A raging thug who threatened to kill in brother, then proceeded to punch himself in the face.
A paedophile who abused a boy more than 30 years ago on three occasions, over a two-year period.
A man once cleared of murder caught with 20kg of cocaine he had shipped to his uncle's business.
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A 22-year-old who stabbed his mum's boyfriend to death during a row, with an 18-inch combat knife he kept in his room.
Jail sentences are handed out to the worst offenders each week and Manchester Evening News reporters are in court to cover the most serious cases.
Raging meat cleaver thug 'wanted to go to prison for killing a police officer'
A raging thug who threatened to kill his brother said he wanted to go to prison for 'killing a police officer' or a 'random citizen' has been jailed for 15 months.
Louis Williams, 32, pleaded guilty to making threats to kill, criminal damage and malicious communications.
He became enraged as he downed whiskey and cider, and accused his mother of stealing money from him.
The 'volatile' Williams started punching holes in the wall and in a door, as his anger increased in the one bedroom flat he shared with his brother and mum.
The pair tried to placate Williams by giving him money, but he only became more incensed. At one point his brother noticed a meat cleaver, which he'd never seen before.
"I will sick it in your head, don't even look at me or I will stick it in your head," Williams, from Gorton, told his sibling. His brother 'froze' in his seat after the chilling threat was issued, during the incident on November 1 last year.
Then Williams 'bizarrely' began calling 999, making repeated calls and making threats to operators, prosecutor Paul Treble told Manchester Crown Court.
He made threats to kill police officers, and at one stage said 'he wanted to go to prison for killing a police officer or even killing a random citizen', the barrister said.
Williams began punching himself in the face as he experienced an apparent mental breakdown. His brother called the police but couldn't get through at first. He and his mother were able to flee the property.
A restraining order preventing Williams from contacting his mother and brother was imposed, to last three years.
‘Monster’ raped girl over nine months and filmed it to 'degrade and humiliate' her
A ‘monster’ raped a girl multiple times during nine months and recorded it on his phone to 'degrade and humiliate' her.
Danny Harper, 31, sexually abused the girl and told her it was their ‘little secret’ in order to stop her from reporting it.
He was jailed for 12 years and 8 months after pleading guilty to three offences of rape, two offences of sexual assault and one offence of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
The court heard that Harper began abusing the girl in early 2020. He went on to take pictures of her genitals, prosecutor Brian Berlyne said.
Harper’s offending only came to light following his conversations with a fake profile of a 10-year-old girl that was being run by a paedophile hunter group.
He added the profile as a 'friend' on Facebook and in September 18 he told the profile he could show her ‘naughty things’ and teach her about sex. Harper then asked her to send a picture of her genitals and of her in her underwear.
Separately, his young victim courageously told her mum of Harper’s abuse. She was medically examined and found to have injuries.
Harper was arrested and his phone was seized and examined, of which officers found 45 indecent images of the girl, 15 of which showed him sexually abusing her, it was said.
Harper was also made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order indefinitely and must sign onto the Sex Offender Register indefinitely.
'Depraved' paedophile who abused child over 30 years ago locked up after victim bravely came forward
A man who bravely came forward about being abused as a child over three decades ago has finally seen the paedophile responsible brought to justice.
Ian Nixon has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to three offences dating back to the 1980s. He has also been made to sign the sex offenders register.
The 57-year-old was sentenced at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on Monday (March 14) after his victim gave significant evidence to Greater Manchester Police in summer 2019.
The court heard that Nixon abused the boy, who was of infant school age, at a house in Rochdale on three occasions over a two-year period in the late 1980s. Some 30 years later, Nixon's victim gave GMP graphic detail of a number of serious incidents that he was subjected to during that time.
Detectives from GMP Rochdale district's Child Protection Investigation Unit soon interviewed Nixon, at his then-home in Blackpool. He claimed he did not remember the victim and could not recall the incidents that had been described by the victim - but he didn't deny that they had occurred.
Nixon, currently of no fixed address, was later charged with indecent assault, gross indecency and a serious sexual offence which would now be considered rape. He pleaded guilty to the charges in December 2021.
The victim has been offered continuous support from specialist officers and partner agencies throughout the case, GMP says.
'Yes, I've done it again': Paedophile chef caught out months after he's spared jail
A pervert chef admitted to his family he had 'done it again' after being caught out by paedophile hunters.
Benjamin Behan, 25, had been ordered to undergo the Horizon scheme, which aims to rehabilitate sex offenders and change their warped outlook, after being found with vile images of children.
But Behan, from Wythenshawe said it was a 'load of cr**'. He claimed that sessions being moved online during the pandemic made them more difficult for him to follow.
"Because of his autism he deals much better face to face, he found it much more difficult to absorb it," Behan's barrister Mark Shanks told Manchester Crown Court.
Despite attempts to help him reform, Behan has now been locked up after he once again displayed a sexual interest in children. He was exposed by paedophile hunters, with a decoy account being set up in the name of a 14-year-old girl.
Members of the paedophile hunter group went to confront Behan at his home, and his stepfather answered the door.
"Yes, I've done it again," Behan admitted to his stepfather.
Behan, of Inglesham Close, Wythenshawe, pleaded guilty to attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act.
"Your behaviour, I'm afraid, has demonstrated that you will not comply. You described the Horizon programme as a 'load of cr**', so custody must follow," sentencing Judge Anthony Cross QC said, before jailing Behan for 16 months.
Man once cleared of murder locked up for 12 years after he's caught with 20kg of cocaine
A man who was once cleared of murder has been locked up for 12 years after he was caught importing 20kg of cocaine.
Dwaine George, 38, was using the Encrochat network to import the class A drug from Holland.
He was caught when GMP and NCA officers raided his uncle’s business at a joiner’s yard in Middleton, and intercepted a pallet. Stashed in boxes they found 20 kilos of cocaine.
The drugs were said to be between 70 and 73 per cent purity and were worth a street value of £1.6 million.
The raid was part of Operation Venetic which smashed the Encrochat system in June 2020 as part of a Europe-wide investigation.
Ibraheem Abdullah, formerly Dwaine George, from Manchester pleaded guilty over the seizure of cocaine worth £1.6m
After earlier pleading guilty to conspiracy to evade a prohibition on the importation of class A drugs and was on Monday (March 14) jailed for 12 years.
It comes as George, who also used the name of Ibrahmeed Abdullah, was convicted of the murder of Daneil Dale, a teenager in Miles Platting, before being cleared after a court ruled his conviction was unsafe.
By the time he had succeeded in overturning the conviction, he had already served a life sentence which had a minimum term of 12 years.
'I will cut you up': Serial offender stabbed shopping centre security guard in 'frenzied' attack
A 20-year-old who hit a shopkeeper over the head with a golf club and stabbed a shopping centre security guard has been sentenced to nearly five years in jail.
Luke McSharry, who had a long history of offending, took part in a ‘frenzied attack’ on Middleton Shopping Centre security guard, Paul McLaughlin, on August 14 last year. The week before McSharry had made threats to Mr McLaughlin saying he would “stab you up”.
On the 14th McSharry saw Mr McLaughlin again, becoming abusive and calling him a ‘fat c**t’ and said again that he would ‘cut him up’. Mr McLaughlin took hold of him and there was a ‘scuffle’, according to prosecutor Hugh McKee at Manchester Minshull Street Court.
“Within a short space of time he cut him five times”, Mr McKee added, before he ran away from the centre. McSharry was seen throwing something in a bush, which police later discovered to be the knife he had used in the attack.
McSharry, 19 at the time, was arrested on August 25 in Glossop, Derbyshire, where he was living in a tent in woodland. Officers also discovered a knife and an axe in the tent when he was arrested.
Mr McLaughlin suffered ‘multiple stab wounds’, the most serious being one to the forearm which sliced a tendon. However, none of the injuries were life threatening.
Another incident McSharry was charged with occurred on April 25 2020, when he was 18-years-old. A group of boys took a box of Carlsberg lager from a shop on Cross Lane, Radcliffe, with the shop owner chasing after them.
McSharry swung a golf club at the shop owner and hit him on the forehead, before running off.
His upbringing was described as ‘dysfunctional as one can imagine’ having moved house 15 times by the age of 10. His mother also died at a young age.
McSharry was sentenced to four years in jail for wounding with intent (GBH) at Middleton Shopping Centre last year with six months concurrently for possession of a knife. He was handed a consecutive sentence of eight months for actual bodily harm relating to the incident in Radcliffe on April 25, 2020.
Sex worker, 36, stabbed customer in the stomach at "Gentlemen's Health Club" after forcibly grabbing his £10 back
A sex worker stabbed a customer in the stomach after he grabbed his money back during a fumbled encounter.
Hayley Russell, 36, was jailed despite a judge suggesting the man should have been charged with robbery himself after he 'forcibly' took back the £10 he paid her for a "kiss and grope."
Manchester Crown Court heard how Russell used a Stanley knife to stab the punter after an argument broke out during their 1am liaison outside a massage parlour in Levenshulme.
The customer, who is in his 40s, was said to wrestle his money back from her pocket, but she flew into a rage and slashed him across the abdomen and arm on September 4.
He was later treated for his wounds in hospital but was not seriously injured.
In a statement read to the court, the victim said: "My life has worsened since this incident and I'm now fearful of everyone and I think they are going to attack me.
''I used to go out to exercise but I have since stopped doing this. The use of the blade really disturbed me and will stay with me forever.''
Russell, from Moston, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and having a bladed article. She went on to be jailed for 16 months.
She has 49 previous offences on her record dating back to the year 2000 including battery, attempted robbery, robbery with a bladed article and possessing an offensive weapon.
Man stabbed mum's partner to death following alcohol-fuelled row
A man who stabbed his mother's partner to death following an alcohol-fuelled argument has been jailed for two years and seven months.
Dean Farrell, 22, was upstairs in his bedroom in Droylsden when his mum returned from a night out. She started arguing with 47-year-old Ian Bent.
Both Michelle Farrell and Mr Bent had been drinking. During the row, Dean Farrell shouted at Mr Bent to stop being verbally abusive, to which he told him to come downstairs.
Armed with an 18-inch combat knife hidden down his trousers, Farrell became involved in a violent struggle with Mr Bent.
Mr Bent pushed him down onto the sofa before Farrell withdrew the knife and stabbed him four times to the neck and back, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Mr Bent was left with a deep wound to his neck which went through his jaw bone, as well as a large wound to his back and other cuts on his head and neck. He was taken to hospital but died from his injuries.
When the police arrived shortly after, Farrell was found on the front step crying as he told officers: “I’m sorry.. I was protecting my mum.”
After pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to manslaughter on the grounds that he was acting in self defence but went ‘too far’, Farrell, of Droylsden was jailed for two years and seven months on Wednesday (16 March).
Speeding BMW driver went to extraordinary lengths to try and cover up hit-and-run which left gran in 'living hell'...she died months later
A speeding driver who left a gran with horrendous injuries went to extraordinary lengths to try and cover up his crimes. Businessman Joshua Hartley went through a red light and ploughed into 66-year-old Valerie Sandham, who had just got off a bus to go shopping in Wythenshawe.
Mrs Sandham died six months later. Her family described the last period of her life as a 'living hell', after she underwent six operations after suffering breaks to her leg, spine, ribs and arm.
Hartley, 32, left her seriously hurt in the road, after Mrs Sandham had been violently thrown into the air. He hid his BMW for a few days after the crash, then arranged to have it repaired and sold on.
Months later 'diligent' police officers traced the car to the west Midlands, where they found it had undergone significant repairs including a full bumper replacement. The use of data in the vehicle allowed police to prove that the car had been at the scene of the hit-and-run, and cell site data showed Hartley was also present.
He eventually pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and has now been jailed for three years and four months following a hearing at Manchester Crown Court.
Mrs Sandham contracted Covid and suffered other complications, and prosecutors did not allege there was a causal link between the crash and her death.
Three gang members jailed following gun-toting thug opening fire in BMW drive-by shooting
Damning footage showed a gun-toting thug hanging from the window of a BMW as a petty rival gang feud spilled out onto the street. An innocent member of the public was caught up in the mindless violence - narrowly escaping with their life as a bullet hit their car.
In broad daylight, Sean Cowie, 32, fires a handgun twice on a Tuesday afternoon in Newton Heath. Detectives said someone could easily have been killed.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard that 39-year-old David Urey was behind the wheel of the BMW. The pair were then followed by Paul Ryan, 42 who was in another VW Golf, and the chase continued along Droylsden Road towards Ashton before the three cars split up.
The shooting came as part of an ongoing dispute between two gangs. And was committed in retaliation after those in the Golf they chased had ‘very badly beaten up’ a friend of theirs, the court was told.
The gun was supposed to be ‘waved as a warning’ and not fired, Ryan claimed.
Cowie was jailed for five years and seven months, Urey for five years and four months and Ryan was sentenced to six-and-a-half years.
"This was broad daylight on a busy road in Greater Manchester," sentencing judge Angela Neild said.
"Greater Manchester, particularly the city centre area, and this was not very far at all from the city centre, has sadly been no stranger to the use of guns in the course of commission of crime, often while there are rival gangs competing for whatever prize of a criminal nature might be at stake at any one time.
"That bullet could have gone anywhere."
Cowie, Urey and Ryan were all arrested in the days following. On January 21, police found a sawn-off shotgun at Ryan's house, which had his DNA on the trigger.
Cowie, of Hardman Lane, Failsworth; Urey, of Ten Acres Lane, Newton Heath; and Ryan, of Ashton Road East, Failsworth; all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, and Ryan pleaded guilty to a separate offence of possession of a prohibited firearm.
