70 people jailed in March for crimes linked to Merseyside
| Published date | 01 April 2021 |
| Date | 01 April 2021 |
Courts heard about a sexual predator who sexually assaulted two teenage girls and a woman who blackmailed a vulnerable ex-boyfriend out of thousands of pounds by threatening to falsely claim that he raped her.
Judges had to sentence the men involved in a shocking shooting at a McDonald's drive thru and a heroin dealer whose nan was furious when she discovered a sniper rifle hidden in her house.
They heard about cocaine dealers who lived lives of luxury and other traffickers behind a colossal Class A drug plot.
Two disgraceful cases involved a man who beat his dementia suffering dad and a support worker who helped herself to the money of vulnerable women.
Here is an overview of some of the most serious cases to have concluded this past month.
Alexander Day
Alexander Day struck a stranger in the face with a glass bottle during a horrendous racist attack.
Police said the 58-year-old's shocking and unprovoked behaviour in Liverpool city centre had "no place in our communities".
Day randomly started shouting racist abuse and swearing at a man in his 40s in St George's Gardens, on September 8, 2020.
The victim confronted Day, of no fixed address, who struck him twice in the face with a glass bottle, seriously injuring the victim.
Day tried to flee but was caught by police on Church Street and later admitted wounding, possessing an offensive weapon and a racially aggravated public order offence.
He was jailed for two years and eight months.
Natasha Law
Natasha Law stabbed a neighbour with a shard of broken glass from his coffee table.
Law, 25, attacked the 56-year-old during an incident at his home in Warrington on July 7, 2020.
Police said the man had thought of Law as his "friend" and described the attack as "vicious".
He suffered multiple cuts during the ordeal, which unfolded at his home in Unsworth Court, Padgate.
Law, also of Unsworth Court, admitted wounding with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.
She was jailed for two years.
Jonathan Barlow
Bully boyfriend Jonathan Barlow repeatedly attacked his partner.
The 32-year-old subjected his girlfriend -who the ECHO chose not to name -to controlling and manipulative abuse.
He threatened his victim, punched her, chased her out of his car and kicked her in the head and stomach.
Barlow accused her of infidelity and made her delete social media accounts and male contacts on her phone.
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He insulted the victim, grabbed her throat and bit the side of her forehead, threw a plate at her, and headbutted her.
The woman even lost her job after the convicted drug dealer refused to let her leave her own flat and the victim was so scared she moved home.
Barlow, of Richard Kelly Drive, Walton, admitted controlling and coercive behaviour, five counts of common assault, two counts of criminal damage and threatening to damage property.
He was jailed for 18 months.
Joseph Prior
Bogus taxi driver Joseph Prior squeezed the leg of a young woman who later mouthed "help" to McDonald's staff.
The 40-year-old had his licence revoked after complaints from eight female passengers about "sexualised" comments.
But the ex-private hire driver went out at night trying to pick up illegal fares and targeted a "drunk" lone woman on March 8, 2019.
After she got in the dad-of-one's Ford Focus, he pulled into a quiet street, then put his hand on the "terrified" 23-year-old's thigh.
When she rejected his advances, he took her to a McDonald's drive-thru, where she mouthed "help" to staff, who rang police.
The driver also offered cocaine to the victim, before he was arrested and magnetic plates for Britannia Taxis, for whom he had previously worked, were found in his car boot.
Prior, of Fontenoy Street, Liverpool city centre, originally denied sexual assault, false imprisonment and supplying and possessing cocaine.
However, he admitted common assault and supplying cocaine ahead of a trial, and the other charges were left to lie on the file.
He was jailed for 18 months and banned from having any female in a car, apart from in a very limited set of circumstances, for five years.
Terence Nash, Anthony Nash, Dennis Boynton and Ronnie McPadden
Two brothers who were key figures in a town's drug trade were caught after police discovered guns and grenades.
Terence Nash had a stash of weapons that included two revolvers and a sawn-off shotgun in the loft of a Kirkby safehouse.
That arsenal backed up a cocaine dealing operation he ran with his older sibling Anthony Nash and a network of close associates.
The Nash brothers' conspiracy came crashing down when police raided homes linked to their dealers in September 2019.
They recovered nearly a million pounds worth of cocaine, some 83% pure, and cash in raids on safehouses in Bewley Drive and Minstead Avenue.
From the second of those two properties, officers also retrieved two revolvers -one loaded -a sawn-off shotgun, ammunition and five grenades.
The Nash brothers fled the UK, travelling to Holyhead in North Wales, on a ferry to Ireland, then caught a flight to Spain.
But they flew home to England in December that year, after cracks in their relationship began to show in text messages.
Anthony Nash, 36, of Bracknall Close, Kirkby, was found guilty of conspiracies to supply Class A drugs and to possess criminal property.
He was cleared after a trial of any involvement with the weapons and jailed for 15 and a half years.
Terence Nash, 35, of James Holt Avenue, Kirkby, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracies to possess a firearm, ammunition, an explosive substance and criminal property.
He admitted conspiring to supply Class A drugs and was jailed for 24 years.
Dennis Boynton, 43, of Grantham Avenue, Kirkby, admitted conspiracies to supply Class A drugs and possess criminal property.
He was jailed for seven years and three months.
Ronnie McPadden, 35, of Crosland Road, Kirkby, admitted conspiring to supply Class A drugs and was jailed for six years and four months.
William Dooley
William Dooley slammed a door shut on a policeman’s arm as he tried to escape with crack, heroin and nearly £2,000 in cash.
The 49-year-old was spotted exiting a taxi and walking towards a house in Runcorn, at around 11.30am, on May 20 last year..
When an officer approached, the drug dealer ran inside and slammed the front door shut on the victim's arm, yelling: "F off!"
He was carrying 60g of crack cocaine, valued at up to £6,550, 9g of heroin, worth up to £625, and £1,833 inside a bum bag.
Dooley, of Loxdale Close, Dingle, admitted two counts of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply, assaulting an emergency worker, and possessing criminal cash.
The crook, whose 12 previous convictions for 26 offences including dealing Class A drugs, was jailed for five years and 10 months.
Stephen Thomas
Stephen Thomas embarked on a repulsive campaign of abuse against a little girl.
The paedophile, of Straker Avenue, Ellesmere Port, subjected a seven-year-old child to sickening abuse.
When police were informed, officers arrested the 29-year-old and seized his electronic devices, which contained child sex abuse images.
Police said his abuse left both the victim and her family distraught, but callous Thomas forced them to relive their ordeals during a trial.
He was found guilty of three counts of sexual touching of a child and two counts of producing indecent images of children.
Thomas was jailed for eight and a half years.
Chance Beardmore and Clare Karpinski
Knife thug Chance Beardmore persuaded his mum to try and smuggle £32,000 worth of illicit goods into prison.
Clare Karpinski, 46, was caught trying to get two potentially lucrative packages into HMP Northumberland in the North East.
Karpinski, from Birkenhead, drove to the jail, where an unidentified passenger hurled the packages over the prison's perimeter wall.
She had been recruited by her 23-year-old son, Beardmore, who was one intended recipient of the goods, on December 23, 2019.
Beardmore was serving a six-year sentence imposed in 2017 for stabbing a boy three times while "showing off" to gang mates in Wirral.
When the packages were thrown over the wall, Beardmore escaped from a laundry room to collect them, but was intercepted by guards.
Prosecutors said he was "grinning" when caught, despite officers seizing items worth up to £32,000 in prison, including cocaine, cannabis and hundreds of other illegal drug tablets, iPhones, USB cables, SIM cards, tobacco, alcohol, steroids, new syringes and needles.
But the smile was wiped off his face when he was jailed for three and a half years and his mum jailed for two years and three months.
Both the young yob and Karpinski, of Bedford Road, Birkenhead, admitted conveying prohibited articles into prison.
Tony Smyth
Tony Smyth was caught peddling cocaine by undercover police officers.
The 37-year-old was carrying up to £1,050 of the Class A drug when stopped during a deal in Southport town centre.
Smyth, of Albany Road, Southport, was arrested when sitting in a car on May 1, 2020 and taken to a police station.
He was found to have 12 wraps of cocaine and a search of his home unearthed £2,500 in cash and a tick list.
The dad-of-one, who worked as a roofer, admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply in order to clear drug debts.
He was jailed for two years and four months.
Jack Hayes
Jack Hayes was caught on camera brawling outside Anfield after Liverpool FC lifted the Premier League trophy.
Thousands of fans turned up to celebrate the triumph, despite being warned to stay at home because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mobile phone footage later emerged showing two groups clashing on Townson Street, opposite the Kop stand, and a man stabbing or slashing at someone with a knife.
Hayes was one of around 14 people involved...
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