Locked Up: The criminals justice caught up with in May and what happened to them
| Published date | 05 June 2022 |
| Publication title | WalesOnline (Wales) |
Welsh Women's Aid says that violence against woman and girls in Wales is at "epidemic rates", and have called on the UK and Welsh Governments to do more. You can read more about that here.
READ MORE: Man baffled as thief raids his car but all they took was a Greggs sausage roll
Here are the faces of the criminals locked up for the most serious crimes in Wales during May 2022:
Nathaniel Nuttall
He punched his neighbour Lee Thomas to the ground then kicked and stamped on the unconscious man's head following an early morning confrontation in the victim's flat. With the bleeding man laying at his feet, Nuttall calmly called 999 and explained to the operator what he had done to his friend. Hear the 999 call here.
Nuttall was convicted of manslaughter following a trial at Swansea Crown Court last month -the 32-year-old had denied charges of murder and manslaughter, claiming he had been acting in self-defence when he "lashed out" at Mr Thomas. In the 999 call made at around 5.30am Nuttall told the operator: "Basically he started on me, and I f punched him a few times in the face and stamped on his head several times... there's a bit of blood... I am surprised he is not f dead."
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and will serve two-thirds of that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
Paul Fontaine and Frankie Sinclair
The two members of a nationwide criminal network were jailed for life this month for a murder plot involving a James Bond-style gun.
Fontaine supplied a 9mm Makarov self-loading pistol used to murder Abdullahi Mahamoud in a bagel shop in Enfield, north London, on March 19 2020. Weeks later, he helped arrange to supply a new Walther PPK handgun to Cardiff career criminal Sinclair to murder Keiron Hassan, and others in a rival group.
In messages on EncroChat, Sinclair referred to the gun – made famous by Sean Connery in the 007 film Dr No – as a “James Bond ting”. Following an Old Bailey trial, Fontaine, 36, from Hackney, north London, and Sinclair, 34, from Cardiff, south Wales, were found guilty of conspiracy to murder and a string of other offences. Read the full story here.
Jamie Adams
The drugged-up driver led police on a 20-mile high-speed chase during which he deliberately hit three cop cars. The chip shop worker raced along Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire roads at speeds touching 110mph and even after having the front tyres of his car punctured by police continued to drive at breakneck speeds on just the bare rims of the wheels. At one stage he slammed into the side of a police car which had parked across the road to block his path.
When police managed to box in the defendant's car and bring the pursuit to an end he was found to have a cocktail of drugs in his system including ketamine, cocaine, cannabis and Valium with the reading for ketamine being 14 times over the legal driving limit.
Ethan Strickland and Noreen O'Driscoll
Teenager Strickland was involved in the robbery of Ryan O'Connor. who was subsequently murdered, was on bail for drug offences along with his sister at the time of the victim's death. Mr O'Connor 26, was stabbed to death by Joseph Jeremy, 18 and Lewis Aquilina, 20, in Newport.
The 19-year-old was found guilty of robbery along with his co-defendants and Kyle Raisis, 18, following a trial at Newport Crown Court. He was armed with a knife and a balaclava when he was driven to the Alway area of the city from Cardiff on June 10 last year.
Strickland, of Clos Briallen, Caerau, was on bail at the time for being concerned in the supply of cocaine between August 30, 2020, and March 13, 2021, and possession of cocaine with intent to supply, along with his sister Noreen O'Driscoll, 26, of Parker Road, Ely. Both later pleaded guilty to the offences. Read how long they were sentenced to here.
Abubakar Masum
The police officer who used to catch criminals now finds himself living among them after he was jailed for perverting the course of justice. The disgraced PC rang Crimestoppers and made a false report that a woman had shot a drug dealer -which resulted in armed police turning up at her place of work.
His trial heard that he made up the bogus claim after becoming "obsessed" with the 21-year-old Mia Pitman. Masum, who has since been booted out from South Wales Police, denied he'd done anything wrong but was convicted following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.
Scott Parkin, Rhiannon Key, Ceri Gibson and Fergal Barker
The gang of thugs mugged two schoolboys and then used one of them to gain entry to a nearby flat where they assaulted the occupants and stole hundreds of pounds in cash.
Between them, Parkin, Key, Gibson, and Barker have committed more than 230 offences including numerous robberies and burglaries, serious assaults, possession of knives and offensive weapons, thefts, and drug matters. Sending them all the prison, a judge described what the quartet did as "brazen and shocking" and he imposed extended sentences on two of them as dangerous offenders.
Jack Roberts
The 21-year-old man "cared only for his own selfish sexual desires" when he raped a teenager. Roberts pinned his victim down as he attacked her, and then told the terrified young woman not to report what had happened to family members or the police.
Roberts denied rape, telling his trial at Cardiff Crown Court that the sexual contact had been consensual. But a jury rejected that version of events and convicted him. Read how long he was sentenced to here.
Miriam Heale
She armed herself with a kitchen knife and threatened to "slice up" a neighbour as the victim's terrified young son looked on. Heale was described by witnesses as foaming at the mouth and "acting like a madwoman" as she ranted in the street on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
She then turned her aggression on the police who responded to 999 calls, subjecting officers to half a hour of abuse and threats. Swansea Crown Court heard Heale has experienced a number of traumas in her life including seeing her brother sentenced to life in prison for murder when she was aged just 15.
Robert Hicks
The successful recruitment consultant who lost his business and home in the COVID pandemic turned to dealing Class A drugs to make ends meet and support his young children.
Hicks was caught red-handed with a stash of cocaine deals and hundreds of pounds in cash when police swooped on the car he was sat in a car park. When officers checked his phone they found a message that he had received just minutes earlier asking how long he was going to be because his contact had people waiting for their delivery.
Jason Morris and Darren Lewis
The burglars crept into the home of a 90-year-old woman in the dead of night and ransacked it while she slept.
The terrified pensioner woke to find a stranger in her bedroom rummaging through her bedside cupboard. She pressed the panic button on her wrist to raise the alarm, and Lewis and Morris fled from the house.
Merthyr Crown Court heard how the pair were caught thanks to a police sniffer...
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