A 92-year-old murderer and the men who cut down the Sycamore Gap tree were also put behind bars last month
A controlling husband who murdered his wife while she was pushing their baby in a pram was among the criminals jailed in the UK last month.
Habibur Masum will spend at least 28 years behind bars after he stalked his victim to the women’s refuge she was staying at then attacked her in broad daylight.
Also among the offenders put behind bars in July were a jealous ex who murdered her former partner after seeing his Tinder profile and a woman who stabbed a mum to death at a children’s party.
A 92-year-old man who was jailed for the rape and murder of a widow in 1967 and a former GP who conducted unnecessary genital examinations on his patients were also locked up last month.
A law enforcement officer will also spend time behind bars after stealing Bitcoin from a ‘Dark Web’ mastermind he had arrested.
Other offenders include the two men who cut down the famous tree at Sycamore Gap, a family-run crime gang with a ‘gangster granny’ at the top and a celebrity osteopath branded ‘one of London’s most prolific voyeurs’.
Lengthy sentences are handed to some of the worst offenders each month. These are some of the most shocking court cases that have been widely reported in the UK in recent weeks.
Ryland Headley
A 92-year-old man will die in prison after being convicted of the rape and murder of a widow in 1967, marking the end of what is thought to be Britain’s longest-running cold case to be solved.
Ryland Headley was a 34-year-old railway worker living with his wife in Bristol when he forced open a window at Louisa Dunne’s home.
Bristol Crown Court heard Headley raped the frail mother-of-two, who was aged 75, then killed her by strangling her with a scarf while holding his hand over her mouth.
Mrs Dunne was found dead by neighbours in the front room of her terraced home, which she had been using as a bedroom, on the morning of June 28. A pathologist concluded she had died from asphyxia due to strangulation and pressure on her mouth, probably from a hand being forcibly held over it.
Police in Bristol launched a huge investigation and took the palm prints of 19,000 men and boys in an attempt to find a match to one left on an upstairs window at Mrs Dunne’s home. Headley lived in Picton Street, just 1.6 miles from the scene, but his home was just outside the streets in which men and boys were asked to provide their prints.
READ MORE: Man, 92, found guilty of murdering and raping pensioner nearly 60 years ago
The killer evaded justice for almost six decades before cold case detectives at Avon and Somerset Police reviewed the case and sent items for forensic analysis last year – resulting in a DNA match to Headley.
The defendant denied rape and murder during a two-week trial but was convicted by a jury at the end of June, making him one of Britain’s oldest murderers and solving one of the country’s longest-running cold cases.
The judge, Mr Justice Sweeting, jailed Headley for life with a minimum term of 20 years in prison for what he described as a “pitiless and cruel act by a depraved man”. He told him: “You broke into her home, you sexually assaulted her, and in doing so, you caused her death. You may not have intended to kill but you planned to rape her and you brutally attacked her when you did so. You met her screams and struggles with force sufficient to kill.”
Stephen Carr
A man who tried to murder his wife using a bow and arrow has been jailed for 20 years.
Stephen Carr took a compound bow he had previously used in target archery competitions to shoot metal-tipped arrows at his wife Lorna at their home in Strensall, North Yorkshire. He then stabbed her six times with a kitchen knife while she was on the phone with emergency services.
Cameras that had been installed at the property to assist in the care of the defendant’s elderly mother recorded parts of the attack on the night of September 8 last year. Leeds Crown Court heard that the couple got into an argument over the “concerns and stresses” associated with caring for Carr’s mother, who lived with them at the time.
Judge Simon Phillips, sentencing, told the defendant: “During the course of the trial, the jury heard, and to some extent saw, clear evidence that you were intent on killing your wife Lorna. Your anger towards your wife increased that Sunday night. She tried unsuccessfully to calm you down. At 10.23 that night, without uttering a warning, you fired an arrow from your bow at your wife when she was standing outside by the kitchen door.”
Mrs Carr managed to dodge the arrow by closing the door, and the arrowhead lodged itself in the doorway, the court heard. She then told her husband: “You’re going to be done for murder”, to which he replied: “Yes”, the judge told the court.
Pursuing his wife inside the house, Carr struck her on the face with the bow and told her: “You are dying tonight,” the court heard. As she rang the police, Carr fired several more arrows, which missed his wife, before he went on to stab her six times in the back with a kitchen knife.
She was recorded begging for her life and telling the call operator: “He’s got a bow, he’s got a compound bow… Don’t kill me Steve please. Do not kill me you c***. Please! Think of your mum”, a spokesperson for North Yorkshire Police said.
Mrs Carr was taken to hospital for treatment to 10 wounds, including six to her upper back, as well as swelling and bruising to her forehead, shoulders and arms. She was discharged three days later and has since made a full recovery, the court was told.
Carr, 57, denied intending to kill his wife and claimed he “blacked out”, but a jury convicted him of attempted murder following a trial. He received a sentence of 17 years’ imprisonment with an extended licence of three years, bringing his total custodial sentence to 20 years.
Gregory Manson
A former GP was jailed for sex offences after conducting unnecessary genital examinations on male patients including two teenage boys.
Gregory Manson, 56, was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court to seven years’ imprisonment for 16 offences including conducting groin exams even when his patients came in with coughs, headaches, back pain and knee sprains.
Some of the nine victims of Manson, who qualified as a GP in 1998 and worked in Canterbury before being dismissed in 2017, said he pulled down their underwear without asking their permission.
Judge Simon Taylor KC told Manson that he had “camouflaged sexual abuse in the context of medical examinations”, adding he had committed “nearly two decades’ worth of offending”.
Delivering his sentencing remarks, Judge Taylor said: “For almost the entirety of your medical career you periodically and opportunistically abused male patients. Because you decided to deploy your abuse in a medical fashion, some of these men did not know that you were touching them for your own sexual purposes – it must not be forgotten your actions victimised them.”
The judge added: “The abuse of trust here is immense. People trusted you with access to their bodies and you abused that trust for your own sexual gratification. You were able to construct a false defence to justify your sexual assaults because that is something that is very easy for a GP to do. Your exploitative actions betrayed not only patients, but your wider profession.”
Manson, of Tower Way, Canterbury, denied 18 offences of sexual assault and six of indecent assault in respect of nine victims. Following a trial, he was convicted of 12 sexual assaults and four indecent assaults against nine men which took place over almost two decades. He was found not guilty of six offences, and two others were alternative charges which did not require verdicts.
Thomas Holford
A father killed his baby daughter by shaking her so hard he caused “catastrophic” brain injuries.
Thomas Holford, 25, had smoked at least five joints the day before he shook five-week-old Everleigh Stroud with such “excessive and severe” force she was left with brain and bone injuries.
Everleigh had been left alone in her father’s care on the night of April 20, 2021, and was “only just” breathing when her grandmother, Kelly Stroud, called an ambulance the next morning. The infant suffered severe and irreversible brain injuries and died 13 months later as a result.
Canterbury Crown Court heard how Holford was “under the influence” of cannabis at the time of the shaking, and later lied to police about his drug use having smoked at least five joints to celebrate “420” the previous day. Jurors heard that while his baby was rushed to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, he showed “little emotion” and continued to download and play games on his phone.
Following a trial, Holford, of Ramsgate, was found unanimously guilty of murder and actual bodily harm of his daughter. The judge, Mr Justice Michael Fordham, sentenced Holford to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 16 years and told the court that he had “robbed” his former partner and her family of “any type of deep happiness” for the rest of their lives.
Along with brain injuries, Everleigh, who was born on March 13 2021, also had bone fractures, bruising to her face and atrophy to her eyes leading to her going blind. She spent more than a year in hospital before she died aged 14 months in May 2022.
Sharjeel Shahzad
A speeding driver fled on foot after crashing a stolen Porsche Cayenne into a family’s car, killing a two-year-old boy and leaving his mother in a coma.
Sharjeel Shahzad had already been banned from getting behind the wheel and was awaiting a court date for dangerous driving when he caused the death of a toddler in a head-on smash in Smethwick, West Midlands, just before 11pm on December 14 last year.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard the 30-year-old, of Cooksey Lane, Great Barr, had been driving at speeds of up to 50mph before he overtook a vehicle on approach to a sweeping blind bend on Dartmouth Road and lost control of the powerful high-powered Porsche, which had false plates.
He veered onto the opposite side of the road, into a Toyota Auris being driven by Baljeet Singh, who had been out celebrating a family birthday with his wife and friends that evening. Also in the car were Amritpal Singh, Kushpreet Kaur and their two-year-old son Shehbaz Singh.
Shehbaz, who was unrestrained in the back of the Toyota, was pronounced dead, despite efforts to save him at the scene and at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Ms Kaur suffered severe injuries to her brain and is still in hospital. She has not been told her son has died.
The court also heard Shahzad had been due to face court on December 23 in connection with a 19-minute, 30-mile pursuit he led police on in a stolen Audi on June 10, when he reached speeds of almost 150mph as he tried to evade officers. He was only stopped when police rammed the Audi and he tried to flee the scene but was apprehended.
Jailing him for 15 years and four months for causing the death by dangerous driving of Shehbaz Singh, Judge Jonathan Gosling said the impact of the fatal collision was “catastrophic”. He said: “You destroyed the lives of Amritpal Singh and Kushpreet Kaur and devastated their family and friends. You killed that little boy.”
The judge said Shahzad’s “true character is revealed” by the fact he fled after the fatal collision with no regard for the hurt he had caused. He added: “You are not only a dangerous man, you are callous and cowardly.”
Shahzad was also given sentences of 15 months for dangerous driving on June 10, three years each for two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and four months for driving while disqualified, all of which will run concurrently. Judge Gosling also made Shahzad subject to a three-year extended licence and banned him from driving for eight years upon his release.
Hope Rowe and Leigh Holder
A woman knifed a mother to death after a row at a child’s birthday party before driving away from the scene with her partner.
Hope Rowe was found guilty of murder and has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years, the Met Police said.
The 33-year-old, of Aldgate, murdered Charlotte Lawlor, 31, with a knife in Stepney Green, east London, in the early hours of September 15 last year. The stabbing was witnessed by some of Ms Lawlor’s family, children and guests at the party.
Rowe drove away from the scene with her partner, Leigh Holder, who accidentally left a voicemail on her phone. In the voicemail Rowe could be heard saying it was “good” that she had killed Ms Lawlor, the Met Police said.
Holder, 38, who told her to get rid of the weapon and avoid the police, was jailed for 16 months for perverting the course of justice.
The Met Police said that Rowe claimed in court that her actions were due to a momentary loss of control.
Oliver Corney
A landlady was left seriously injured when she was shot as she intervened in an argument outside her pub.
Bonita Page, 56, was outside the Red Lion in Wath upon Dearne in South Yorkshire on June 28 last year when Oliver Corney, 35, fired three times into a group of people.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how Mrs Page was hit in the leg and suffered “life-changing” injuries.
Mrs Page had intervened in an argument earlier in the evening, which the judge said was probably to do with drugs. Corney heard about this altercation, although he was not involved, and went to the pub with a gun.
Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told Corney: “Your conduct in opening fire in a public place was exceptionally dangerous and could have killed anyone present.”
He said: “You missed the individual at whom you were aiming and shot a very brave woman, Mrs Bonita Page – the licensee of the public house, who tried to prevent the earlier argument.
“She also sought to prevent you and others coming into the public house. She is deserving of the highest praise for her bravery. You, on the other hand, must be condemned and punished severely for your wanton and highly dangerous actions.”
Corney, of Cricket Inn Road, Sheffield, admitted grievous bodily harm with intent, and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence at an earlier hearing.
The judge told Corney he had “narrowly avoided” a life sentence as he jailed him for 11 years and nine months, with an extended licence period of five years because he was a “dangerous offender”.
The defendant shouted “Mrs Page, I want to apologise to you”, as he was led from the dock.
Bernard Williams
A shop owner who ran a store in Brixton for more than 30 years was jailed for rape and sexual assault.
Bernard Williams, 77, convinced a woman who came to his store in search of spiritual treatment of his “healing capability”, leading her to spend more than £13,000 in remedies, before telling her she needed to have sex to remove spirits inside her, the Metropolitan Police said.
Williams, of Burrells Wharf Square, east London, was jailed for nine years for one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault after an eight-day trial.
Williams, known as “Papa B”, ran the Original Products store in Market Row in Brixton and was “widely known” in the community and viewed as an “elder”, police said.
Detectives suspect he may have abused his position to abuse other women and would like to speak to anyone who may have bought services from Williams at his store.
According to police, the victim in Williams’ Harrow Crown Court trial, who cannot be named for legal reasons, became unwell in November 2020 and visited his shop after she was recommended spiritual treatment.
Williams told her she had a spirit inside her which would eventually kill her, and slowly persuaded her of his ability to heal, leading her to buy a “guard ring” and healing bath from him, and to have her mother’s house “cleaned of spirits” – costing her and her family more than £13,000. The defendant then started telling her she needed to have sex to remove the spirit.
On January 12 2021, Williams showed up at the victim’s house to “anoint” her, and sexually assaulted and raped her, the Met said.
Ewan Methven
A postman murdered and decapitated his 21-year-old girlfriend before searching for internet pornography 170 times.
Ewan Methven, 27, murdered Phoenix Spencer-Horn in the home they shared in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, on November 16 last year, after the couple ordered a takeaway to their flat in Glen Lee.
The High Court in Glasgow was told that Methven attacked Miss Spencer-Horn, stabbing her 20 times, including 10 times in the face, before mutilating her body and severing her head.
Methven had also strangled her, searched for internet pornography 170 times and made repeated attempts to buy cocaine, before spending the weekend driving around in Miss Spencer-Horn’s red Corsa, and texting her mother pretending she was still alive, according to prosecutors.
On November 18, at about midday, he dialled 999 and told a call-handler: “I had a psychotic break and killed my wife.”
He said: “We were messing about, I take steroids and was taking cocaine and alcohol, I think there was something else in it … it was f****** horrible.” He was transferred to a senior police officer, and said: “I just want to go to jail”, and added: “I have been out my face, I can’t remember what happened. I have been driving about all weekend.”
Police officers discovered Miss Spencer-Horn’s mutilated body hidden under a towel. Methven admitted attempting to remove the limbs and torso from her body with a knife or other instrument.
Methven pleaded guilty to murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice at the High Court in Glasgow and has been jailed for a minimum of 23 years.
Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers
The two men who cut down the famous tree at Sycamore Gap out of “sheer bravado” were locked up in July.
Former friends Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were convicted of criminal damage to the much-loved tree, which had stood for more than 100 years in a fold in the Northumberland landscape. They have each been jailed for four years and three months.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the two engaged in a “moronic mission” to cut down the landmark, travelling for more than 40 minutes from their homes in Cumbria, then carrying their equipment across pitch-black moorland during a storm in September 2023.
They took a wedge from the tree as a trophy that has never been recovered, and revelled in the media coverage as news of the vandalism caused national and international headlines.
READ MORE: Two men behind ‘senseless’ felling of Sycamore Gap tree jailed for more than four years
READ MORE: Sycamore Gap tree feller finally admits the reason he cut down famous tree as pair jailed
Mrs Justice Lambert jailed the pair, saying their motivation was still not clear but a large factor seemed to be “sheer bravado”. She told the defendants: “Felling the tree in the middle of the night in a storm gave you some sort of thrill. You revelled in the coverage, taking pride in what you have done, knowing you were responsible for the crime so many people were talking about.”
The judge said that, after admissions they had both made in pre-sentence reports, she could now be sure that Adam Carruthers cut the Sycamore Gap tree down while Daniel Graham drove him there and filmed it on his phone.
Mckenzie Dicicco
A footballer killed another non-League player in a “cowardly” one-punch attack after a “nonsensical argument” at a railway station.
Mckenzie Dicicco, 22, hit married father-of-one James Hitchcock from behind while he was eating at Burger King at York station after a day out with friends. The two men did not know each other until their paths crossed on December 15 last year.
Mr Hitchcock, 32, who was a goalkeeper for Barton Town FC, in North Lincolnshire, suffered a fatal head injury and died in hospital three days later, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said Dicicco “made a deliberate decision to walk from the platform to Burger King to assault James Hitchcock”.
The court heard Dicicco walked directly to Burger King, rotated his right hand as if to loosen his wrist and “delivered a forceful punch” with his right fist to the right of Mr Hitchcock’s head.
READ MORE: Footballer who killed another player in ‘cowardly’ one-punch attack jailed
Mr Greaney said: “The position of the Crown is that this was a dreadful and cowardly attack committed by the defendant as (Mr Hitchcock) was facing away from him. He must have been completely unaware of the impending assault and unable to defend himself from it in any way.”
Dicicco, who has played at Thornaby, Northallerton and Pickering football clubs, was jailed for six years and eight months after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Mohammed Ibrahim
A driver killed a mother and her daughter on Boxing Day while racing another car through traffic lights at up to 84mph.
Mohammed Ibrahim, 25, fled the scene after his BMW 420 – travelling ‘in convoy’ with a BMW X3 in a 30mph zone – crashed into a quad bike while overtaking, and then hit an MG car containing four generations of the same family.
Birmingham Crown Court was told that Amanda Riley, 49, and Linda Philips, 72, both died at the scene despite the efforts of paramedics to save them at the roadside in the Shard End area of the city. Four other family members travelling in the MG suffered injuries, including a fractured sternum, a broken leg requiring surgery and bruising to the lungs.
Ibrahim pleaded guilty earlier this year to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He has now been jailed for 13 years and three months.
The judge said the defendant claimed to have no meaningful memory of the crash, but told him during a sentencing hearing: “Despite your claim to the contrary, you obviously knew what you had done.” The judge said Ibrahim’s speed and driving had been “grossly irresponsible” and showed a disregard for the obvious risks to others.
Among four aggravating features of the case, the judge said, was the fact Ibrahim had a passenger and had failed to remain at the scene in circumstances where he must have known he had caused a “catastrophic” accident.
Paul Chowles
A National Crime Agency (NCA) officer has been jailed after laundering Bitcoin he had stolen from a ‘Dark Web’ mastermind he had arrested.
Paul Chowles, 42, was part of a team from the national unit tackling organised crime investigating university drop-out Thomas White, from Liverpool, the “guiding mind” behind running the Silk Road 2.0 site, an online black market for illegal drugs.
At the time, White owned 97 Bitcoin on a memory stick which was seized by the authorities in 2017 and transferred to a team including digital investigator Chowles at the National Crime Agency in Bristol, where he had worked since 2009.
Father-of-three Chowles used his technical knowledge – and the lack of expertise in the relatively new phenomena of cryptocurrencies by law enforcement – to transfer 50 Bitcoin from White to himself in May 2017.
READ MORE: National Crime Agency cop jailed for stealing Bitcoin from dark web drug dealer
At the time it was worth £59,000 – but it is now worth more than £4.3 million, Craig Hassall KC, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court.
Chowles admitted theft, transferring criminal property, and concealing criminal property, between 2017 and 2022. He was jailed in July for five-and-a-half years.
Kamar Williams
A fugitive was locked up for murdering his ex-girlfriend’s father after being caught at Notting Hill Carnival.
Kamar Williams, 34, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 29 years at the Old Bailey for stabbing bus driver Derek Thomas, 55, in Hackney, north-east London, last July 30.
After the “frenzied” attack, Williams, from the Isle of Dogs, east London, went on the run for a month, the court heard. He was finally detained at Notting Hill Carnival last August 26, having avoided police in a car chase last August 3.
Her Honour Judge Angela Rafferty KC told Williams that he had targeted Mr Thomas for “revenge because of your own fury”, adding that the attack involved “savage violence”. Giving her sentencing remarks, Judge Rafferty said: “I am sure that you intended to kill Derek Thomas. This was a merciless and determined attack. You killed him even though at one time you saw him as a father figure.”
She said he carried out the attack in “frustration and anger” after arguing with his ex-partner.
A jury at the Old Bailey found Williams unanimously guilty of murder and guilty of having a bladed article.
Tina Golding, Lillie Bright, Deborah Mason, Demi Kendall, Demi Bright, Anita Slaughter, Reggie Bright and Roseanne Mason
A family-run crime gang, with a 65-year-old “gangster granny” as its boss, is now behind bars for dealing drugs with a street value of £80 million across the UK.
Deborah Mason, dubbed “Queen Bee”, and seven other members of the gang, were sentenced to a total of 106 and a half years at Woolwich Crown Court in July for their involvement in supplying nearly a tonne of cocaine over seven months.
A group of couriers collected packages of imported cocaine and drove them all over London, as well as Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, between April and November 2023. The drugs had an estimated wholesale value of between £23 million to £35 million and a street value of £80 million.
The ringleader spent her profits on designer goods and was looking to go Turkey to have cosmetic surgery, while young mothers who were part of the gang took their young children to pick-ups.
Deborah Mason, dubbed “gangster granny” by the Metropolitan Police, who directed other members of the gang and was in contact with an upstream supplier called Bugsy, was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Judge Philip Shorrock told Mason: “You were effectively the site foreman working under the direction of a site manager. You recruited members of your own family – as a mother you should have been setting an example for your children and not corrupting them.”
READ MORE: Gangster gran known as ‘Queen Bee’ lived life of luxury running family crime empire
When Mason was on holiday in Dubai, her daughter Roeseanne, who made seven trips delivering about 166kg of cocaine, stepped in to the directing role, the court heard. The prosecution said Roeseanne collected cash for her mother and also “provided childcare so that others could work”.
Mother-of-two Demi Bright made a single trip in August 2023 which involved 60kg of cocaine. She took her children with her on the two-day trip, which involved an overnight stay in a hotel.
Roseanne Mason, 29, of Canonbury, north London, and Demi Bright, 30, of Ashford, Kent, were each sentenced to 11 years imprisonment. Lillie Bright, 26, of Ashford, Kent, was sentenced to 13 years, and Demi Kendall, 31, of Staplehurst, Kent, was sentenced to 13 years and six months imprisonment. Reggie Bright, 24, of Staplehurst, Kent, was sentenced to 15 years, and Tina Golding, 66, of Ashford, Kent, was jailed for 10 years. Anita Slaughter, 44, of Ashford, Kent, was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment.
Melissa Wilband
A mother killed her four-month-old baby girl by violently shaking her during the first national coronavirus lockdown.
Melissa Wilband, 28, caused traumatic brain injuries to Lexi Wilband as she bathed her at their home in Newent, Gloucestershire, on Easter Sunday 2020.
Bristol Crown Court heard tests showed Lexi died following bleeding on her brain, likely caused by being violently shaken, both recently and on at least one earlier occasion. She died at Bristol Children’s Hospital, with a nurse holding her hand, on April 18 – six days after her collapse.
Wilband was found guilty of manslaughter earlier this year following a trial and has now been jailed for 15 years. Her former partner, Jack Wheeler, 31, was acquitted of causing or allowing Lexi’s death.
Jailing Wilband, the judge, Mr Justice Saini, said he was satisfied she had caused the fatal injuries to Lexi by “violently” shaking her. He told the defedant: “Your shaking of Lexi led to severe bleeding in her brain. I am sure, on the evidence, that Lexi had been shaken by you in another, less violent incident before that Easter Sunday. Only you will know why you acted in the way you did.”
Habibur Masum
A controlling husband “viciously and mercilessly” murdered his wife in a knife attack while she was pushing their baby in a pram.
Kulsuma Akter was left bleeding to death by 27-year-old Habibur Masum, who had stalked her to a women’s refuge in Bradford and attacked her in broad daylight.
Masum, 27, was told he is “violent, self-centred, jealous, controlling and coercive” by judge Mr Justice Cotter as he was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 28 years in prison at Bradford Crown Court.
The judge also told Masum: “You stole a precious young life in a brutal and merciless fashion.” Ms Akter’s brother Emran Hussain said her death had left her family with “such a deep, painful void in our lives”.
In his sentencing remarks, the judge told Masum: “It is indeed a sad fact that it can be very difficult to entirely protect a woman in a refuge from a determined and cunning man intent on confrontation.” Mr Justice Cotter said the “nature and extent” of his attack “proves beyond all reasonable doubt that you intended to kill her”.
READ MORE: ‘Violent, jealous, controlling’ husband jailed for life after stabbing wife to death as she pushed pram
READ MORE: ‘We will never forgive the monster who took her from us’
Jurors previously heard Ms Akter had attempted to escape Masum by staying at the refuge in Bradford after the killer had held a knife to her throat at their home in Greater Manchester. The judge told Masum that “such was your behaviour, Kulsuma was able to predict her own death at your hands”.
Masum found that Ms Akter was staying at the refuge through her phone location, and loitered in streets around the hostel as well as sending her messages threatening to kill her family members if she did not return to him. The defendant also sent her fake messages from a local GP practice pretending their son had an appointment to try to lure her out of the refuge.
Torben Stig Hersborg
A celebrity osteopath branded “one of London’s most prolific voyeurs” was jailed for secretly taking pictures and videos of thousands of women.
Danish national Torben Stig Hersborg, 64, of Tower Hamlets, filmed and photographed around 2,000 women across more than a decade in his clinic in Old Street, north-east London, as well as on beaches, on footpaths, waiting at bus stops or for the Tube and when they were in their own homes.
He was jailed at Snaresbrook Crown Court for three years and five months after admitting eight counts of voyeurism.
His crimes were revealed when a member of the public called police in December last year after they saw Hersborg in the back seat of his Lexus vehicle parked outside university accommodation in Islington, north London.
After he was arrested, investigators found thousands of photos and videos on devices in his possession, including images of women undressing and two while they were having sex.
Alex Weichselbaum, from the CPS, said: “Hersborg operated in plain sight for too long and, having targeted thousands of women over 12 years, we believe the scale and significance of his offending makes him one of London’s most prolific voyeurs.
“His meticulously planned acts included setting up secret cameras in his clinic and covertly filming women – both in public and when they thought they were in the privacy of their own homes.
“Hersborg deliberately abused the trust of his unwitting patients by filming them in intimate positions and targeted strangers for his own sexual gratification.”
Errol Woodger
A burglar has been locked up over the death of an amputee who was run over by his own Mercedes car.
Former soldier Errol Woodger broke into a block of flats in Erith, south-east London, in the early hours of December 29 in 2019 and snatched keys belonging to resident Marc Allen, 50, the Old Bailey heard. When Mr Allen tried to stop Woodger from making off in his car, he was run over.
Neighbours found Mr Allen in the road with a severe head injury, from which he died a month later, having never regained consciousness. Mr Allen used a prosthetic limb since his lower right leg was amputated as a result of a previous illness.
Having initially denied being present, the defendant claimed to jurors he was only a passenger in the vehicle driven by an accomplice who had since died from a drug overdose.
Following an Old Bailey trial, Woodger, 38, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and robbery. Judge Rebecca Trowler KC jailed Woodger for 13 years with a further five years on extended licence for manslaughter. She also handed him eight years in prison for robbery to run concurrently.
The judge said that she could not be sure Woodger was driving the Mercedes or exclude the possibility there were others in the car. However, she noted his long-standing drug abuse and history of violent offending and the risk of causing harm to the public in the future.
Michael Lesko
Sexual predator Michael Lesko travelled more than 100 miles to stalk his victim after he had previously raped her.
The 29-year-old was branded “dangerous” by the sentencing judge who handed him a 10-year jail term and an extended three-year licence period when he was sentenced at Durham Crown Court.
The rapist travelled from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, to Durham in October last year where he stalked his victim, got on the same bus as her, and followed her home. She went to a pub to get away from Lesko, only leaving when she thought he had left, but he was waiting outside and he went on to assault her.
His victim reported the incident to the police, also telling officers that she had been sexually assaulted by Lesko and raped on another occasion by him. He was charged and found guilty of rape, sexual assault, stalking and assault following a trial in March.
The offences were committed just weeks after he had been handed a suspended sentence for voyeurism and sexual assault on another woman, the court heard.
Keaton Muldoon
A driver admitted causing the death of a young mother who was knocked off the back of an electric motorbike ridden by her boyfriend.
Keaton Muldoon, 23, was acquitted after a trial at Derby Crown Court of murdering 25-year-old Alana Armstrong and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to her boyfriend Jordan Newton-Kay, who had his right leg amputated 15cm above the knee after the crash on November 26 last year. Before the trial began, Muldoon, of Tuckers Lane in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving whilst disqualified.
Muldoon, who the court heard was a drug dealer, told the jury of 11 women and one man during the trial that he “did not know” he had hit anyone while driving his Land Rover Discovery on the evening of November 26 last year, and thought he had overtaken Mr Newton-Kay’s bike at a passing point.
The prosecution alleged that Muldoon “pursued” the couple, and another electric bike ridden by a friend of Mr Newton-Kay, after they stopped near the defendant’s 4×4 at a lay-by and shined their lights inside the vehicle. The defendant told the court he feared he was going to be robbed but did not “chase” the Sur-Ron off-road bike for more than a mile from the lay-by in Sampsons Lane, Pleasley.
The judge said he could not be sure that Muldoon’s vehicle made contact with Mr Newton-Kay’s bike, but he was satisfied that it was the defendant’s dangerous driving that made the bike lose control. He said: “You were irritated by what happened and decided you were going to teach them a lesson by frightening them. What you did was, on more than occasion, got close to one or more of the e-bikes to frighten them. It was not only dangerous, but carried the real risk of a collision or cause one of them to lose control, leading to potentially tragic consequences. I take the view that each decision you took that night was conscious and deliberate. You knew exactly what you were doing.”
The judge imposed a sentence of five years and three months for causing the death of Ms Armstrong, with concurrent sentences of 27 months for injuring Mr Newton-Kay and one month for driving whilst disqualified. He banned him from driving for 12 and a half years and said he must serve at least half of his sentence before he can be released on extended licence.
Thomas Dures
A “cowardly” killer smirked as his victim’s mother told a court of her heartbreak over her son’s murder. Thomas Dures, 21, fled to Greece after stabbing Matthew Daulby, 19, with a lock knife, outside a bar in Ormskirk, Lancashire.
Mr Daulby, from Liverpool, died at Aintree Hospital, shortly after the attack on July 29 in 2023. It meant his family had to endure two murder trials after an accomplice, Henry Houghton was convicted for the murder last year, before Dures eventually handed himself in to police in Athens and was convicted in July.
But as Angela Daulby gave a moving victim impact statement at Preston Crown Court, Judge Robert Altham watched her son’s killer misbehave.
Jailing him for a mandatory life sentence for murder with a minimum of 23 years before parole, Judge Altham told him: “You have never shown the slightest remorse. You smirked and shook your head as his mother read her statement. Having murdered Matthew Daulby you now seek to heap further misery on his family.”
READ MORE: Man who killed teenager Matthew Daulby before fleeing the country jailed for murder
The court heard how Dures, from Aughton, Lancashire, along with Houghton lurked in an alleyway before charging Matthew Daulby and his friends from behind. Houghton struck Mr Daulby with a cosh, a tied up sock containing a rock, before Dures, armed with a lock knife, plunged the blade into his victim’s chest up to the hilt. He discarded the weapon and his bloody clothes, took a selfie of him smoking a cannabis joint and fled the UK the next day.
Dures was also found guilty of wounding with intent to another man, during the murder trial. Henry Houghton, of Scarisbrick, Lancashire, was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in March last year for his role in Matthew Daulby’s murder.
Stuart Compton and Tracy Turner
A couple who dubbed themselves Bonnie and Clyde have been jailed for planning and fantasising about the “brutal” rape and sexual assault of young children under the age of 12. Stuart Compton, 46, and his partner, Tracy Turner, 52, sent each other thousands of messages planning the depraved abuse of two girls and a boy over a two-year period.
Merthyr Crown Court heard their sick plan failed after an online dating app informed police of concerns about Compton, and the pair were arrested. Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke, the Recorder of Cardiff, said messages showed they had discussed “over and over again” their desires to rape children and their conversations “made clear that this was not fantasy”.
She handed Compton a life sentence with a minimum jail term of seven years before he can apply for release, while Turner was given 12 years in jail, with a further two years on extended licence. Addressing Compton, she said: “Unless and until the parole board considers it safe to release you, you will remain in prison.”
The court heard that messages recovered by the police took weeks to go through because there was so many, and showed Compton was interested in children “aged one to six”.
At an earlier hearing, the couple, who referred to each other as Bonnie and Clyde in messages, both pleaded guilty to six counts of arranging sex attacks on children. Compton also pleaded guilty to six counts of making indecent images, and Turner, who is a hospital operating assistant, admitted two counts of the same offence.
Compton, from Cathays, and Turner, from Roath, both Cardiff, had denied a string of other offences, including conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to rape and conspiracy to kidnap, which were ordered to lie on the file.
Kirsty Carless
A “jealous” woman stabbed her ex-partner in the heart on Christmas Day after seeing his Tinder profile. Kirsty Carless, 33, plunged a knife into 31-year-old father-of-six Louis Price’s heart in the early hours of December 25 last year after a friend sent her a picture of his dating profile.
Jailing her for life with a minimum term of 25 years, a judge at Stafford Crown Court said her attack was “motivated by anger and jealousy, and fuelled by cocaine and alcohol”.
Judge Mr Justice Choudhury said Carless, of Haling Way in Cannock, Staffordshire, had “destroyed the life of a young man and his family” when she fatally attacked him at his parents’ home in Elm Road, Norton Canes.
The trial heard how Carless was drinking with a friend when she was sent a screenshot of her ex partner’s dating profile, which sent her into a “jealous rage”. She then took a taxi home, where she picked up a kitchen knife, and ordered a second taxi to take her to Mr Price’s parents’ home.
CCTV showed her running up the front path into the house and then “stalking” him around the garden before he was later found with a single stab wound to the chest on the conservatory floor.
READ MORE: Woman, 33, murdered her ex at his parents’ home after seeing his Tinder profile
A jury of seven men and five women found her guilty of murder and possession of an offensive weapon by unanimous verdicts in relation to the fatal stabbing. She was also found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm by a majority of 11 to one in connection with an incident in November 2024 for which she was on police bail, but was cleared of intentional strangulation in relation to the same incident.
The judge said the defendant had shown “no remorse” for what she had done and instead concocted a false story that she could not remember what had happened.