanted attention.
Jones must serve two-thirds of his sentence in custody before he can released on licence.
Paul Bryan
A murderer assumed the identity of a dead man and travelled around Europe to evade justice for 39 years.
Paul Bryan was 22 when he fatally stabbed 62-year-old Roman Szalajko in the stomach at his flat in Kennington, south London, in February 1984. Afterwards, he took on the identity of a dead Welshman with the same name and embarked on a new life in Portugal, Crete, Spain and France.
The Army reject and “fantasist” became a suspect when his fingerprints were identified from a bottle at the scene during a cold case review in 2013. DNA from Bryan’s late mother’s hairbrush was later found to be a familial match to traces on the victim’s vest and clump of hair.
Tenacious Scotland Yard Detective Sergeant Quinn Cutler took a decade to track down the defendant and arrest him at Stansted as he stepped off a plane from Portugal in November 2022. The defendant, now aged 62, originally from Hammersmith, west London, admitted having a false passport and was found guilty of murder following a trial at the Old Bailey and he has now been jailed for life with a minimum term of 24 years.
In a victim impact statement, disabled pensioner Mr Szalajko’s daughter-in-law Julie spoke of the “shadow” cast over the family for nearly 40 years. Her husband Gerard fell under suspicion over his father’s death and turned to alcohol, which ultimately led to his early death aged 48 in 2006.
She said: “I want Paul Bryan to know that even though this happened almost 40 years ago, the impact on my family has been a painful and long-lasting one. Roman was always a gentleman towards me and knowing the truth about his murder is a great comfort to me and my family. Seeing Paul Bryan being brought to justice gives us great peace and comfort after all these years.”
Ryan Johnston
A sex offender who raped a sleeping woman on the London Underground during a busy morning service while witnesses looked on has been locked up for nine years.
Ryan Johnston chased two women to their home after they noticed him masturbating while looking through the window outside a house near Bounds Green Underground station at around 5am on February 23 in 2020, the British Transport Police (BTP) said. Johnston banged on their door and put his hand through the letterbox after the women managed to get inside safely, before he eventually left.
He then boarded a Piccadilly Line train at Heathrow Terminal Five around three hours later, where he walked through the carriage and approached a young woman who was asleep, the BTP said. Johnston sexually assaulted and then raped the 20-year-old woman, who was returning home from an evening out with friends, in front of other passengers, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. The attack was witnessed by a French national travelling with his 11-year-old son, and they reported the incident to police but officers were unable to identify the victim at the time as it was not captured on CCTV.
In December 2022, Johnston was arrested at HMP Brixton, where he was serving time for burglary, after a BTP review of historic rape cases led to his identification. Detectives also identified the victim in the same month. The French national was flown over to the UK to testify at the trial, where they helped to rebut Johnston’s claim that he knew the complainant and that she had consented, the CPS said.
Johnston, 37, was charged with rape, attempted rape and two counts of sexual assault, while he was also charged with outraging public decency in relation to another complainant. A jury found him guilty of all five charges and he was sentenced to nine years in prison with a further five on licence. Johnston was also placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.
Mohamed Rahman
A robber was handed life with a minimum term of 20 years for stabbing two officers in London’s West End following a police pursuit.
Mohamed Rahman, 25, knifed police constable Joseph Gerrard in the neck and chest before stabbing Pc Alannah Mulhall in the arm early on September 16 last year while intoxicated. Rahman, of Notting Hill, west London, was convicted in October after a trial at Kingston Crown Court of the attempted murder of Pc Gerrard and grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent against Pc Mulhall.
The court heard how a group of officers pursued Rahman after a member of the public, Mark Graven, told police the defendant had showed him a knife before taking his phone powerbank in Shaftesbury Avenue. Over the course of the police pursuit – which led them to Leicester Square and during which Pava spray and Tasers were unable to contain the defendant – Rahman stabbed both Pc Mulhall and Pc Gerrard with a kitchen knife he had appropriated, and inflicted a cut to Pc Richard Ulla’s finger.
The Met released video footage of the attack, alongside an interview in which Pc Gerrard said: “We came across a male brandishing a knife towards our colleagues. Initially, we were shouting at the suspect telling him to put the knife down, my colleague Dave put a Taser on him, I tried to hit him with a baton but he then stabbed me in the arm. He then turned and ran at my colleague Alannah. Would I consider myself brave? No not really, officers deal with stuff like this every day in London, almost daily, the potential is always there for this situation to happen.”
Rahman was also convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Pc Ulla, two counts of threatening a person in a public place with a bladed article against two other officers and possession of a bladed article. He was further found guilty of robbing Mr Graven. Rahman was given a minimum term of 20 years, minus the 449 days he has already spent on remand.
Mohammed Sullaiman Khan
An Audi driver killed two boys and seriously injured their mother in a high-speed crash before fleeing the scene. Mohammed Sullaiman Khan reached speeds of 92mph in a 40mph zone while driving his Audi RS3 “competitively” against a Bentley Continental before he hit a BMW in March 2019.
The driver of the BMW, Arathi Nahar, was left with damage to her coccyx and three displaced spinal fractures as a result of the “truly appalling” crash at a junction, but her sons Sanjay, 10, and 23-month-old Pawanveer Singh, suffered catastrophic injuries and died at the scene.
The mother and her sons, who were in their pyjamas, had been heading home at around 8.45pm after collecting a meal from a fish and chip shop where their dad worked when their car was hit by Sullaiman Khan, 28, who left the scene of the crash and was later seen in a burger bar in Sparkbrook, Birmingham. Bentley driver Hamza Shahid was cleared of causing the deaths of the boys after a three-week trial in September.
Prosecutor Robert Price told Wolverhampton Crown Court that Sullaiman Khan, of Pershore Road in Edgbaston, returned to the scene of the fatal crash at around 11pm that night but did not hand himself in. The same night, Sullaiman Khan’s brother, Mohammed Asim Khan, 36, made a false report to West Midlands Police saying that the Audi had been stolen in a burglary – a claim Mr Price said he backed up in another call an hour later.
The next day, Sullaiman Khan himself made what Judge Michael Chambers KC said was an “audacious” call to the police telling them to “do your job” and find his car. Two days after the crash on March 16 2019, Sullaiman Khan turned up at a police station to hand himself in and presented a prepared statement denying any involvement, but later admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, one count of causing serious injury and perverting the course of justice.
His brother, Asim Khan, of Shaftmoor Lane, Hall Green, also denied involvement but was found guilty at trial of perverting the course of justice for lying to police about the burglary and was given an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Sullaiman Khan was jailed for 11 years for causing the deaths of Sanjay and Pawanveer, 38 months to run concurrently for seriously injuring their mother and two years to run consecutively for perverting the course of justice. He was also disqualified from driving for seven years upon his release and must take an extended driving test.
Tejean Kennedy, Ali Kavak, Samuel Owusu-Opoku, Steffan Gordon and Yigit Hurman
Five men have been sent to jail after a popular radio DJ was kidnapped and killed in an empty bar near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Mehmet Koray Alpergin and Gozde Dalbudak were snatched as they returned home from an Italian restaurant in Mayfair, central London, in October 2022. They were taken to a wine bar backing on to White Hart Lane, where 43-year-old Mr Alpergin, a father-of-two, was “tortured to death”, the Old Bailey heard. A post-mortem examination found evidence that he had been beaten with a baseball bat, scalded with boiling water and had the soles of his feet stabbed, while there was also bruising to his genitals.
His body was dumped in Essex woodland and 34-year-old Ms Dalbudak spent two days locked in a toilet before being freed by her captors and given money for a taxi. Ms Dalbudak, who has since returned to her home in Turkey, recalled her boyfriend telling her “my love, don’t be scared” and “sorry, my love” before he cried out in pain as he was beaten.
The court heard that drugs were “at the heart” of the case, referencing evidence by prosecutors that it was related to “international organised crime”. Mr Alpergin, who was originally from northern Cyprus, was a well-known and popular figure in the British Turkish community. He owned a Turkish language radio station in London, Bizim FM, and had in the past been pictured with celebrities from the worlds of high-end cuisine and rap.
Jurors found Tejean Kennedy, 33, and Ali Kavak, 26, guilty of the kidnap and false imprisonment of the couple and Mr Alpergin’s manslaughter. Samuel Owusu-Opoku, 35, was found guilty of two counts of kidnap, while Steffan Gordon, 34, had admitted kidnap and was found guilty of two counts of false imprisonment.
Kavak was also convicted of perverting the course of justice by helping to dispose of Mr Alpergin’s body and destroying two vehicles by fire. Owusu-Opoku admitted the charge. Two more suspects are still at large and are believed to have fled abroad.
The judge sentenced Kavak, from Tottenham, to 13 years’ imprisonment and Kennedy, of Cricklewood Broadway, to 20 years. Gordon, of Northolt, was sentenced to eight years and Owusu-Opoku, of Wood Green, to seven years’ imprisonment. Yigit Hurman, 18, from Muswell Hill, north London, who admitted perverting the course of justice, was sentenced to two years.
Xyaire Howard and Chelsea Grant
Xyaire Howard terrorised and strangled a vulnerable pensioner before going on a £13,000 spending spree with her savings. The 24-year-old bound and humiliated 71-year-old Susan Hawkey in her own home to extract her bank card PIN.
Having killed her to prevent her reporting what happened, he and girlfriend Chelsea Grant, 28, spent thousands of pounds of her money on luxury goods at Westfield shopping centre. Some 20 days after she died, Ms Hawkey’s decomposing body was discovered under a duvet in the living room of her home in Neasden, north-west London. Her hands had been taped and tied behind her back, her eyes taped shut and a ligature knotted around her neck.
Howard was convicted of murder, attempted robbery and two robberies. Grant was cleared of murder following a trial but found guilty of three robberies against Ms Hawkey and one attempted robbery. The defendants, of Press Road in Neasden, had admitted fraud by false representation in relation to their misuse of her bank card. Howard was jailed for life with a minimum term of 31 years and Grant was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The judge said the couple were motivated by their “greed and dishonesty”. She said Howard had “terrorised” Ms Hawkey and subjected her to “humiliation and degradation” to get access to her money. “It was a calculated and callous course of action, a killing motivated by your greed,” the killer was told. The judge accepted Grant was not present when Ms Hawkey was “stripped and degraded” by her boyfriend, but said that once she realised the vulnerable victim was dead, she did nothing to report it.
Thomas Lenthall
A businessman killed two “vibrant, fun-loving, beautiful” sisters in a road crash. Thomas Lenthall, 40, of no fixed address, was jaile for 10 years after previously pleading guilty to causing the deaths of Madison and Liberty North by dangerous driving.
Madison, 21, and 17-year-old Liberty, known as Maddie and Libby, both died in the collision in Somerset on July 25. Lenthall had been driving in excess of 100mph along the A361 Frome Bypass when his car, an Audi RS6, collided with a VW Polo, the Avon and Somerset Police said.
The sisters had been celebrating Maddie’s graduation, which was due to take place the following day, when they popped out to buy soft drinks and Lenthall’s vehicle collided with their car. Verity and Jason North said their daughters’ deaths had “literally broken our hearts”, in a personal statement shared by the force.
Lenthall was taken to hospital with serious injuries and was later arrested and charged. At the time of the collision, he had been overtaking another car when he collided head-on with Maddie’s car, the force said. Judge James Patrick ordered that Lenthall should serve a minimum two-thirds of his sentence, and disqualified him from driving for seven years.
Catherine Hudson and Charlotte Wilmot
Two nurses were jailed after patients on a hospital stroke unit were drugged. Catherine Hudson, 54, illegally sedated two patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and conspired with junior colleague Charlotte Wilmot, 48, to sedate a third.
Police were alerted by hospital chiefs in November 2018 after a student nurse on a work placement said Hudson suggested administering unprescribed zopiclone, a sleeping pill, to elderly patient Aileen Scott. The whistleblower was further troubled when Hudson commented: “Well, she’s got a DNAR (do not attempt resuscitation) in place so she wouldn’t be opened up if she died or like if it came to any harm.”
She was said to be “shocked” when Hudson then took a strip of zopiclone from her tunic pocket and administered the sedative. Zopiclone – a Class C controlled drug – was potentially life-threatening if given inappropriately to acutely unwell patients, Preston Crown Court heard.
READ MORE: 'Nothing prepares you for what happened to my mum - those nurses were pure evil'
The court heard that Hudson wrote about one of her victims, Sheila Clarke: “I sedated one of them to within an inch of her life lol. Bet she’s flat for a week haha xxx.” In a message exchange about an elderly male patient, who cannot be named for legal reasons, Hudson wrote: “I’m going to kill bed 5 xxx.” Wilmot replied: “Pmsl (pissing myself laughing) well tonight sedate him to high heaven lol xxx.”
Hudson was jailed for seven years and two months. Wilmot, who was found guilty of encouraging “lead offender” Hudson to ill-treat another patient in her care, was imprisoned for three years.
Judge Robert Altham, Honorary Recorder of Preston, said: “These defendants exploited them for an easy shift, for amusement and to exercise contemptuous power over them.” He said the whistleblowing nurse, who the prosecution had requested not be named, should be commended for her actions.
Yuni Alexis Pacheco Miranda, Daniel Oliver, Nigel Rogers, Frank Asante, Ermal Shtrezi and Terrence Allen
Six men were jailed for a total of 135 years after smuggling more than £1 million of cocaine into the UK by coating it invisibly on broom handles. It is thought to be the first time the method has been used to import the drug into the UK, the Metropolitan Police said.
The gang smuggled 580 coated broom handles overall, but none of the drugs made it on to the streets. A court heard that a novel chemical process was used to coat the broom handles in cocaine which was invisible to the human eye
The gang members were convicted in June, after a four and a half-month trial, of conspiracy to import cocaine, almost two years after their arrests in October 2021 following an investigation by the Met and the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Yuni Alexis Pacheco Miranda, 65, of north London, Daniel Oliver, 52, of Margate, were jailed for 29 years each. Family members of the defendants, attending in the public gallery, waved and blew kisses at them before they were taken down to the cells.
Nigel Rogers, 62, of Whitstable, Frank Asante, 48, of west London, Ermal Shtrezi, 41, of north London, and Terrence Allen, 74, of south-east London, were also jailed at Kingston Crown Court. The judge jailed Rogers for 23 years, Asante for 18 years, Shtrezi for 23 years and Allen for 13 years. William Adams, 76, of Sittingbourne, was due to appear alongside the other men but was unwell and will be sentenced at a later date.
Rogers, Asante, Oliver and Shtrezi all had previous convictions for drugs-related offending in the UK. Miranda and Rogers were singled out by the prosecution as playing a “leading role” in the operation. Representing himself, Miranda – a Venezuelan national assisted in court by a Spanish interpreter – denied leading the operation and accused barristers of portraying his co-defendants as “little angels”.
Edward Little
A dangerous extremist was just 10 minutes from getting a gun for a lone wolf attack in London’s Hyde Park when he was stopped in a dramatic armed police operation. Muslim convert Edward Little, 22, had travelled by taxi from his home in Brighton to London with thousands of pounds in cash when officers swooped in to arrest him.
He was on his way to buy a weapon for an attack at Speakers’ Corner with potential targets including Christian preacher Hatun Tash, Metropolitan Police officers and soldiers. The interception on a street corner in south-east London was the culmination of a counter-terrorism probe spanning two months and was captured on police body worn video.
Little pleaded guilty to preparing to commit acts of terrorism. In December, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 16 years. However, following a further hearing on January 4, Little's minimum term was increased to 24 years.
Detective Chief Superintendent Olly Wright, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), said: “Little was in a taxi travelling up from Brighton into London and on the backseat of the car was a holdall with about £5,000 in cash. That was the money that he had to buy the firearm. He was only about 10 minutes away from using that cash to buy the firearm that he was going to use in the attack." Mr Wright assessed the planned attack in the popular central London park had been “imminent”.
Mr Wright declined to go into detail about exactly how the attack was foiled, but said: “We work with the security services, the counter-terrorism policing network and our intelligence partners. We work together day in and day out to disrupt attacks just such as this. We as a network with our intelligence partners are well versed in disrupting terrorist attacks like this, we have really skilled people with the training and the access to specialist techniques to disrupt attacks.”
Edward Wilson
A nightclubber stabbed to death a man who was “standing in his spot” on the dancefloor. Edward Wilson, 40, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years at Birmingham Crown Court after hearing victim impact statements saying the killing of Akeem Francis-Kerr had shattered his family’s lives “in every conceivable way”.
Wilson was found guilty of murder in September after jurors heard how he stabbed his victim once in the neck at Valesha’s nightclub in Walsall shortly after 5am on March 11. Mr Francis-Kerr, 29, died within an hour of being attacked, after the knife pierced both his carotid and jugular veins.
Passing sentence on Wilson, Judge Kristina Montgomery KC, the Recorder of Stafford, said the offence was aggravated by Wilson’s previous convictions for 22 offences, including drug trafficking, robbery and violence.
The judge told Wilson, who had been smoking cannabis and drinking double shots of rum: “The CCTV from the nightclub gives the impression of you being territorial and being irritated by Mr Francis-Kerr’s intrusion on what you considered to be your preferred spot. Whatever was said between you about that or any other disagreement that you had with him, resulted in a show of aggression from you. That was met inevitably with a response from Mr Francis-Kerr and an argument descended into a scuffle.”
During the scuffle lasting only a few seconds, the judge said, Wilson, from Temple Way, Oldbury, West Midlands, had produced a knife from a pocket or some other part of his clothing and stabbed Mr Francis-Kerr. After the fatal blow, the judge added, bystanders including members of the victim’s family, had to endure seeing him being treated, including attempts to administer CPR.
Brian Timmins
A yard manager was jailed for seven-and-half years and a company fined £400,000 after an employee was killed in an industrial shredder. David Willis, 29, fell inside a machine designed for shredding wood and commercial waste at Timmins Waste Services (TWS) in Mander Street, Wolverhampton, in September 2018. His remains were never found.
TWS and yard manager Brian Timmins, 54, who was operating the diesel-powered machine at the time, were found guilty of corporate manslaughter and manslaughter respectively after a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court. The jury could not reach a verdict on a charge of perverting the course of justice against Timmins and the prosecution decided not to seek a retrial on this count.
The trial had heard “systemic failures” led to the “horrific” incident in which Mr Willis lost his life. On the day of Mr Willis’s death, Timmins, of Fair Lawn, Albrighton, Shropshire, had been operating the shredder when it stopped “abruptly”. After investigating the machine, he used a digger to lift Mr Willis on top and inside to see what the problem was.
CCTV evidence showed the machine was still operational at the time but should have been turned off. When Mr Willis disappeared inside the machine, Timmins was seen on CCTV looking around the yard and inside the shredder’s hopper, which guides the waste towards the machine’s blades, before calling Mr Willis’s phone. He was then seen looking out of the yard gates and running around the site, before returning to the digger and continuing to operate the shredder.
The next day, Timmins, and other employees who were working that day, loaded and disposed of 80 tonnes of recycled waste by taking it to a landfill site in Cannock, Staffordshire, which “must”, prosecutor Christine Agnew KC said, have included the remains of Mr Willis.
READ MORE: Boss jailed after worker fell into industrial shredder and died
Mr Willis, who lived with his mother, Caroline, was reported missing by her on the evening of September 15 when he did not return to their home to Tipton. The trial heard Mrs Willis called Timmins just before 11pm to ask if he had seen her son, but he said words to the effect of: “Not since this morning when he left and walked up the road.” Timmins only reported the incident to police on Monday September 17 2018 after Mr Willis’ coat was found at work.
Sentencing judge Mr Justice Jacobs said “no words of mine can convey the tragedy” for the family of Mr Willis, who he described as a “hardworking young man” and a “devoted son and brother”. He said: “The family’s lives have been forever blighted by what would often be called an industrial accident. But the word accident sometimes conveys the idea that what happened was bad luck.
“In the present case, however, the accident and Dave’s death was the result of the wholesale neglect of a proper approach to health and safety at Timmins Waste, and a complete disregard both by Brian Timmins and the company of their duty to exercise reasonable care to keep employees such as David Willis safe at work. This was an accident which was waiting to happen.”
Robel Michael, Jaden McGibbon and Sichem Mangituka-Mpelo
Three men were jailed for life for the murder of a young footballer who was fatally shot in the head during a long-standing gang feud. Taylor Cox, 19, died in hospital after suffering an unsurvivable injury when he was shot in an alleyway in Hornsey, north London, on June 8 2021.
The killing happened amid a violent feud between rival street gangs, the Old Bailey was told. Mr Cox, who had been stabbed in the past, was a member of the A Team gang associated with the N19 London postcode, the court was told. The three killers were linked to a rival NOL gang which was involved with drug dealing.
The court heard they found out Mr Cox and a friend were on a “ride-out” on their turf, prompting them to set out with at least one gun. During the shooting, at least four .32 calibre bullets were fired from the same gun, likely to be a revolver, which was never found.
Following a retrial at the Old Bailey, Robel Michael, 22, of Islington, Jaden McGibbon, 22, of Crouch End, and Sichem Mangituka-Mpelo, 22, from Holloway, were found guilty of his murder. Jailing the men for life, the judge set a minimum term of 27 years for Michael and 26 years for McGibbon and Mangituka-Mpelo.
Kevarnie Queen
A teenage serial rapist dubbed the “Brixton R Kelly” was locked up for 12 years after committing a three-year campaign of sexual violence against six young women. Kevarnie Queen, 19, was convicted in August, following a trial at Inner London Crown Court, of 22 counts of rape committed between 2019 and 2022.
Queen was aged 15 during much of his offending and all the complainants, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, were under the age of 18. One of them told of how she “lost her innocence, her voice and her integrity” as a result of Queen’s actions, the court heard.
Judge Usha Karu, Honorary Recorder of Southwark, handed Queen an extended sentence of 16 years. The longest he will remain in detention at a young offenders’ institution is 12 years, after which he will be on extended licence for four years.
Queen met all but one of the complainants through Snapchat where he would “flatter and groom them” before arranging to meet, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The judge said complainants had told the court of attempting suicide or having suicidal thoughts, being manipulated by Queen, being unable to trust men and no longer believing in love. Referring to one of the women, the judge said: “(She) speaks of your manipulative behaviour and how she ‘lost’ herself. She had confided in you about having been previously abused and you took advantage of her vulnerability."
Judge Karu found Queen legally dangerous and said: “You are a confident young man and appear to continue to hold the same firm views in respect of sex, and entitlement to it, which you did at the time of offending.” She subjected him to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order until further order as well as indefinite notification requirements.
The defendant was likened on social media to American R&B singer R Kelly, who was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison for child pornography and enticement of minors for sex.
Darren Hall
A “monster” who murdered his ex-partner and dumped her body in a lay-by near the M1 has been jailed for at least 17 years. Darren Hall was given a life sentence for killing Sarah Henshaw, 31, and driving her body 20 miles before dumping it in woodland near the lay-by on the westbound A617 near Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
Hall, 36, attacked Ms Henshaw during an argument at her home in Norman Street, Ilkeston, on June 20. Her body was not found until June 26. Jurors were told during the trial that Hall and Ms Henshaw met in 2011 but had what the judge described as a “volatile” relationship and had split up by the time of her death.
Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said that Hall kept a key to the house in Norman Street and let himself in on the afternoon of June 20 while Ms Henshaw was out. Ms Henshaw had previously asked him to surrender his key and when she returned she asked Hall to leave, but he stayed at the property.
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While the Crown said it did not know exactly how Ms Henshaw died, her body was “callously dumped” near the lay-by on the night of June 20, with phone data showing that Hall stopped for nine minutes. Hall used Ms Henshaw’s phone after her death to text friends to suggest she was still alive, before throwing the device away.
Hall was found guilty of murder after a two-week trial at Derby Crown Court, which heard that bruising on Ms Henshaw’s neck was “about the width of a dressing gown cord”. Hall was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 17 years.
Lawrence Bierton
A convicted double-killer who committed his third murder less than two years after being released from prison will now spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Lawrence Bierton, 63, was on a life licence for two murders committed in 1995 when he was moved into a property in Rayton Spur, a Nottinghamshire complex for elderly and vulnerable people, in November 2020. A year later, he bludgeoned his 73-year-old neighbour Pauline Quinn to death with a coffee table.
Bierton was given his first life sentence in 1996 for the murders of two elderly sisters - 79-year-old Aileen Dudill and 73-year-old Elsie Gregory - at their home in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. He was first released in December 2017, but was recalled to prison in July 2018 due to behaviour concerns. He was released again in May 2020, moving to Rayton Spur six months later.
On the day of the killing, Bierton, an alcoholic, had asked Ms Quinn for money for alcohol, having drunk vodka and rum and taken crack cocaine and Subutex, an opioid, that morning. After she refused, he pushed her to the floor, beginning the fatal attack which prosecutors said was sparked by a fear of returning to prison over his substance misuse.
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Ms Quinn was able to pull a red emergency cord in her home, which recorded audio of Bierton repeatedly striking her with the coffee table. Bierton left Ms Quinn with 29 separate injuries, striking her 10 times to the head, resulting in a fractured skull and brain damage.
Bierton was given a whole-life order in December and will now never be released. At his sentencing hearing, a judge described the decision to move Bierton to Rayton Spur as a “significant mistake”, with a member of the Probation Service admitting that the decision was “incorrect”.
Kian Durnin, Martino De-Sousa and Tireq McIntosh
Three men have each been jailed for 23 years for attempted murder after two children in a playground were hit by bullets fired during a drug-related feud. Kian Durnin, Martino De-Sousa and Tireq McIntosh were all in a stolen Ford Focus from which shots were fired towards a girl aged 11 and a 15-year-old boy as they played in Shelley Road, Wolverhampton, on May 1 last year.
Prosecutors said the children were in the line of fire of a “murderous” feud between rival groups, which then triggered a high-speed car chase through the city “straight from the movie director’s script”. Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court were shown CCTV footage of Durnin, the driver of the car, and McIntosh, in the front seat, both leaning out of the window and firing shots towards members of a rival group, with De-Sousa in the back seat.
Durnin, 22, of Milton Road, De-Sousa, 24, of Deansfield Road, and McIntosh, 23, of Valley Road, all in Wolverhampton, were all convicted of attempting to murder a person unknown and aggravated vehicle-taking after more than 28 hours of deliberation by jurors.
Jailing the defendants, Mr Justice Sweeting said they had set out on an “armed expedition” intent on finding members of a rival group. The judge said: “You intended to kill one or more of them if you found them. You armed yourself with two handguns and ammunition. You wore dark clothing and balaclavas. Without leaving the vehicle, you McIntosh and you Durnin opened fire. At least six bullets were fired. It must have been apparent to you that the playground was in your line of fire. Although you each played different roles, you were equally involved.”
All three defendants were banned from driving for five years for aggravated vehicle-taking, and told they will have to serve two-thirds of their 23-year sentences before being released on licence.
Blade Silvano
A “calculated” manipulator who posed as a man to deceive a woman into having sex with her has been jailed for more than 10 years. Blade Silvano made a fake profile and posted pictures of herself looking like a man when she met her victim on Plenty of Fish in 2016, Cambridge Crown Court heard.
Silvano, 41, used “careful deception” to convince her victim she was a man, twice having sex with her using a strap-on sex toy and concealing her lower half with an oversized t-shirt, never allowing her victim to see her naked. She continued to mislead her victim in an “unspeakably cruel” manner for around 18 months, claiming she was a British military officer, sending pictures of herself appearing to wet shave, and even suggesting she wanted to get married.
Her victim “saw a future” with Silvano but was “horrified” when she finally discovered her true identity on Facebook. She was left feeling “violated and traumatised”, according to police, who described Silvano’s actions as the “ultimate deception”.
Silvano, of Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, was found guilty of two counts of assault by penetration during a trial at the same court last May. She claimed to have never met the victim, telling a jury the relationship was based on fantasy and online roleplay. Judge Philip Grey described her “transparently dishonest account” as “remarkable and at times laughable”.
Silvano was sentenced to 10 years and six months imprisonment. She was also placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
Darren Osment
A pub chef was convicted of murdering his former partner following an undercover policing investigation. Darren Osment, 41, killed mother-of-four Claire Holland, 32, who was last seen leaving a pub in Bristol on the evening of June 6 2012. Her body has never been recovered.
The case was treated as a missing person’s inquiry for seven years until Osment rang 999 while in Exeter, Devon, in July 2019, claiming he had arranged for Ms Holland to be killed. He was arrested and interviewed under caution for two days, then released under investigation after denying any involvement in Ms Holland’s disappearance.
In 2020, Avon and Somerset Police decided to send in an undercover officer – who went by the name Paddy O’Hara – to befriend Osment, then living in Patchway, Bristol, and find out what happened to Ms Holland. The undercover investigation, between December 2020 and July 2022, saw the officer pose as someone involved in the criminal underworld with links to organised crime. His conversations with Osment were covertly recorded, amounting to more than 1,200 hours of footage – including repeated confessions relating to Ms Holland from the father-of-two.
Osment was arrested and charged with Ms Holland’s murder in August 2022. He pleaded not guilty to the offence but was convicted by a jury at Bristol Crown Court by a majority verdict. He was later sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years.
Michael Daymond and Dana Carr
A man murdered his new partner’s toddler by shaking her to death after learning his Universal Credit had been stopped. While her mother was at work, Michael Daymond attacked two-year-old Maya Chappell with such force that damage to her eyes was similar to that suffered falling from a tall building.
Daymond was jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years. Maya's mother Dana Carr, 24, was convicted of allowing the death of a child and was jailed for nine years, Durham Police said. Both were convicted of child cruelty and their six-year sentences will run concurrently, Mr Justice Bright, sitting at Teesside Crown Court, said.
Daymond, 27, was in sole care of Maya when he inflicted a serious head injury on her at her home in Shotton Colliery, County Durham. Earlier that afternoon, Daymond had been trying to find out why his Universal Credit had been stopped, and his inquiries about it continued on the phone, once he had dialled 999, as paramedics performed first aid on the stricken toddler. Maya was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, but never regained consciousness and died two days later.
The jury heard how Daymond and Carr had only been dating for a matter of weeks when he moved in with Carr and Maya. Carr had split up acrimoniously from Maya’s father James Chappell, and quickly became besotted with Daymond. A significant number of bruises began to appear on Maya’s face and body, and the couple took her out of nursery to avoid questions.
Daymond, who did not give evidence at the trial, inflicted the injuries on Maya over several weeks when he was alone with her. He would message Carr while she was at work with a series of lies to cover up his behaviour. Despite being alerted to the situation, Carr did nothing to stop her daughter from getting hurt, instead telling him she loved Daymond and would not leave him.
Thomas Hardiman and Xander Howarth
Two teenagers murdered a 19-year-old man in a machete attack. Thomas Hardiman and Xander Howarth, now both 18, were told they will each serve a minimum of 19 years in prison for the murder of Adam Abdul-Basit when they appeared at Sheffield Crown Court last month.
The court heard how there was bad feeling between Howarth and Mr Abdul-Basit over drug dealing and the defendants “harboured an intention to attack Abdul-Basit should the opportunity arise”. The pair chased their victim into a residential garden in the Richmond area of Sheffield on May 8 and attacked him with the large knives they were carrying, leaving him with unsurvivable injuries, including a 15cm long wound to his chest.
Sentencing the pair, the Recorder of Sheffield Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said: “Those who carry knives in public are a scourge on our society and must be punished severely, in my judgment. The situation is made worse when, as here, the violence was closely allied with a fallout over drugs and drug dealing.” Hardiman, of Edenhall Road, Sheffield, and Howarth, of Richmond Park View, Sheffield, were both 17 at the time of the killing.
The judge acknowledged that both teenagers had terrible upbringings, telling Howarth: “It is small wonder you descended into the swamp of drug usage and drug dealing.” But Judge Richardson said: “You both had knives with you and you had them for violence should the need arise and should you feel the necessity to use those weapons. Each of you had an easy way with knives and you were both prepared to use them. The knives were not small. These knives were large and could be used to inflict murderous and grievous injuries. Both of you used those knives with ferocious vigour upon the deceased.”
Mohamad Al Bared
An engineering student designed and built a “kamikaze” drone for use by the so-called Islamic State terror group. Mohamad Al Bared, from Coventry, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years.
Al Bared was found guilty in September by a jury that heard the 27-year-old put together a prototype drone, which he hoped would be capable of delivering a bomb or chemical weapon. Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court deliberated for around six hours over two days before unanimously convicting Al Bared, who used a 3D printer to make the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The mechanical and chemical engineering graduate, of Kare Road, was found guilty of a single count of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts to benefit a proscribed terrorist organisation. Passing sentence, Judge Paul Farrer KC said Al Bared, who previously studied at Coventry University and the University of Warwick, had decided to lend his support to the “terrorist agenda” of IS.
PhD student Al Bared, who also studied at the University of Birmingham and specialised in laser drilling, had contacted IS through an online messaging service and began to construct a drone in July 2022. The judge said: “I have no doubt that you intended your design to be used as a single-use weapon with a range of up to five kilometres. Your preparations were undertaken with a view to endangering multiple lives.”
The UAV and a mobile phone were seized when Al Bared was arrested in January last year, leading to the discovery of encrypted online chats and other digital material exposing his support for IS. The court heard he intended to make a video-transmitting fixed-wing drone for terrorist purposes and to travel to West Africa via Turkey. Al Bared had filled in an IS application form and set up a UK-registered company, purportedly to import Turkish food, to help plans for future foreign travel, his trial was told.
Antonio Tibere
A knifeman stabbed a passer-by to death in a random attack and left two other victims with life-changing injuries. Antonio Tibere was jailed for life after he pleaded guilty to the murder of 35-year-old Krystian Debski and the attempted murders of a 50-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman. The 25-year-old was sentenced to a 30-year minimum term after also pleading guilty to having a bladed article and possessing cocaine.
The court was told Tibere, from Wattville Road, West Bromwich, carried out the three attacks and then took to social media, posting a Facebook Live in which he said in Romanian: “I will kill anyone who comes across me.”
His two surviving victims were left with life-changing injuries following the attacks, which took place over a 10-minute period shortly after 3am on December 22 last year on Soho Road in Handsworth, Birmingham. Officers sent to the scene located and arrested Tibere within 15 minutes of the first attack, still carrying the knives he used.
Detective Inspector Nick Barnes, who headed the investigation, said: “This was a series of vicious and unprovoked attacks on innocent members of the public. Tragically Mr Debski lost his life as a result of being stabbed. Two other people also suffered life-changing injuries."
