21 of the most notorious criminals jailed in the UK in August
| Published date | 06 September 2021 |
Other offenders jailed include a bodybuilder famous for appearing in Gladiators and a former kids television presenter.
These are some of the shocking court cases that were widely reported in the UK last month.
Carvel Bennett
A rapist whose 13-year-old victim became pregnant in the 1970s was finally put behind bars decades after the crime.
Carvel Bennett, now 74, admitted having sex with the youngster more than 40 years ago, but claimed at his trial that she had seduced him and consented, telling him she was 16.
The victim had turned 14 by the time she gave birth to a baby girl, who was fostered and later put up for adoption.
DNA results proved Bennett was the father, though he had denied paternity at the time of the offence and during the new police investigation in 2019.
The fresh inquiry only took place after the victim’s now adult daughter campaigned for the case to be investigated.
The daughter, who only discovered the truth when her files were released to her on her 18th birthday, essentially had to persuade her mother to "relive the trauma” to get a successful prosecution, the court heard.
The judge said the authorities, including police and social services, had been told of the offence in the 1970s, but felt “brushing it under the carpet” was the way to handle the accusation.
Giving evidence at his trial, unapologetic Bennett was asked if he owed anything to his victim, and replied: “I don’t feel I have to apologise to her. I don’t feel I have done anything to her.”
He was convicted by a Birmingham Crown Court jury in less than two hours, and jailed for 11 years.
Feroz Suleman, Zamir Raja, Anthony Ennis, Ayaz Hussain, Abubakr Satia, Uthman Satia and Kashif Manzoor
Seven men were jailed for life for the murder of a law student who was mistakenly gunned down in a botched drive-by shooting.
Tyre firm boss Feroz Suleman, 40, arranged the execution of a rival businessman in broad daylight but the gunman he hired instead shot dead innocent passer-by Aya Hachem.
The 19-year-old who dreamed of becoming a solicitor had fled from violence in her native Lebanon as a child to settle with her family in Blackburn, Lancashire.
Miss Hachem was shot in King Street on May 17 last year while on a trip to a nearby supermarket to buy food for when her family would break their Ramadan feast that evening.
She died in hospital after a bullet entered her left shoulder, passed through her body and embedded itself in a telegraph pole.
On Thursday, Suleman, of Shear Brow, Blackburn, was ordered to serve a minimum of 34 years before he could be considered for parole.
The gunman, Zamir Raja, 33, of Davyhulme Road, Stretford, was jailed for a minimum of 34 years and his driver, Anthony Ennis, 31, of Grasmere Court, Partington, must serve at least 33 years.
Accomplices Ayaz Hussain, 36, of Calgary Avenue, Blackburn; Abubakr Satia, 32, of Oxford...
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