Police arrest man after armed robbery at Seaway Mall in Welland

Police arrest man after armed robbery at Seaway Mall in Welland

An arrest has been made after an armed robbery at the Seaway Mall in Welland Monday afternoon.

Police say a man armed with a handgun robbed the Peoples Jewellers store at 2:30 yesterday.

The suspect left the area driving a silver Ford Taurus, and that vehicle was later found in the parking lot of a hotel on Lundy’s Lane near the QEW in Niagara Falls.

Officers tracked down the room where the suspect was staying and the Emergency Task Unit and Crisis Negotiators were called in to assist with the arrest.

The male suspect and a woman were arrested without incident when they left the room.

The woman has been released without charges since police believe she did not play a role in the robbery.

27 year old Brandon Jake Raymond Zimmerman of Port Colborne is charged with robbery with a firearm, fail to comply with recognizance of bail, fail to comply with probation order, possession of a weapon contrary to a weapons prohibition order.

The hotel room is still being held by police as they wait for a search warrant.

From gangland hitmen to puppy killers: 500 people locked up in Merseyside in 2019

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Murderers, gun thugs, rapists, paedophiles and international drug smugglers were among the criminals jailed across Merseyside in 2019.

Often victims showed tremendous courage in facing their evil tormentors in court, or fighting back against the thugs who targeted them.

Police officers spent months and, in some cases, years working tirelessly to bring these callous criminals to justice for their horrific crimes.

Below are the details of more than 500 of the men and women put behind bars in 2019.

Steven Boyle and Mark Fellows

One of the biggest gangland trials in this country’s recent history saw two underworld figures jailed for life.

Mark Fellows, 38, shot and killed gangland enforcer John Kinsella while he was walking his dogs with his pregnant girlfriend in Rainhill in April 2018.

The ‘Iceman’ assassin was also convicted of gunning down Salford’s ‘Mr Big’, Paul Massey, outside his home three years earlier in July 2015.

Steven Boyle, 36, who acted as a ‘spotter’ for Fellows when he killed dad-of-two Kinsella, was jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years behind bars.

Boyle, of Sandy Way, Heywood, Rochdale, was cleared of any involvement in the death of dad-of-five Massey, 55.

He turned on his partner in crime and ‘grassed’ when giving evidence midway through the murder trial, saying he was “duped” by Fellows into unwittingly being part of Kinsella’s murder.

There were gasps in the public gallery as he claimed he thought he was going to collect drugs money, but was passed a rucksack containing a Webley revolver.

Fellows, of Sandy Lane West in Warrington, was handed a whole life sentence for the murders.

Both men were found not guilty of the attempted murder of 53-year-old Kinsella’s pregnant partner Wendy Owen.

Anthony Cullen and his gang

The callous criminals who ran a massive gun and drug trafficking operation have now been locked up.

It took Cheshire Police 18 months to take down the major operation which saw a lethal arsenal of weapons, including an AK47 assault Rifle and pump-action shotgun taken from the streets of Warrington.

The haul was the biggest firearms seizure in the force’s history.

The 20-strong gang was headed by Anthony Cullen, now jailed for 27 years, and his twin brother Leon, who is on the run from police.

The Warrington pair, alongside right hand man Robert Bibby and ‘armourer’ Chris Houghton, established a lucrative cocaine trafficking network.

20 men were jailed for more than 185 years combined after being convicted of a raft of drug and firearms charges at Liverpool Crown Court.

Keio Nei

(Image: Liverpool ECHO)

Keio Nei, 24, sent an internet blogger horrific threats then travelled from Estonia to her home with a “sinister” kit including a “gold” sex toy.

Nei became so obsessed with the YouTube personality that she contacted police who warned him via Estonian authorities to leave her alone.

He then flew to the UK in April last year and sent the young woman tweets including photos of her home in Liverpool, before speaking to her dad as the situation escalated.

(Image: Crown Prosecution Service)

Nei, who agreed he made a lot of effort to find his victim, admitted stalking, but denied it was with intent to commit a sexual offence.

He stood trial, but after police told the jury they did not think he was carrying the bag when chased, prosecutors dropped the charge.

Nei, of no fixed address, was jailed for 21 months and will be repatriated to Estonia after his release.

Jason Burrell

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Jason Burrell groomed a schoolgirl on Facebook then threatened to rape her when she spurned his advances.

The twisted pervert pretended to be 17 when chatting with his 14-year-old victim, but he was in fact 26.

He was on licence from prison at the time, having previously been jailed for trying to talk a 12-year-old child into sex.

Burrell, from Wallasey but now of Great Homer Street, Everton, smirked in the dock when prosecutors read out the “chilling” messages he sent his latest traumatised victim .

But the smile was wiped off his face when a top judge said he was a dangerous offender and hit him with an extended sentence.

Paul Higginson

A convicted murderer was jailed AGAIN only about a year after being released from prison.

Higginson, who served 15 years for murder, was jailed for his part in a £3m drugs plot.

The 40-year-old, from Kirkby was found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine and conspiracy to produce amphetamine.

Higginson played a major role in the largely Manchester-based gang that plotted to produce 300kg of amphetamine with the help of a Hungarian chemist.

The gang would drop off and collect cocaine around the UK, including in Merseyside.

Among those jailed alongside him were husband and wife Sam (35) and Jennifer O’Neill (31), who have five children together, 34-year-old Gary O’Regan, 52-year-old Partick Warde and 27-year-old Darren Gill.

Anthony Wales

(Image: Merseyside Police)

Anthony Wales was caught for his part in the murder and imprisonment of Joseph McKeever after he left DNA on a toilet seat.

Mr McKeever was imprisoned and killed over £130,000 of missing cannabis and was brutally beaten while he was held captive.

Wales, 37, was due to stand trial but changed his plea to guilty after hearing the weight of evidence against him.

The dad-of-five was told he must serve a minimum of 24 years behind bars despite claiming he was unaware of Mr McKeever being strangled and that he wasn’t involved.

Mr McKeever was strangled to death with a ligature before his killers tried to destroy his mutilated body in a car fire.

Wales was part of the group who transported him from a container at convicted murderer Jamie Grimes ' workplace at MGM Garage in Kensington to convicted Darren Colecozy ’s flat at Picton Crescent in Wavertree.

He was caught after leaving his DNA on a toilet, when he relieved himself at the flat.

Last year, murderer Grimes, 22, of Breckside Park, Anfield - who said he attacked Mr McKeever over £130,000 of missing cannabis - was jailed for life with a minimum of 27 years.

Karl Kelly, 32, of Snaefell Avenue, Old Swan, and Darren Colecozy, 23, of no fixed address but from Wavertree - both convicted of manslaughter - were jailed for 22 years each.

Dylan Owen, 23, of Paul McCartney Way, Kensington, was cleared of any part in Mr McKeever’s death but admitted destroying his car and Grimes’ van and was jailed for six years.

Michelle Starkey

(Image: merpol)

The personal finance adviser targeted a vulnerable alcoholic customer and stole nearly £12,000.

The 53-year-old, who worked for a Lloyds branch in Huyton, transferred 14 separate transactions from the victim, believed to have been in her 60s, who has since died.

Sharkey controlled two accounts relating to the victim and swiped money into her partner David’s account, and also Irene Dennett, her elderly mother.

The former banker defrauded the woman over a 12 month period, between February 2017 and January 2018.

Sharkey was jailed for 12 months at Liverpool Crown Court.

Ronald Scott

This explosive thief was jailed for blowing up a cash machine that caused a whole street to shake.

The blast shattered windows, destroyed a bus stop and caused thousands of pounds of damage to a bridal shop in Rose Lane on Monday December 3.

The 52-year-old pleaded guilty to causing an explosion likely to endanger life, criminal damage and attempted theft.

Scott, from Plover Drive in Runcorn, was sentenced to eight years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court.

Father Francis William Simpson

(Image: gmp)

A former Liverpool parish priest was locked up for a catalogue of sickening sex attacks on young boys decades ago.

Father Francis William Simpson, now 71, had been parish priest at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Kirkstone Road West, Litherland, before moving to Chorley in 2016.

On Friday, January 25 a jury at Bolton Crown Court convicted him of nine counts of indecent assault following a 10 day trial.

The court heard Simpson sexually touched the boys while a priest at Worsley Mesnes St Jude’s Church in Wigan during the 1980s.

They were not believed to have been linked to his time in Litherland some years later.

On Tuesday, January 29, a judge sentenced Simpson to 26 months in prison.

He was placed on the Sex Offender’s Register for ten years and is banned from working with children in the future.

Simpson will never be able to return to the church as a minister after his sentence.

The Archdiocese of Liverpool, of which Simpson was formerly part, apologised for his crimes.

Kieran Murphy

(Image: Merseyside Police)

A serial criminal with “an appalling record” led police through the streets of Merseyside on a dangerous chase, reaching eye-watering speeds of 120mph.

Kieran Murphy, branded a “disgrace to his family” by a judge, was part of a gang who stole a Volkswagen Golf from a family’s home in Formby before cloning the number plates and speeding down the A580 East Lancs Road with cops cars and the force helicopter on his tail.

The 22-year-old raced away close to the Haydock island roundabout, ignoring pursuing police for up to six minutes on an eight-mile chase on October 6 last year, Liverpool Crown Court was told.

Murphy used filter lanes to try and escape the attentions of the police, narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic as he reached nearly twice the speed limit.

Police used a stinger device but Murphy continued driving when steering on just the tyre rim, prosecutor Raymond Smith said.

Officers boxed in the stolen Golf before it collided with the police vehicle and came to a stop, near Carr Mill Dam reservoir in St Helens.

Murphy has 15 previous convictions for 34 offences, including similar cases of aggravated vehicle taking, breaching Anti Social Behaviour Orders, and a driving ban of three years and three months.

Murphy, who has been kept behind bars since last October, also committed the police chase offence while out on licence for another matter, the court was told.

Liam Rosney

(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)

A man was jailed for causing the death of the 75-year-old mum of Wirral Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman.

Mrs Boardman, from Hoylake, whose cyclist son Chris won gold at the 1992 Olympics, suffered multiple injuries when she was hit by Liam Rosney’s Mitsubishi pick-up truck after falling from her bike on a mini-roundabout in Connah’s Quay, North Wales, on July 16 2016.

Rosney admitted causing her death by careless driving at Mold Crown Court last year, and was jailed for 30 weeks on Thursday, January 31.

Sentencing Rosney at Mold, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: “This was an accident which could have easily been prevented and your contribution to that accident is significant in as much as you were distracted, the distraction being as a result of you using your mobile phone before the actual collision.”

Rosney, of Welland Drive in Connah’s Quay, was also disqualified from driving for 18 and a half months.

Jamie Worrall and Paul Alban

A “despicable” burglar who killed his ex-girlfriend’s hamster is back behind bars for stealing a little girl’s birthday money .

Jamie Worrall stamped to death his former partner’s pet while trashing her home in a spiteful and cowardly attack.

But the cocaine addict, now 30, of Alder Street, Newton-le-Willows, carried out two more shocking burglaries last year.

He broke into a pensioner’s property while the victim slept upstairs, then, while on bail for that raid, ransacked a young family’s home. On that occasion, he helped himself to £400 in cash from their bedroom and £60 from their five and 11-year-old children’s money boxes.

Worrall admitted two counts of burglary, five counts of fraud and being carried in a vehicle taken without consent.

His accomplice Paul Alban, 28, of Cherry Tree Drive, St Helens, admitted burglary, two counts of fraud, unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle, possessing cannabis and asked for another burglary to be taken into consideration.

Both were jailed at Liverpool Crown Court for 45 months.

Jordan Edge

A prolific burglar tracked down by his dirty underpants was hit with more jail time after stashing crack cocaine up his bum.

Jordan Edge carried out a spate of raids but was undone when a disgusted victim found his soiled underpants in their back yard.

The baby-faced “three strike” burglar confessed and was locked up for 33 months at Liverpool Crown Court in November 2017.

Edge, of Wheatland Lane, Wallasey, who has notched up a staggering 72 convictions, was due to be released from prison this May.

But the now 21-year-old was forced to appear at the court again over drug dealing offences, which date back to early 2017.

The judge was jailed for 32 months.

Luminata Dumitru

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

A young mum robbed and burgled disabled victims when she found herself broke just months after moving to the UK.

Luminata Dumitru, 20, left Romania with her one-year-old daughter to join her boyfriend and mother-in-law living in Aintree.

Liverpool Crown Court heard her partner walked out on them and Dumitru turned to crime to support her family.

Shocking CCTV footage showed her mugging a deaf man at a Liverpool city centre ATM, then raiding sheltered housing in Knotty Ash.

Dumitru, of no fixed address, speaking with the assistance of a Romanian interpreter, admitted robbery and two counts of burglary.

She sobbed in the dock as Judge Andrew Menary, QC, sentenced her to three years in a young offenders institution.

John Owens

(Image: merseyside police)

John Owens killed his mum after giving her a “back-handed slap” during a drunken row at her home .

Julie Owens, 52, died 11 days after the bust-up at her home in Wavertree on August 22, last year, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Her son John Owens, 30, had initially denied the manslaughter of his mum , but then re-entered a plea of guilty to the unlawful killing.

Owens, who is almost profoundly deaf, but can lip-read, began to lose his hearing from the age of 16, and suffered from depression, anxiety and took medication for seizures.

He also suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Asperger’s syndrome last May.

Judge Andrew Menary, QC, described Owens' actions as “unjustified and wholly unnecessary.”

The judge handed Owens a four-and-a-half years sentence.

John Connolly

(Image: Merseyside Police)

A callous car thief who fled a serious crash at a busy junction which left a woman with life changing injuries was jailed.

Dramatic dash-cam footage captured the moment John Connolly, 26, climbed out of a stolen Golf after a serious accident at a busy junction in Dovecot last November.

Connolly, who had tried to speed through a red light, ran off wearing a bright pink dressing gown and was arrested nearby.

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A woman had to be cut free from her car after the smash and was in hospital for three weeks after the crash.

Connolly, who was out of prison on licence at the time of the smash, was jailed for 28 months and banned from driving for four years and two months.

Gary Stedman

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Gary Stedman, 48, offered to take a schoolgirl to watch Everton play only to be met outside a club shop by paedophile hunters .

The pervert befriended someone who he thought was a 13-year-old girl called Mia on an internet chatroom in December.

The convicted flasher, who said he would like to kiss and cuddle ‘Mia’, asked if she would like to come back to his home in Stoke.

He had arranged to meet his victim outside the Everton Two store at Liverpool One ahead of the game, which the Blues lost 6-2.

But he was instead greeted by a decoy from predator hunting group Leave Our Kids Alone and arrested in Chavasse Park by police.

Stedman, of Nash Peake Street in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to meet a girl under 16 following grooming.

He was jailed for 21 months.

Steven Willoughby and Emma Matthewman

A pair of dealers who peddled drugs from Cheshire into Liverpool have been jailed after a drugs ‘hotline’ saw police bust their operation.

Steven Willoughby and Emma Matthewman revealed the sickening arsenal of weapons found among 72 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine stashed at Emma Matthewman’s home.

As well as the class A drugs officers recovered drugs paraphernalia, cash, a large kitchen knife, hammer and even a Taser from her address in Dickenson Street in Warrington .

Matthewman, 47, and Willoughby, 25, of Birch Green in Skelmersdale were both found guilty of possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how officers became suspicious when Willoughby’s phone would constantly be ringing and suspected him of being involved in drug dealing.

Police believe Willoughby was involved in ‘county lines’ drug activity and used his mobile phone – also known as a ‘graft’ or a ‘line’ – to extend his criminal drug dealing from Liverpool into Cheshire.

County lines is the term given to groups moving drugs from cities into more rural areas of the county.

On Wednesday Matthewman received a four and a half years sentence and Willoughby was sentenced to four years in prison.

Simone Mastrelli

(Image: Merseyside Police)

A man who left a Liverpool fan in a coma in an horrific attack outside Anfield stadium was jailed.

Simone Mastrelli pleaded guilty to attacking Sean Cox, 53, who was left with life changing brain injuries, before Liverpool played Roma last April.

At Preston Crown Court, Mastrelli, 30, from Rome, was jailed for three and a half years.

Mr Cox, of Dunboyne, County Meath, suffered severe head injuries when he was attacked by Mastrelli ahead of the Champions League semi-final tie.

Mastrelli, who was extradited last month after being arrested on a European Arrest Warrant in Italy, picked out Mr Cox because of the Liverpool scarf he was wearing.

He then went into the stadium to enjoy the match- his actions described by a judge as “particularly callous” given what he had just done.

Tony Ormesher

A menace banned from Liverpool city centre who threatened to have a Salvation Army worker killed has blown his latest chance at freedom.

Tony Ormesher, 53, was handed a 10-year ban for a crazed rampage that saw him punch a pregnant woman and spit at tour bus staff in 2016.

The convicted sex offender has a long record including indecent exposure, arson, assaults, thefts, threatening behaviour and criminal damage.

Staggeringly, however, he once worked as a porter at Eaton Road Police Station in West Derby and did not commit a single crime until he turned 45.

Ormesher breached his criminal behaviour order when he became aggressive with staff at the One Stop Shop in St John’s Market on December 27 last year.

He admitted breaching his order and Judge Cummings said there was nothing else he could do and jailed him for three months.

Mark Walker and Wade McAllister

(Image: North Wales Police)

Two drug dealers are behind bars after police discovered they had stashed almost 300 wraps of cocaine and heroin up their bottoms.

Mark Walker, 27, from Fifth Avenue in Fazakerley was found concealing £2,000 of drugs up his backside - 120 wraps of cocaine and 53 wraps of heroin - when he was stopped by police in Bangor, North Wales.

When officers asked him if he had any drugs on him, he told them exactly where to find them.

After being arrested and released under investigation on May 8 last year, he was spotted the next day with 18-year-old Wade McAllister reports North Wales Live.

(Image: North Wales Police)

McAllister from Carfield in Skelmersdale told police he had around 50 wrap of cocaine and 60 wraps of crack “between his cheeks”.

Walker denied any knowledge of the drugs McAllister had been concealing but tests found his DNA on the packages stuffed up the 18-year-old’s backside.

He admitted supplying heroin and cannabis and Wade McAllister pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine, heroin and cannabis.

Walker was jailed for three years and eight months and McAllister for two years and four months.

Gregory Davies

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

A crooked solicitor who stole £13,000 from his law firm then tried to blame his employers cried when jailed.

Gregory Davies, 30, betrayed the trust of his mentor Catherine Higgins, colleagues and clients at Catherine Higgins Law in Woolton.

The dad-of-one duplicated paperwork and created fake policy documents to request clients paid money into his own bank account.

His despicable fraud even saw him take £540 from a deceased woman’s estate, which he disguised as a payment for funeral costs.

When rumbled he started deleting emails, then made serious accusations against the firm - none of which were accepted or proven.

Davies stole £13,397 in total, but his victim spent considerably more investigating his crimes and sly attempts to cover his tracks.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Davies, of Kylemore Drive, Pensby, Wirral, swindled the cash between September 2015 and July 2016.

Davies cried as did supporters in the public gallery as he was jailed for 12 months.

Ashley Jacobs

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

A doorman caught with £55,000 of cocaine and cannabis said he started smoking weed to fight cancer.

Ashley Jacobs grew a cannabis farm and cut cocaine with white powder at his home in Lindby Road, Kirkby.

Police also found £2,000 in dirty cash when they raided the 31-year-old bouncer’s house on May 31, 2017.

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

But he told Liverpool Crown Court he only became involved with drugs because of his battle with the disease.

He admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply, production of cannabis, abstracting electricity and possession of criminal property.

Jailing him for four years and eight months, he said the sentence had been reduced because of the long delay in bringing the case to court.

Stuart Marshall

(Image: MEN)

The founder of a Manchester City fansite was jailed after posting a sick tweet calling for the ‘stabbing’ of Liverpool fans as part of a ‘chilling’ campaign of stalking.

Stuart Marshall, 36, began flooding two men who contributed to the City Watch website with messages that became increasingly threatening and sinister.

Marshall, who founded the City Watch site from scratch, even set up a fake Twitter profile in the name one of his victims, which he used to post a message calling for the stabbing of Liverpool fans.

Marshall also used the fake account to make a sick reference to the Hillsborough disaster under a victim’s name.

(Image: MEN)

The victim was then “inundated” with messages from furious Liverpool fans in response, Manchester Crown Court was told.

Mocked-up porn images involving the men’s girlfriends were sent to them and they had their social media accounts hacked as part of the campaigns of stalking.

Marshall, of Leslie Avenue, Bury, pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to two counts of stalking, one charge of using unauthorised access to computer material to facilitate the commission of an offence, relating to the hacking and three charges of possessing indecent images of children.

The judge rejected pleas to suspend his sentence and Marshall put his his head in his hands in the dock as he was told he would be sent straight to prison and would serve two years and four months.

Barry Smith

(Image: staffspolice)

A taxi driver was caught carrying more than 40kg of heroin, worth a staggering £4m, when police stopped him on the motorway.

Barry Smith was pulled over by police on the M6, in September 2018, after they had tracking his Skoda Octavia on the M6 northbound, between junctions 13 and 14 at Stafford.

(Image: staffspolice)

The 44-year-old’s vehicle was searched, and in the boot offices found the massive haul of heroin, all packed up in Sports Direct carrier bags.

Smith, of Keston Walk in Halewood, admitted possession of heroin with intent to supply.

He was jailed for four years and eight months at Stafford Crown Court.

Rachel Tinsley

(Image: cheshire police)

A mother was locked up for stabbing her boyfriend because she found out that he was having an affair with her best friend.

Rachel Tinsley was jailed for 20 months for plunging a kitchen knife into Mark Donnelly’s chest and puncturing his lung during a bust-up on October 30.

But incredibly, Chester Crown Court heard how the couple are keen to “rekindle” their stormy relationship once she is released from prison.

The 33-year-old got embroiled in a furious row at their flat in Orford, Warrington, following her discovery that her partner had got intimate with her closest pal.

In an argument it was heard how Mr Donnelly became aggressive, grabbing his girlfriend’s arms, before she grabbed an eight-inch kitchen knife and stabbed him in the chest.

Tinsley then quickly pulled the weapon out and hit the victim on the shoulder with it.

Mr Donnelly escaped and sought refuge in a nearby phone box on Poplars Avenue as he tried to ring the emergency services.

When police turned up, officers found him drifting in and out of consciousness having suffered “significant” blood loss.

Tinsley, who admitted unlawful wounding, is also currently serving a 22-week imprisonment for criminal damage and a public order offence.

Anthony Cheeney

Cheeney, 29, was behind the botched bid to drop off the items above HMP Liverpool in Hornby Road.

A court heard Cheeney of Peter Road, Walton, failed to get the drone over the prison wall and it was seen crashing near to the category B prison at around 9pm on Thursday, August 31, 2017.

After the drone was recovered police found Class A and B drugs, mobile phones and sim cards attached to the device.

After an investigation Cheeney was arrested and charged with conveying prohibited articles into prison.

Cheeney was sentenced to five years in prison.

Eugene Furlong

A bullying thug who beat his girlfriend won’t serve a single extra day in jail for it because he was already on license from prison for a previous crime.

Eugene Furlong attacked his victim, with whom he had been in a short relationship, pulling out her hair, using a training shoe to strike her, and even whipping her using a rolled up coat.

The 37-year-old threw his victim across the room at the house in Thatto Heath, in St Helens.

His girlfriend phoned the police and Furlong was arrested and interviewed under caution.

He accepted being present, but denied assault. But on January 21, he changed his plea to guilty to a single count of assault.

It was also heard how Furlong had committed the offence while out of jail on licence for a previous crime.

In April, 2016, he was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and was handed a 57 month jail sentence.

He was released from prison in April 2018.

Furlong, of Casino Road in Huyton was jailed him for 30 months but a judge bemoaned the fact the punishment would “not add a day to his current sentence.”

A five year restraining order was also imposed.

Liverpool man jailed in Amsterdam

(Image: Google)

A Liverpool man was jailed in Amsterdam after police raided an apartment and found a cache of firearms, ammunition and drugs

Police raided a luxury apartment on de Jan van Zutphenstraat in the West Amsterdam area in October.

They seized 15 semi-automatic handguns, 1,500 bullets and drugs.

A 49-year-old man from Liverpool was arrested at the scene, and held in custody.

Local media reported that the Liverpool man told police the guns did not belong to him.

He appeared in court in Amsterdam in February and was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

The Dutch police have not named the man.

James Howard

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

James Howard, 53, attacked a man in McDonald’s, in a phone box and at his own home in a row over a debt - even though his lawyer said he had mobility problems.

Howard, of Victoria Road, Tuebrook, entered Neil Davies' home as he slept and broke his left arm by repeatedly hitting him with a table leg.

The victim went to hospital and had a plaster cast fitted, yet Howard attacked him twice more after seeing him in the street and a McDonald’s, even striking the injured arm.

When he appeared in court Howard was wheeled in and hobbled into the dock, before claiming he had “significant mobility problems”.

However prosecutors said there was no suggestion he had been in a wheelchair when he pursued Mr Davies.

The judge jailed Howard for two years and handed him a five-year restraining order.

Alan Williams

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

A young girl raped in her home climbed out of a bathroom window and down a drainpipe to escape her vile attacker.

Alan Williams, 44, was temporarily staying at the vulnerable 13-year-old victim’s mum’s house, in Merseyside, last year.

The child pretended to be asleep when he started molesting her on a sofa but Williams raped her and she fled.

Williams, of Cross Street, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, claimed he didn’t rape or have sex with the traumatised girl, despite DNA evidence.

He denied rape and three counts of sexual assault, but didn’t give evidence or offer any explanation during a two-day trial.

A jury unanimously found him guilty on all counts today after just over an hour of deliberation.

Judge Robert Trevor-Jones jailed Williams for 11 years and told him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Gary Schofield

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

A man claimed he grew a £98,000 cannabis farm because he lost his job and couldn’t afford his mortgage.

Police discovered 90 cannabis plants when they raided Gary Schofield’s house in Crosby Road South, Waterloo.

Stuart Nolan, defending, said: “He made a stupid decision to seek the course to criminality when the desperation got to the point he thought he was going to lose the property.

“The irony being he probably will lose the property, if not now, at some stage in the future because of the circumstances he now finds himself in.”

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

He said his client was not the “controlling mind” of the scheme, but was just a “gardener”.

Judge Rachel Smith said it was a “substantial cannabis growing operation” and the Class B drug was “ready for onward supply”.

Jailing Schofield for three years, Judge Smith said his personal mitigation did not reduce his sentence and he had to go to prison.

Michael Easton

(Image: Royal Mail)

A cocaine addict postman stole mail including a woman’s cancer results and dumped the letters in his bath.

Michael Easton, who was desperately looking for cash to steal, was jailed for 10 months after a Royal Mail sting caught him out.

Mail swiped by the 47-year-old included a letter with a woman’s cancer results, correspondence from her employer and a condolence card to another woman whose sister had died.

Easton, of New Ferry Road in New Ferry, Wirral, was caught out after Royal Mail investigators put six test items into post boxes from which he collected mail.

Judge Rachel Smith said: “There must be a clear deterrent message that members of staff of the Post Office who steal from within the postal system will receive immediate sentences.”

Callum Rose

A teenage drug dealer who mowed down two innocent university students on Slater Street was fleeing a drug-related argument with two older men when the horror crash happened.

Dramatic footage of the incident, which happened after Callum Rose raced from Bold Street into Slater Street, was shown to a hushed courtroom.

Rose, 19, who had been smoking cannabis, ploughed into two young men who were innocently crossing the road with two friends in the early hours of Christmas Eve.

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Sentencing Rose to four and a half years in prison, Judge Andrew Menary, QC, said: “You drove the car directly into collision with these men - you literally mowed them down.

“I don’t believe you targeted these young men but your actions in driving into them and continuing over Mr Jones' body and then continuing your journey shows breathtaking callousness.

“You did not stop after the incident or show any concern for the people you had run over.”

Joseph Moran and James Donnelley

Two men were jailed after pleading guilty to multiple burglaries across Merseyside last year.

Joseph Moran and James Donnelley pleaded guilty to burgling a house on Windsor Road in Formby on September, 7 2018 and handling stolen goods in relation to property stolen during a burglary at Barnfield Drive in West Derby, on September 22, 2017.

Moran, 24, of Mildmay Road, Norris Green, and Donnelley, 20, of no fixed address, were both sentenced to three years and one month in prison.

Dillon Neil

(Image: cheshirepolice)

A “paranoid” teenager stabbed a man who confronted him about an alleged sex offence leaving him with a punctured lung and bleeding from his back.

Dillon Neil, 20, of The Uplands, Runcorn, was aged 18 when he decided to “fight fire with fire” after Daniel Twigg turned up at his flat in the early hours of June 27, 2017, to remonstrate after Mr Twigg had been awoken by a phone call from a girl claiming Neil had sexually assaulted her.

After words were exchanged between the two men, Neil armed himself with a knife, which he plunged into Mr Twigg’s back, piercing his lung.

It only dawned on Mr Twigg what had happened when he became short of breath.

His Honour Judge Steven Everett told Neil he was lucky not to be serving a 25-year life sentence for murder, and that he could have kept his door shut but instead had chosen to “meet fire with fire”.

He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

John Doyle

A truck dealer who stole £337,000 in VAT while still claiming unemployment benefits was jailed.

John Doyle, 47, spent lavishly on trips to expensive hotels and restaurants, as well as splashing out on shopping sprees.

Doyle, of Blenheim Street in Vauxhall, collected hundreds of pounds in unemployment benefits - while his business account had more than £3.2m paid into it over a 14-month period.

Despite the huge sums being paid into his business account between February 2016 and May 2017, Doyle paid no VAT on the trucks and plant machinery he traded.

He was sentenced to three years and two months in jail and disqualified from being a company director for 10 years.

Jonathan Blair

A drug dealer was caught with three shotguns and £12,000 in cash as well as heroin and crack worth £29,000.

Jonathan Blair, of Oakdene Road, Anfield, was part of a drug trafficking operation peddling Class A drugs from Liverpool to Wales.

The guns and drugs were recovered when armed officers swooped on a house in south Wales following a tip-off.

The judge told Blair he was obviously intelligent – he left school with 12 GCSEs – and it was “a pity you did not fulfil that academic potential”.

He received a sentence of eight years and four months.

Sam Walker

Notorious crook Sam Walker was sentenced over a mobile phone found in his cell at HMP Liverpool, along with two high speed police chases.

Judge David Aubrey, QC, said “career criminal” Walker was “extremely streetwise” and knew he shouldn’t have a phone in jail.

He also said Walker drove at “grossly excessive speeds” on August 4 last year, showing “total and utter disregard” for other road users.

The judge jailed Walker for 33 months and banned him from the road for 52 months.

William Vaill and Deborah Andrews

Cold-hearted killers who brutally murdered a vulnerable friend using a hammer, knife, scissors and a screwdriver will spend at least 28 years in jail.

Evil William Vaill and Deborah Andrews were handed life sentences for killing Skelmersdale dad Eamonn Brady in a “brutal and sustained” attack before setting his body on fire.

The horrific attack saw Mr Brady hit in the head with a hammer at least 17 times and repeatedly stabbed and slashed in the neck and body in the early hours of July 21 2018.

Vaill, 37, and Andrews, 44, then wrapped his body in bedding and set it on fire before stealing a PlayStation 4, sound bar, DVD player and bank card belonging to Mr Brady.

After the callous killing, which Judge Mark Brown said had no clear motive, the pair went to Beacon Country Park, where they burned clothing and hid the weapons, then had sex.

John Peverall

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

A fugitive cannabis addict is believed to have hid in Amsterdam during three years on the run before his capture in Spain.

John Peverall was one of Merseyside’s most wanted men due to his links with a gang behind cocaine, heroin and cannabis plots.

The now 33-year-old fled the UK after police raided his parents' home, where he lived in Chelwood Avenue, Childwall, in November 2015.

He wasn’t apprehended until August last year, when he was intercepted at Madrid airport and extradited on a European Arrest Warrant.

He was locked up for three years at Liverpool Crown Court.

Justin Jervis

District Judge Andrew Shaw was “visibly disturbed” when he examined photos of a dog neglected by callous Justin Jervis, 42, at Liverpool Magistrates' Court.

Jervis, of Gorst Street, Anfield, allowed his Shar-pei, called Bubbles, to become emaciated, infected with maggots and die in agony after he refused to take her for free veterinary treatment.

Judge Shaw condemned the images of Bubbles as some of “the worst he had ever seen.”

Bubbles was put to sleep by vets at the PDSA in Kirkdale on September 3, 2018 - after she was presented in a horrifying skeletal state.

The golden Shar-pei was also infected with mature maggots which had nested in her ear canal and began migrating throughout her head, as well as having a back leg which was hugely swollen from cancerous growths.

Jervis admitted three charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and was jailed for 16 weeks.

The RSPCA inspector who handled the case described it as among the worst she had seen in her 16 year career - and burst into tears when the sentence was read out.

Cameron Ashton

Hero gym-staff pinned down crazed knifeman Cameron Ashton and bound his legs with duct tape after a horrific stabbing at a leisure centre.

Ashton, of no fixed address, turned up at David Lloyd Leisure Centre in Speke Road, Speke, armed with a 12 inch blade and launched a ferocious attack on victim Jonathan Benn, on August 15 last year.

Horrified children on their way to a nearby changing room saw Mr Benn pouring with blood.

Brave staff chased Ashton, and after rugby tackling him to the ground managed to detain him despite his desperate 10-minute struggle to escape during which his legs had to be tied with duct tape.

The reason for the attack remains a mystery, as Ashton has not given an explanation and Mr Benn failed to turn up for Ashton’s trial, which was due to begin last week.

CCTV of the horrific attack was played in court and showed Ashton stabbing down at Mr Benn’s head and body before walking off.

The victim suffered a 10cm laceration to his hand which damaged nerve endings and needed surgery.

He also suffered a two inch laceration to his neck which was an inch deep.

Recorder Kate Bex, QC, jailed him for 38 months for wounding.

Michael Dainty

(Image: merpol)

Convicted paedophile Michael Dainty was jailed after a “relapse” where he downloaded horrifying images of children being abused.

The 56-year-old received a visit from police to his home in Rockwell Road, West Derby, who wanted to check his phone and computer as part of his previous offending.

As soon as they arrived he blurted out: “I’m trying not to, there may be a naked child [photo].”

Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, said analysis of Dainty’s internet use revealed he had one image in Category A, featuring children aged 13-16, one image in Category B, and 267 in Category C, which showed children aged five to eight-years-old.

Dainty was interviewed by police and later admitted three offences of making indecent images of children, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

He told police that he went online at night, when feeling “lonely and down.”

Judge Davis imposed a fresh Sexual Harm Prevention Order which bars Dainty with having any device capable of accessing the internet, stops him deleting his internet history or using any software concealing web deletions.

Jailing Dainty for eight months, Judge Davis added: “You have been given an opportunity and you have failed to take it.”

Liam Morris

(Image: merpol)

Jealous Liam Morris, now 28, stabbed his ex’s new partner in front of a child after finding them in bed together - before fleeing to Tenerife.

Liam Morris told Robert McCarthy he was “going to kill” him after arming himself with two large cooking knives, on September 14, 2015.

Morris, then 24, was seen “savagely” kicking in the front door, and then dashed to the bedroom.

A “stalemate” or “tug-of-war” developed, prosecutor Edmund Haygarth said, before Morris managed to slightly force himself in, and stabbed Mr McCarthy in his leg, twice, and to his bicep as Mr McCarthy tried to protect his chest.

The violence happened in front of a two year old child.

Morris fled and went on the run in Tenerife for three years.

He was eventually brought back to the UK on a European Arrest Warrant, and charged with wounding, to which he entered a plea of guilty.

He was jailed for two years.

Warren Graham

(Image: merpol)

Violent bully Warren Graham broke into his former partner’s house before attacking her and threatening to kill her.

Graham, of Langtree Street, St Helens, had split with Alleisha Atherton after a brief relationship during which the 21-year-old punched her.

On November 30 last year she was at home, tidying up, when she heard a bang at her front door and her ex shouting: “I know you are in there!”

Miss Atherton, who had told him that she was leaving the Newton-le-Willows area, became scared but managed to get in touch with a neighbour.

Graham banged on kitchen and bathroom windows before reaching a bedroom window which had been left open, although by now she had escaped.

He managed to get inside and stole £40 along with a bottle of vodka, then two days later returned and used a plank of wood to smash his way in.

He came face-to-face with his ex, grabbed her neck and vowed to kill her, and himself, then put his hand over her mouth, until an officer rescued her.

Graham, who admitted burglary, common assault and criminal damage, was jailed for three years.

Jamie Talbot

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

This is the glum face of a fugitive drug dealer caught on Christmas Day - before he could even tuck into his festive dinner.

Jamie Talbot spent more than two and a half years on the run while wanted by police over a £26,000 cocaine conspiracy.

Police discovered multiple bags of the Class A drug, cutting agents and a hydraulic press in a raid on a drugs factory in Seaforth.

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Talbot and his business partner Carl Morgan used the rented flat in Crosby Road South to mix drugs and package them for sale.

Officers found 263g of cocaine in total and 178g of the anaesthetic Benzocaine, commonly used an an adulterant to increase profits.

Fingerprints led detectives to the then homes of Morgan, 32, of Lisburn Lane, Old Swan, and Talbot, 32, of Altcar Road, Formby.

Edmund Haygarth, prosecuting, said Morgan was arrested in May 2016, but Talbot was not at home when officers called that July.

Morgan was jailed for four and a half years after a trial in May 2017, but Talbot remained at large and police issued a wanted appeal.

He was finally captured when stopped by officers in Wood Street, in Liverpool city centre, at around 11.51am on December 25 last year.

Talbot, now of Knight Street in Liverpool city centre, was arrested and later admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Jailing him for three years and two months, the judge said he could not give him maximum credit for his guilty plea due to having been on the run.

“Young monster” jailed

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

This is the bloodstained blade a schoolboy left embedded in another child’s arm after stabbing him so hard his knife snapped in half.

The yob - aged just 14 at the time - launched the unprovoked attack at a house party when “bladdered” drunk and high on cannabis.

His victim, 14, is now scarred for life and suffering from nerve damage, which means he cannot write properly and may never do again.

Just weeks after the horrific ordeal, the lout tried to rob the same teen - repeatedly punching his injured arm and demanding his mobile phone.

A top judge said the remorseless boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was a “coward”, appearing “to all the world as a young monster”.

He also said that if he was an adult he would have been jailed for around 12 years, before sentencing him to five and a half years' detention.

At the time of the attack the boy was serving a nine-month referral order at the time for shoplifting, assaulting store staff and criminal damage.

The skull mask gang

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

The shocking three-week crime spree saw nine bars and restaurants hit – and their victims included one man who was pistol whipped in the face and another who was told his hand would be cut off in front of his nine-year-old son.

Ring-leader Frankie Wood, 23, led up to three accomplices terrorising staff after look-out and getaway driver Hayley Digney, 34, had cased the premises beforehand.

(Image: Merseyside Police)

At least two offenders remain unidentified, but at Liverpool Crown Court today Wood was jailed for 19 years with an extra five on licence while fellow robber Thomas Lacken, 39, was locked up for 10.

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All three had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery after the raids in Aigburth, Old Swan, West Derby, Allerton and Crosby.

Mum-of-one Digney sobbed in the dock as she was put behind bars for 14 and a half years.

(Image: Merseyside Police)

Relatives of Digney and Wood screamed “rat” at Judge Neil Flewitt, QC, from the public gallery and were ejected from court by police officers.

Andrew Ford, prosecuting, told the court: “This was a burst of terrifying robberies of extreme gravity, in a major city, over a three week period, which shocked the community.”

Michael Woolvine

(Image: merpol)

Michael Woolvine was sent to jail for 15 years for a horrific assault on his former partner in Moreton, Wirral.

The 36-year-old broke into Samantha Heustice’s home on Wastdale Drive and used a J2O bottle to smash over the 28-year-old’s head and then slashed at her face.

The thug put his hands round the 28-year-old’s throat to throttle her and even knocked over the child who watched the colour of her mum’s face change from red to grey.

Woolvine was labelled a dangerous criminal by Judge Stuart Driver QC and handed a ten year tariff plus a five years extension for subjecting Miss Heustice and her daughter to such a brutal ordeal.

Sean McDevitt

(Image: Lancashire Police handout)

Crooked salesman Sean McDevitt stole £69,000 from his employer after setting up secret Paypal accounts to funnel money to himself.

Sean McDevitt, 34, carried out around 200 dodgy transactions while working at West Lancashire firm Yellow Products Design to fund drink and drug habits and pay for restaurant visits and hotel stays.

McDevitt, of Tithebarn Road in Southport, was jailed for 26 months after admitting carrying out the transactions over a two-year period between 2015-17.

Sean Furlong

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Road rage driver Sean Furlong knocked a cyclist off his bike sending him flying over his car bonnet then “left him for dead”.

The 49, saw red when Kenneth Cawsey, 50, challenged him over his dangerous driving and called him a “fing wer”.

He then sped away leaving the grandad, who suffered a broken shoulder and a deep gash to his right knee, in “excruciating pain”.

At Liverpool Crown Court Furlong was jailed for 14 months and banned him from the road for two years and seven months, as his partner sobbed in the public gallery.

Stephen Prendergast

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Stephen Prendergast - who once knocked his own sister’s teeth out - was jailed on his birthday for two new crimes.

He targeted a car parked outside one of the city’s top restaurants, and - while out on bail - burgled a distraught family’s home.

Prendergast struck outside Holdi Bar in Woolton Village, where Paul Homa was carrying out work, on Christmas Eve last year.

Mr Homa looked out of the Indian restaurant in Woolton Street and spotted a man in the front seat of his car, at around 9.15pm.

He dragged the thief out of his vehicle and knocked on the restaurant window for help, yet Prendergast managed to worm free.

The bungling crook escaped but later returned because he realised he’d left his glasses and was caught and arrested.

He was found to be carrying a Samsung music player and electric power bank he had taken from the car.

Prendergast confessed and said he was sorry, but after he was charged with theft and released on bail, skipped magistrates' court.

He then raided a family’s house in Speke Road, Woolton on January 23, but was captured on CCTV cameras stealing a laptop.

Prendergast was jailed for three years and four months.

Stephen Martin and James Dean

Two Birkenhead men were jailed after they were caught hiding out in a farm building after they burgled a country pub near the M6.

Stephen Martin and James Dean broke into the Horseshoe Inn, near Warrington during the early hours of January 28.

But as they ran off as they heard police arriving.

Officers then launched an area search with the help of dog patrols and the police helicopter.

The two men were found hiding in a farm outbuilding on Dam Lane a short time later and were arrested.

They were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday 26 February after pleading guilty to burglary.

Stephen Martin, 37, of Tapestry Gardens, Birkenhead was sentenced to four years in prison and James Dean, 38, of Portland Street, Birkenhead was sentenced to three years in prison.

Gerard Kendrick

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

Gerard Kendrick raped and molested six children over two decades - beginning when he himself was aged just 10-years-old.

The twisted pervert, 32, forced little boys and girls to wear nappies while carrying out sickening attacks on traumatised victims.

But his disturbing crimes only came to light last year, after police seized indecent images from a known sex offender in Blackburn.

Using GPS technology, officers discovered some of the photographs were created at Kendrick’s Barmouth Way, Vauxhall home.

They later found the stash included pictures Kendrick took of him raping a little boy, who he made wear a nappy, in 2017 and 2018.

When he was arrested over the find last year, five more victims - now adults - came forward to report he had also ruined their lives.

Kendrick was jailed for 18 years, with an extended six years on licence, for the “disgraceful catalogue of sexual offending”.

Judge Robert Warnock said: “You have stolenthe innocence and enjoyment of their childhood and scarred and impaired their adult life.”

Alexander Billinge

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Violent thug Billinge set upon a 75-year-old man and pinned him to the ground to steal his Rolex watch.

The 26-year-old thug dragged his victim to the floor in Fountain Court, in Blundellsands, before he and his accomplice ripped off the expensive piece of jewellery.

Billinge, of Lyneham, Whiston, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court and admitted robbery and was jailed for seven years.

Police are still seeking his accomplice.

Jamie Porter

(Image: gmp)

This was the moment a gun-toting robber stole £10,000 from a pensioner’s home - but was captured on their home CCTV.

Jamie Porter, from Kensington, knocked on the door of a property in Wigan, at 8.30am on Saturday, November 25, last year, armed with a fake firearm.

The 39-year-old lied to the occupant that he was looking for his wife, but then pushed past the 73-year-old, revealing the weapon which he had hidden underneath a newspaper.

Porter forced the man to hand over cash and jewellery with a combined value of £10,000.

(Image: gmp)

He also stole a mobile phone that contained a number of sentimental pictures.

But because he had left a perfect image of himself behind , and vital forensic evidence, police managed to catch up with him the next day.

On his arrest he was found to be in possession of £4,150 in cash.

Porter, of Hannan Road, pleaded guilty to robbery and possession of an imitation firearm and was jailed for seven-and-a-half years at Bolton Crown Court.

Keith Moore

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Thug Keith Moore from Huyton, dragged a woman out of a taxi by her hair outside a busy train station.

The Knowsley man, along with accomplice Michael Bedford, was seen standing in the middle of the road outside the town’s train station, brandishing a broken road tile.

The 30-year-old yob then shouted: “Don’t move that taxi”, and threatened to smash the cab’s windscreen.

Their two victims jumped into the taxi, and shouted “Go!” at the driver, however the violent pair pulled open the vehicle’s doors and attacked the victims, dragging the woman from the taxi by her hair.

One of the attackers also pulled a knife and threatened the woman.

Moore was jailed for 18 months, while Bedford, 28, got two years and two months in jail.

Dale Mills

Dale Mills was jailed for stealing £120,000 from an autism charity in a shocking four-year campaign of fraud.

The 36-year-old from Frobisher Road in Leasowe, stole tens of thousands from Wirral-based charity Autism Together during his time working on the charity’s finance team.

He was sentenced to 32 months behind bars in a hearing at Liverpool Crown Court.

The charity, which was formerly called The Wirral Society for Autistic Children, said Dale ‘took advantage of his position of trust.’

Steven Gardner

(Image: Merseyside Police)

A quad biker was jailed after “racing through a housing estate” and riding the wrong way around a roundabout while high on drugs.

Steven Gardner was spotted by officers driving a quad bike dangerously in the Hillside and Page Moss areas “which involved travelling the wrong way on a roundabout whilst racing through a residential housing estate”.

Gardner, 29, was seen to abandon the bike in the street where he lived - Parbrook Road.

He was detained by officers after being spotted at around 6pm on Monday, September 10 last year.

He was sentenced to eight months imprisonment at Liverpool Crown Court for dangerous driving, drug driving, driving a motor vehicle whilst disqualified and using a motor vehicle without insurance.

Leighton Holt

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

The killer of Danny Fox was jailed for minding a shotgun and carrying out two terrifying cocaine-fuelled robberies.

Leighton Holt, 22, admitted slashing and killing former doorman Danny, 29, in St Helens town centre, but while he accepted inflicting the fatal wound, argued he acted in self-defence.

The grinning thug walked free from court in 2017 after not one but two juries failed to reach a verdict, following two harrowing murder trials.

But he is now behind bars for stashing a sawn-off shotgun at his mum’s home, a terrifying knifepoint robbery and a supermarket raid when he sprayed bleach in a security guard’s face.

He was jailed for eight and a half years, with an extended four years and eight months on licence.

When the judge handed him his sentence Holt gave him the middle finger.

James Foat and Kyle Melia

James Foat and Kyle Melia were jailed after a deadly haul of weapons was found by chance by police.

Liverpool Crown Court heard officers went to a house in Chudleigh Road, Old Swan looking for a woman wanted on recall to prison.

But when they knocked on the front door on August 15 last year, a man tried to escape out of a back window, only to be confronted by a waiting officer.

Jonathan Myles - “visibly agitated and sweating profusely” - confessed there was a gun and led police to a small box room, filled with furniture and junk.

Under a piece of clothing lay the astonishing haul, including a sawn-off shotgun, a semi-automatic pistol and an Ingram MAC-10 sub-machine gun.

The landlord of the property told police it had been rented since July to Foat, 24, of Jerningham Road, Norris Green, whose DNA was found on the shotgun and pistol.

The pistol also bore the DNA of Kyle Melia, 24, of Killington Way, Kirkdale,

Foat was jailed for seven and a half years and Melia for five years.

Myles, alleged to have been tasked by Foat to look after the weapons while in the house, was cleared of any wrongdoing after a trial.

Lee Almond and David Kelly’s gang

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Nine men and two women were jailed for a total of more than 76 years for flooding three separate countries with large quantities of Class A and B drugs.

During the course of the investigation, more than 34 kilos of drugs were recovered, worth an estimated street value of £410,000, which was being peddled across England, Scotland and South Wales.

(Image: mpol)

Lee Almond, 38, of Heathfield Road, Litherland, and 24-year-old David Kelly of Byron Street, Bootle, were the heads of the gang who both were jailed for nine years and nine months at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs.

The two men facilitated the distribution of cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis to Aberdeen in Scotland and Cardiff in South Wales through trusted couriers, who formed part of the crime group.

(Image: mpol)

The gang used the cover of lawfully registered and insured vehicles to transport controlled drugs and also used coaches in the UK to mask their intentions.

Almond and Kelly were both jailed for nine years and nine months.

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Carl Larkin, 54, of Marsh Lane, Bootle was sentenced to five years and two months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs.

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Charlotte McMullen, 27, of Hawthorne Road, Bootle, was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply Class B drugs and being found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

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Jonathan Ford, 24, of The Scythes, Netherton, was sentenced to four years six months in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class B drugs.

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Andrew Williams, 48, of Masefield Road, Crosby, was sentenced to 8 years in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs.

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Shane Hodgson, 39, of Westminster Avenue, Netherton was sentenced to six years and six months in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs.

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Jade Hazlett, 27, of Norton Street, Bootle, was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs

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Detective Chief Inspector Steve Reardon, of Merseyside Police, said: “We are pleased that the courts have dealt with this organised crime group in such a robust way, which reflects the seriousness and scale of their criminal activity, which took place over a sustained length of time and across large geographic areas.

“Lee Almond and David Kelly led an organised criminal group who spread the misery of drug supply across three countries, with no regard for the devastating impact their actions caused within those communities.”

Steven Barton

(Image: Merseyside Police)

A grandad-of-three who led police on an 80mph car chase which nearly wiped out a family declared “I’m getting too old for this.”

Steven Barton, 47, drove at high speed down the wrong side of the road, through red lights, and was forced to slam on to avoid hitting the family as they prepared to cross Speke Road, Speke.

Barton, of Elloway Road in Speke, was jailed for two years and seven months after admitting five counts of theft, five counts of fraud, two counts of going equipped for theft, one of handling stolen goods, one of dangerous driving and one of driving while disqualified.

John Smith

A junior football coach sent pictures of his penis to boys on Snapchat after grooming them at a junior football team.

John Smith, 22, abused his position when training young players for Venny Junior Football Club in Conleach Road, Speke.

Smith was found guilty of three counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child, after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Judge Anil Murray, who said Smith “groomed” his victims, jailed him for 18 months and made a five-year restraining order.

Bando Ysihara

(Image: cheshirepolice)

A teenager who raped a woman who was alone in her tent at the Creamfields dance music festival was jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Bando Ysihara, 19, of Peckham Grove, London, entered the victim’s tent and raped her at around 11pm on Sunday, August 26.

Following Ysihara’s sentencing, Julie Harrison, of Mersey-Cheshire Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This young woman had gone to a music festival to enjoy herself with her friends.

“Instead she was left traumatised by Ysihara who took advantage of the fact that she was alone and raped her.

“He refused to admit what he had done despite strong evidence, so his victim then had to relive the dreadful events of that night in a trial.

“The police and Crown Prosecution Service built a strong case and the jury took less than an hour to find him guilty.

“This man caused the victim and her family unbelievable distress and we hope that the successful conclusion of this case is of some comfort to them.”

Owen Cousins

(Image: Merseyside Police)

Owen Cousins, 17, was jailed for 11 years for the manslaughter of Danny Gee-Jamieson.

The teenager stabbed 16-year-old Danny in the thigh during a pre-arranged ‘straightener’ in Nook Park, Gateacre.

Cousins, of Redwood Road, Gateacre, admitted having a knife, but denied murder and manslaughter.

The teen had said he was acting in self-defence and claimed Danny had a knife on Tuesday, July 3 last year.

He was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.

Judge David Aubrey, QC, said Danny was not carrying a knife during the fight.

Nicholas Adams

(Image: cheshirepolice)

A property investor “saw red” and launched a ferocious attack on a man who “sarcastically mimicked” him in a parking row that ended in violence and left the victim’s skull visible through a five-inch gash.

Nicholas Samuel Adams, 47, of Bridgewater Grange, Preston Brook, Runcorn, flew into a rage as an ongoing parking dispute about who should park where boiled over into a vicious assault.

Charlie Farragher, Joseph Farrell and John Hodgin

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This is the moment three burglars headed the wrong way down the M53 in a stolen car as police pursued them.

Charlie Farragher, 19 years, of Vittoria Street, Birkenhead was jailed for three years, nine months for burglary, aggravated unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle and breach of a suspended sentence.

He was also sentenced for a burglary on 18 August 2018 in which a vehicle was stolen, and a making off without payment offence. Farragher was disqualified from driving for two years, 11 months.

Joseph Farrell, 18 years, of Cathcart Street, Birkenhead was jailed for one year, nine months for burglary and aggravated unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle. He was disqualified from driving for two years, one month.

John Hodgin, 19 years, Tapestry Gardens, Birkenhead was jailed for two years, seven months for burglary and aggravated unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle. He was disqualified from driving for two years, nine months.

Mark Gibbons

(Image: Lancashire Police)

An obsessed stalker repeatedly ran over his wife before telling shocked witnesses that he wanted her to die.

Mark Gibbons' campaign of harassment and abuse reached its peak when he tried to kill estranged wife, Dr Julia Woolgar, just five days after being banned by a court order him from contacting her.

He was jailed for 12 years for the attempted murder, an assault on Mr Byrne and breaching the restraining order.

He was also given an extra three years on license and banned from driving for 18 years.

Paul Wilkinson

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

An out-of-work doctor jailed for using an old hospital security pass to repeatedly steal drugs could be struck off.

Dr Paul Wilkinson worked in the anaesthetic department at Aintree Hospital in Lower Lane for almost two years.

But when his contract was not renewed due to “poor performance”, the then 30-year-old kept hold of his ID card.

He donned medical scrubs and used the pass on 75 occasions to try to steal codeine to feed his painkiller addiction.

In 2017 Liverpool Crown Court heard he wandered freely through wards and operating theatres over an eight-month period.

Wilkinson, now of Breakmoor Avenue in Silsden, West Yorkshire, admitted burglary, burglary with intent and theft.

He was jailed for eight months.

John Hardman

(Image: Merseyside Police)

John Hardman, 44, was jailed for 20 weeks.

Hardman was caught on CCTV and later admitted starting a fire in the skip next to the apartments on Claughton Street St Helens, at about 2.35am on August 4 last year.

Police said it was just luck that nobody was hurt as a result of the fire.

Alan Nolan

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A violent thug whose girlfriend died after swallowing his cocaine stash when he was stopped by police went on to beat up his next partner - while she was pregnant.

Alan Nolan walked free after the death of popular beautician Georgia Cassidy, 19, who became fatally ill after digesting his four wraps, which tore open in her stomach. He was charged with drug offences, but no charges specifically relating to her death.

But 19 days later, the 23-year-old bully unleashed his temper on Bethany Wainwright after she refused to pick him up from the city centre, when he woke her up with a 1am phone call.

A judge handed the 23-year-old 20 months in jail, but he slammed prosecutors for charging the Kirkby man with a less serious criminal offence which prevented him from being locked up for much longer.

Martin Willcocks

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A paedophile bus driver who sexually abused a little girl sobbed in court today when finally jailed thanks to her bravery.

Martin Willcocks subjected his victim to a sickening campaign of abuse from the age of six yet convinced the vulnerable child it was completely normal.

The 50-year-old, of Westhead Avenue, Kirkby, molested the young girl, and sexually abused her.

He covered his face with his hand and sobbed when jailed for 16 years, with an extended two years on licence, as an Offender of Particular Concern.

Charles Dickenson

An 89-year-old former vicar who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old boy in the 1970s was sent to jail, as a judge told him: “You did terrible things.”

Charles Dickenson, who has dementia and now walks very slowly with a frame, had his crimes covered up by the Church of England twice and was promoted to higher position in another parish.

Dickenson was jailed for 27 months, and was ordered to sign the Sex Offender’s Register for life.

Mohammed Khalin Hussain and Ibras Khan

Two men were jailed for over 16 for their part in a massive country-wide drug ring.

Mohammed Khalin Hussain, 33, and Ibras Khan, 30, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supplying controlled drugs (cocaine).

Hussain was sentenced to seven years and eight months and Khan was sentenced to nine years in prison.

James Quarton

Prolific burglar James Quarton was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

In footage he can be seen frantically rifling through the contents of the black Ford Cougar’s inside car door and centre console looking for anything he can steal.

In the end, he only got an iPhone, a lighter, and some loose change from the Delta private hire vehicle, parked in School Lane in the city centre.

The whole “smash and grab” operation lasts less than 30 seconds.

At the time, Quarton, 30, of no fixed address, was already awaiting sentence for an identical offence, where he broke into a parked car belonging to a 20-year-old female student and stole a laptop.

He was sentenced for these offences, plus another of production of cannabis.

The court heard that drug addiction had become a “way of life” and prison a “second home” to Quarton.

Michael Davies

A drug dealer who drove a car at a police officer, assaulted another and knocked an elderly woman to the floor to avoid arrest was jailed.

Michael Davies, of Poole Avenue, in Orford, tried to flee from police three times - even after officers detained him with captor spray.

Davies pleaded guilty to possession of class B (cannabis) with intent to supply, dangerous driving, resisting arrest, assaulting a police constable, escaping lawful custody and common assault.

He was jailed for five years.

Sean Clamp

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A shameless thief caught on video stealing a shop charity box - by burning through its security chord - was jailed.

Footage shows Sean Clamp, 29, set fire to the chord, casually lighting a flame as he pretends to be interested in buying vape products at Electro Vapors on Stanley Road in Bootle on Tuesday, February 19.

Smoke could be seen drifting from the cord, which the thief attempts to wave away, worried his ruse could be figured out.

Appearing at South Sefton Magistrates Court he was sentenced to four weeks imprisonment and asked to pay compensation.

Roy Seddon

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Roy Seddon, 48, called his 43-year-old girlfriend Lisa Carr a “slag” and mocked her about a scar she already had on her face.

She became upset, yet when she made to leave, the bully pushed her from behind to the back, causing her to fall to the floor.

Ms Carr hit her face on the speakers of his hi-fi system, causing two cuts including a deep wound, which damaged muscle tissue.

The judge said it was concerning that Seddon did not accept he had a problem with alcohol, adding: “It’s clear you can’t handle your drink.”

He jailed him for 12 months and handed him an indefinite restraining order to protect Miss Carr.

Rhyan Kelly and Callum Johnson

Rhyan Kelly, 18, and Callum Johnson, 23, were both jailed after police raided a vulnerable woman’s one-bedroom flat and found heroin and cocaine worth almost £6,000. The duo had been using it as a drugs den.

They were each jailed for two years.

Charles Farrell

Charles Farrell was serving a suspended sentence for ringing police while pleasuring himself, when he was caught exposing himself to young women.

Liverpool Crown Court heard a scared woman saw Farrell “fully naked” and staring at her on the evening of October 6 last year.

A teenage woman and the girl also spotted him on four occasions around this time, while a young male reported seeing him at the window.

Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, said Farrell knew his victims - including the young girl - were looking at him.

He said: “Quite deliberately you chose to stand in the window of an upper room naked at a time when those girls or the woman was within eyeshot.

“You did so I have no doubt in order to derive some sort of sexual excitement from seeing them

“You knew and indeed intended that they should be seen and you knew and intended that these people would be distressed by what they saw.”

He jailed Farrell for two years and told him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.

Debra Hill

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A bus inspector was jailed after stealing large sums of money from a Christmas savings club for bus drivers.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Debra Hill, 56, was the manager of a saving fund into which employees at Arriva’s St Helens bus depot paid a part of their wages.

An investigation revealed Hill siphoned off a total of £76,050 into her own bank account from the savings club, which she jointly set up with a colleague, David Pimblett.

Hill, of Orange Tree Close, Stockbridge Village, initially denied she had stolen the money and claimed she transferred the money to her own account so that she could pay out to drivers who were leaving the company.

But eventually she pleaded guilty to fraud and blamed her behaviour on stress at work.

Judge Gary Woodhall said Hill’s offending was so serious that only a custodial sentence would do and he jailed her for two years and nine months.

Phillip Manning, Tony Kelly and Bryan Thomas

A man was left fighting for his life after three thugs travelled from Merseyside to Salford to carry out a terrifying gun attack.

A bullet careered off a door and struck the victim - lodging near his spine - when Phillip Manning, Tony Kelly and Bryan Thomas shot at a home in Ordsall.

He later made a full recovery - but the attackers, all linked to the region, have now been handed significant jail terms.

Manning, 31, Kelly, 27, and Thomas, 19, admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

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Appearing at Manchester Crown Court, Manning, of HMP Wakefield, and Kelly, of HMP Manchester, were each sentenced to 16-and-a-half years in prison.

Thomas, who was also sentenced for his role in a kidnap, was jailed for 17 years with a four-year extended licence.

Nicholas and Stuart Curtis

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Two brothers who took part in a “frenzied” attack on a woman neighbour they had argued with were jailed for a total of 34 years for her murder.

Nicholas and Stuart Curtis both got involved in the brutal, and ultimately fatal, assault against Glenda Jackson after she had allegedly damaged a van which belonged to one of them.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how Nicholas, 32, used a knife to repeatedly stab the 44-year-old, while his brother Stuart, 31, delivered a series of savage kicks and stamps to her head.

As the minimum terms of 18 years for Nicholas, and 16 years for dad-of-one Stuart, both of Mersey Walk, Tranmere, but formerly of Grayson Mews, were relayed to the packed courtroom, supporters of Ms Jackson were heard to whisper: “Yesss!”

Both were handed life sentences for their part in the murderous assault.

Kenneth Wright

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Wright was snared by his would-be victim while on a house-raiding spree that saw him steal food from a freezer.

He had already plundered frozen food from one Fazakerley home when he targeted a second house on the night of March 27.

Yet his plot was foiled when a man who lived there heard him trying to break in through a window.

The intended victim was spooked by the noise made by Wright, spotted the burglar and then chased him through the back garden.

The daring homeowner tackled the criminal and held him until the arrival of police.

Wright was jailed after admitting two counts of burglary at Liverpool Crown Court.

The 45-year-old, of no fixed address but from Walton, was sentenced to four years and three months.

David Ellis

Brutal Ellis beat his ex-girlfriend so badly he broke her ribs and left her with a bleed on the brain.

The 50-year-old was jailed after the violent attack on 27-year-old Abigail Taylor at their home in February.

Police were called to the couple’s address on Woodvale Road in Woolton on February 27 and found Ms Taylor with a catalogue of serious injuries.

On the night of the attack a neighbour reportedly heard him shouting abuse: “Get out you fg slut … I’ll fg kill you” and that this continued over the next couple of hours.

After police forced entry to the flat, Ms Taylor was discovered with injuries to her face, two black eyes, dried blood on her face and she was struggling to speak.

Ellis, who has six previous convictions for 14 offences, was jailed for nine years and nine months after pleaded guilty to a section 18 domestic assault.

Mark Holmes and John Blake

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Drug smugglers Holmes and Blake had their £6m cocaine plot busted when police searched the HGV they were using to transport drugs.

The pair had made it through Dover on their journey from Spain, but came to the attention of police when the vehicle broke down in Derbyshire.

They were arrested because officers suspected they were moving drugs - which police later found in a hidden compartment after seizing the lorry.

Unaware of the discovery Holmes, now on bail, repeatedly rung the police for his lorry to be returned.

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Police allowed that to happen - then followed the vehicle and swooped as Holmes and Blake searched for the drugs, using a special key to open the hidden compartment.

Holmes, 41 and of of Derbyshire Hill Road in St Helens, was jailed for 17 years, while his accomplice, John Blake, 48 and of Ashton-in-Makerfield, was handed a 13 year and seven months sentence.

Torture and kidnap gang

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Members of a gang who impersonated police to kidnap and torture a dad were this week jailed for more than 40 years.

On July 26 last year, five men posing as police officers in full uniform - including armed vests, hats and radios - put their victim under fake arrest.

The 33-year-old dad was then put into a stolen Audi A3 and believed he was heading to a police station.

His attackers even pretended to radio ahead - a message which was answered by a gang member hiding in the boot.

However after driving away the gang revealed ‘we are not police - it is going to be a long night’ and the victim was struck with a metal pole.

In the 18 hours that followed the violent gang tortured the dad, first in woodland then in a house, beating him with metal batons, stabbing him with knives, gouging his eye with a metal stick, attacking him with a machete, burning him with an iron and pouring boiling water over him.

David Kelly, 28, of Gonville Road, Bootle was sentenced to 13 years and six months for kidnap, false imprisonment, GBH with intent, dangerous driving and aggravated vehicle taking.

Liam Field, of Kevins Drive, in Kirkby, was sentenced to 12 years and nine months for kidnap, false imprisonment and GBH with intent.

John Hayter of Woodhurst Close, Huyton was sentenced to 8 years and one month for false imprisonment and GBH with intent.

Meanwhile a 17-year-old youth - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was detained for five years for false imprisonment and intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Daniel Mason Ward

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Racist thug Ward ‘growled’ as he bit a hole in a policeman’s ear before gnashing on his arm while on bail for robbery.

Daniel Mason Ward, 26, of Norton Hill, Windmill Hill, Runcorn, told the officer “I don’t want to go back to prison”.

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However he then chomped on PC Christopher Birchall’s ear as the constable was arresting him over an alleged assault on a woman outside a takeaway on High Street in the Old Town.

The attack, which happened on December 14, left the officer requiring stitches and surgery and with permanent scars.

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Ward’s long history of assaulting police officers and resisting arrest, prompted Judge Steven Everett, Recorder of Chester, to note that if magistrates had dealt with Ward as they “should have done, he might not have been out to commit the assault on the police officer, biting through his ear”.

At Chester Crown Court Ward was handed a 13-year prison sentence with four years on extended licence.

Samuel Whitby

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A cyber paedophile from Runcorn who urged a young internet user to drug his sister then sexually assault her on camera was jailed.

Sick internet predator Samuel Whitby, 26, of Beacon Hill View, Weston Point, tried to groom online around ten 13-16 year olds via Yahoo chat, email and the Kik Messenger app, asking them to fulfil his depraved requests on camera.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to incite a child to engage a child in sexual activity, one involving two internet users who said they were 13 and 14 and were involved in requests for the most serious sex acts, and another count in connection with nine purported young teenagers aged 13 to 16.

The court heard the sister who he wanted to be abused while unconscious was 21 years old.

Judge Thompson sentenced Whitby to four years and six months in prison, slapped him with a life-time Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and ordered him to spend the rest of his life on the sex offenders register.

Whitby must also pay a £1,700 in victim surcharge.

Patrick Wilson

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A violent drunk and serial career criminal tried to murder a bouncer in Liverpool city centre because he was refused entry to a late night bar.

Patrick Wilson was so incensed at being barred from Ruby Blues, in Great Charlotte Street, that he walked a two-and-a-half mile round trip back home and into town to arm himself with three knives.

Alarming CCTV footage showed the 60-year-old returning from his Vauxhall home with one blade in his hand and a further two weapons tucked into his trouser waistband.

Wilson, who has a record of 95 previous convictions for an eye-watering 228 offences, yelled, “I told you I’d come back” after knifing doorman Mark Brady at around 11.30pm on Friday, August 31.

The registered bouncer’s nipple was sliced but footage of the incident showed Wilson had attempted to stab the victim’s chest cavity and heart area, which was narrowly missed.

Immediately after the attack, alcoholic Wilson was seen shouting on his mobile phone, “Where are you? I’ve just done it!”

Mr Brady was rushed to the Royal Liverpool Hospital where a CT scan showed he had been extremely lucky, and he only needed three staples to the wound.

Wilson, who made no comment in police interview, was jailed for 16 years, with an extended licence period of four years.

Michael Riley and Jason Millar

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Paedophile couple Michael Riley and Jason Millar took turns abusing a vulnerable boy after plying him with cocaine and alcohol – leaving him “a broken child with no future”.

The couple, who have since moved from Walton to Strathmartine Road, Dundee, blackmailed the 13-year-old boy by telling him social services would take him from his mum if he stopped going to see them.

Martine Snowdon, prosecuting, told the court Riley and Millar gained the trust of the victim’s mum following the death of a relative and she believed they were providing “much needed support and guidance”.

However the truth emerged after she discovered he had told a friend he felt suicidal and that someone “had been messing with him,” prompting her to ask questions.

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The court heard the boy was interviewed by Merseyside Police and said the abuse began with Riley and Millar “brushing up against him” with their genitals and questioning him about his sexuality.

Things progressed when they plied him with cocaine and alcohol, which affected his memory of the incidents, and he said they began groping him and touching his penis.

The abuse escalated to the point where the perverts took turns having sex with him after giving him cocaine.

Riley was jailed for 10 years and nine months; and Millar for nine years; after Riley pleaded guilty to three counts and Millar one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

Jack Wall and Kallum Rimmer

One of Southport’s notorious Gelling brothers was chased through a newsagent store and stabbed in an apparent ‘gang feud’.

Jordan Gelling - once banned alongside his siblings James and Ashley from the town’s arcades - was set upon by two rival yobs.

Jack Wall, 23, and Kallum Rimmer, 24, chased the 27-year-old through Jo Kelly’s News & General Store in Bispham Road.

CCTV cameras captured Wall wielding a lock knife and Rimmer leaping over a freezer to try and catch Gelling in the shop.

They cornered him outside before a fight broke out, during which Gelling suffered stab wounds to his buttocks and arms.

But the thug, who was treated at Southport Hospital later that evening, refused to help police officers with their investigation.

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And the following day a mystery gunman opened fire on Wall’s home in Bispham Road, damaging two windows at the property.

Officers identified Wall and Rimmer on CCTV, while Rimmer’s DNA was also found on a bottle he was holding in the shop.

Wall was caught with the lock knife after trying to cycle away from police on June 13 while Rimmer handed himself in the following day.

Both lawyers said their clients accepted they would be sentenced on the basis of a joint enterprise involving the use of a knife.

Wall’s girlfriend sobbed in the public gallery as he was jailed for two years and four months while Rimmer was handed two years behind bars.

Joshua O’Donnell

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O’Donnell was jailed for nine and a half years after he fractured a young woman’s skull with a machete while high on drink and drugs.

A judge told the 20-year-old: “You must surely appreciate how you risked killing her that night.”

He said that after “inflicting that terrible injury“ with the metre-long weapon he went back inside his flat, leaving Megan Lea’s friend to care for her as she lay bleeding on the ground.

O’Donnell had only met his 18-year-old victim and her friend earlier that night after his friend had introduced them while they were out drinking in St Helens town centre.

Zillah Williams, prosecuting, said they met up again later in the early hours of October 5 last year in a club and the two girls agreed to go back to O’Donnell’s flat in Pennine Way n a taxi.

O’Donnell said he was going inside to get the money but came out with a baseball bat, which he gave to his friend, and the machete. The driver drove off, chased by the other man.

Miss Lea tried to calm down O’Donnell, who had consumed alcohol and cocaine, “and he simply struck her on the top of the head with the machete and she immediately staggered and fell to the floor”.

His friend came back and dialled 999 and Miss Lea was taken to hospital where it was found she had suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. She had an eight centimetre cut which needed seven stitches and has been left with a scar on her forehead.

O’Donnell pleaded guilty to wounding with intent.

Andrew Atkinson

Atkinson was jailed after a campaign of abuse against two women over two years.

He pleaded guilty after being accused of controlling and coercive behaviour, as well as a number of assaults.

The 22-year-old, of Monaghan Close in Orrell Park, physically and emotionally abused the women on a number of occasions in various ways.

Atkinson was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to the offences that happened between early 2017 and February 2019.

Joseph Lane

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Drunken joy-rider Lane killed his friend after speeding away from police in a stolen car.

The 27-year-old and his passenger Brandon Griffin were flung through the windscreen of the Vauxhall Vectra after Lane lost control and smashed into a telegraph pole.

Victim Mr Griffin, 21, is believed to have been involved in the theft of the car from a driveway in Birkenhead the same morning and had offered Lane a chance to drive it only minutes before the devastating collision.

Lane, of Kirkland Avenue, Tranmere, was jailed for eight and a half years at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting causing Mr Griffin’s death by dangerous driving.

Kelvin Lloyd

Trusted assistant manager Lloyd nearly brought a popular city centre theatre to its knees after stealing more than £273,000 from its coffers.

The 27-year-old held a high degree of responsibility as treasurer of the Epstein theatre in Hanover Street.

But unbeknown to managers, he was funnelling huge sums of money - which should have gone to creditors and performers - into his own bank accounts.

Among his “frivolous spending” was over £10,000 in online food orders to Deliveroo and Uber Eats, as well as a holiday in the United States.

Lloyd, of Jubilee Street, Shotton, Flintshire, was jailed for 28 months after pleading guilty to theft

Thomas Bimson and Ibrar Saddique

Thomas Bimson held neither a driving licence and was not insured when he was given the keys to a hired BMW 330X by Ibrar Saddique, 35, after the pair had spent the evening knocking back Aperol Spritzes with friends in the Malmaison Hotel.

They then “took the car for a spin” around Liverpool city centre, hitting speeds of close to 50mph along Dale Street and The Strand.

Their antics concluded with the death of Matthew Bradley, from Glenavy in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, who was struck as he was crossing The Strand close to the Albert Dock.

After abandoning the vehicle, it was another three days before Bimson and Saddique handed themselves in to police.

During the trial, Bimson tried to shift the blame entirely on Mr Bradley for the fatal collision.

But the 23-year-old, of Waterloo Road, Vauxhall, was sentenced to eight years in prison after being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

Saddique, of Sunnybank Lane, Pudsey, West Yorkshire was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being found guilty of aiding and abetting a driver who caused death by dangerous driving.

Wirral ram raid gang

A Wirral-based gang which rammed stolen high-powered cars into shops to steal cash machines was jailed for a total of 34 years.

The six-strong crew travelled the country in stolen vehicles on cloned number plates, ram raiding shops and breaking up ATM machines with tools, sledgehammers and saws. They stole a total of £42,000 and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage.

John Kearney, 29, of Old Chester Road in Tranmere, was sentenced to five years. Benjamin Ollerhead, 21, of Prince Edward Street in Birkenhead, received five years years.

Benjamin Sysum, 30, of Victoria Fields in Tranmere, received five years and six months. Mark Fitzgerald, 25, of Violet Road in Claughton was sentenced to five years, Neil Piercy, 36, of Holme Lane in Oxton will serve five years and Peter Badley, 38, of no fixed abode received five years.

Kearney was also sentenced to a further 18 months for burglaries in Lancashire and Teesside. Ollerhead was sentenced to a further six months for a burglary in Teesside and Sysum was sentenced to a further 18 months for the supply of cocaine in Merseyside.

They pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and handling stolen goods.

John Ellison and Kadell Rivers

Toxteth drug dealer John Ellison hid almost 50 wraps of heroin and cocaine inside him - but was unable to foil police tracking his antics.

He dropped onto the radar of officers when the Audi A3 he was using was linked to repeat visits to Winsford drug dealing hotspots.

The 29-year-old and his associate were stopped by officers, who took their details, on February 24.

A fortnight later they were halted near Northwich - when bags of cannabis were thrown from the vehicle before it stopped for police.

An initial search found Ellison with £200 in cash and four mobile phones in the car.

Ellison and his associate, Kadell Rivers, were then arrested and taken into custody - where it emerged Ellison had secreted 27 wraps of heroin and 22 wraps of cocaine inside his body.

Rivers, 24 and of Skelton Road in Stretford, had concealed a mobile phone SIM card.

Both pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.

Ellison, of Elaine Street, also admitted a charge of possessing cannabis.

Ellison was jailed for four years and Rivers for three years and four months.

Therese Curphey

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Therese Curphey neglected her dying 91-year-old mum even when she had broken ribs and shockingly deep pressure sores.

The 53-year-old, who has always denied responsibility for the death of her elderly mum Theresa Curphey senior, was unanimously convicted of gross negligence manslaughter.

The West Derby woman had finally called 999 in February 2017, telling the call handler her mum was “cold and clammy, had stopped talking and was making horrible noises”.

That call brought paramedics to the Lydford Road home where they initially struggled to gain entry to the bedroom because there were so many objects piled high behind the door.

The sick pensioner was rushed to hospital, but her condition had become so grave that she died later that day.

Ronald Culshaw

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“Evil” Culshaw murdered a vulnerable dad in a vicious attack.

The drunken thug stamped on six stone Ian Conning so hard he left footprints on his victim’s clothes.

The bully was this week jailed for life for the brutal assault in a Kirkby flat, where the pair were drinking with others.

When police arrived on Kelday Close it was Culshaw who led them into the flat, where Mr Conning’s body was laid at the entrance.

Culshaw claimed there had been an “accident” and he had found Mr Conning in that condition when he arrived at the flat.

Mr Conning was still alive and rushed to Aintree hospital.

He never woke from a coma and died on November 6, three days after life support had been withdrawn.

His wounds included a severe brain injury, a fractured skull and 13 fractured ribs.

The officers who attended the scene noted footwear marks - later found to match Culshaw’s - on the 47-year-old’s clothing.

Culshaw, of Rushey Hey Drive in Kirkby, admitted murder.

The 56-year-old was jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years and 190 days.

Paul King

King stole cash from a Subway restaurant but was arrested after a brave worker forced him off the road in her car.

The 38-year-old marched into a Subway in Tytherington Business Park, Macclesfield and headed straight for the safe.

He said “don’t” when challenged by staff, stole cash and pulled out a knife when a worker chased him outside.

King then ran towards a public pathway opposite Webbs Close, jumped on a mountain bike and rode off towards Tytherington Lane.

Undeterred, the shop worker returned to the Subway, got in her car and drove around looking for him.

She saw him cycling on Manchester Road and forced him off his bike on Marlborough Drive after driving towards him. He then tried to flee on foot but was found soon after hiding behind a tree in a wooded area by police.

Three days earlier, on March 3 last year, King had stolen cash from a Subway on Mill Street in Macclesfield, when he also said “don’t” when challenged by staff.

King pleaded guilty to robbery in relation to the incident at the Mill Street shop.

In relation to the incidents inside and outside the Subway outlet in Tytherington Business Park, he admitted charges of theft and possessing a knife in a public place.

As well as the offences in Macclesfield, he was sentenced for shoplifting, possessing a bladed weapon (a Stanley knife) in a public place and possessing an offensive weapon (a knuckleduster) in a public place in relation to an incident at The Co-operative Food store on Speke Road in Hunts Cross.

King, of Oak View in Speke, was jailed for five years.

Paul Jones

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Child rapist Jones kept his conviction secret when released from prison before molesting two more young boys.

The 51-year-old, from Wirral, raped a five-year-old boy in an appalling attack when he was aged 19 in 1986.

The twisted paedophile was sentenced to five years' youth custody at Carlisle Crown Court in December that year.

But after he was released, Jones moved to Tranmere, where he started grooming a boy, aged 10, and his friend, 14.

Jones, now of Hayling Avenue, Portsmouth, originally denied 16 counts of indecent assault and was set to stand trial.

But the pervert, who also has two convictions for burglary, returned to court and pleaded guilty to all of the charges.

He was jailed for nine years.

Peter Cunningham

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Suicidal Cunningham robbed a McDonald’s armed with a foot-long knife - and offered to hurt his victim so she could claim compensation.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how on December 12 the dad had intended to take his own life, but changed his mind at the last minute.

Instead, the 38-year-old, who had been drinking, went to Edge Lane McDonald’s armed with a knife and demanded money from a safe.

After that he told the petrified manager that she could make a claim for damages - and even offered to hit her so she could claim even more money.

Jailing Cunningham for five years today, Judge Stuart Driver, QC, said: “Your victim was threatened with a knife which left her absolutely terrified.”

Cunningham, of Wycliffe Road, Anfield, pleaded guilty to robbery and possessing an offensive weapon.

George Kelbrick

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Teenager Kelbrick was said to have a “bright future” - but has now been locked up after being caught selling drugs in a city club.

The then 18-year-old was caught after being seen “hanging around the toilets” of the bar.

On his arrest Kelbrick, of Trispen Close, Halewood, volunteered to police that he had drugs on him and police found 10 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.1 grams, with a street value of between £124 to £310.

A single text message on his phone found by police also said ‘are you on the graft?’.

He provided ‘no comment’ on interview but pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A and Class B drugs.

Kelbrick, now 20, was sentenced to 28 months in a young offenders institute.

Steven Derbyshire

Fraudster Derbyshire diverted a deaf woman’s disability payments and wages into his own bank account.

The 29-year-old took advantage of his victim’s ‘vulnerability’ to take control of her finances over several years.

He bought a VW Golf as his victim began to experience growing money worries.

At one point the woman, in her 60s, faced losing her home.

In 2017 the woman’s colleagues became suspicious and contacted social services.

This resulted in a mutli-agency investigation into the missing cash, which led police to Derbyshire.

Derbyshire, of Oakfield Road, was found guilty of three counts of fraud and one count of theft after a trial.

He was jailed for 30 months.

Nathan Muat

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Nathan Muat endlessly bullied his “vulnerable and simple” friend before battering him to death on a fishing trip in a Merseyside park.

He took his pal Peter Seeclear, 45, who suffered from mental health difficulties, to Stadt Moers Park in Whiston.

But during that visit, last October, the 45-year-old flew into a rage and repeatedly beat him until he lay dying in his tent.

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He thought he had got away with murder after claiming his victim had an epileptic fit - but a post-mortem examination revealed he had suffered severe chest injuries.

Muat, 45, of Upper Parliament Street, Toxteth, was convicted of murder after a trial.

He was jailed for life with a minimum of 19 years.

Mark Patterson and Matthew Duncan

(Image: Cheshire Police)

A woman and her child were confined to a bedroom by these two men, who took over her home to run their drug dealing enterprise.

Cheshire Police said made the victims “live in fear” after forcing their way into the house to peddle cocaine and heroin.

A spokesman for the force said dealers Patterson, 29, and of Coniston Street, Everton and Duncan, 28, and of Warham Road, Anfield made the woman and her young daughter “live only in her bedroom”.

The pair used the rest of her home “to run their county lines business”.

Cheshire Police said Patterson and Duncan targeted the woman and her young daughter at their home “through manipulative and coercive behaviour which left them trapped.”

After doing so “they then used it as a place to sell, supply or store drugs

Lincolnshire breaking news: Latest updates

Sources at British Steel have confirmed reports the company, which employs more than 4,000 workers mainly in Scunthorpe, is on the brink of administration.

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The firm is in the final stages of talks with the government about securing a bailout.

Representatives of the Unite union are due to meet business secretary Greg Clark this morning to discuss the future of the company.

The union is urging British Steel owner Greybull Capital to find a solution.

Last week, the firm announced it had the backing of shareholders and lenders and that operations continued as usual while it sought a “permanent solution” to its financial troubles.

A ministerial statement on assistance for the company was expected yesterday afternoon, but that didn’t come.

However, it’s thought ministers want to have the situation sorted out before the European elections on Thursday.