This list includes 10 people locked up for crimes linked to Merseyside this past week.
Courts heard about a teenage boy who stabbed a young dad-of-two in the heart, then tried to claim it was self-defence. Sentenced alongside him in the dock was a man who tried to help him get away with murder.
One judge sentenced a blundering vigilante who set fire to a car wrongly identified as being owned by a paedophile. His accomplice remains at large.
READ MORE: Little girl makes cards for murdered dad hoping one day he'll read them
A cocaine addict was caught on camera firing a BB gun at a takeaway owner in a bungled robbery. Meanwhile, disturbing cases included an unrepentant rapist who ruined the lives of children and a twisted paedophile who kept sick pictures of his abuse of a little boy.
Judges also had to sentence a coward who poured bleach over his girlfriend and a crying racist who battered his ex-partner. Here is an overview of some of those which have concluded this past week.
Jason Clarke
Unrepentant rapist Jason Clarke destroyed the childhoods of his victims by subjecting them to years of emotional abuse and sexual attacks.
He repeatedly targeted youngsters by grooming and exploiting them. In one horrific case he raped a child who was on a bike ride through woodland. Clarke, 48, had spent years manipulating three victims.
He made them perform sex acts, subjected them to abuse and, in some cases, raped them. The sex attacks, which took place across different properties in Merseyside, were only stopped when one of his victims gathered the courage to speak out. .
He was found guilty after a trial of 24 counts of sexual abuse, including multiple rapes. Clarke, most recently of Hollins Drive in Stafford, has shown no remorse. He was jailed for 24 years.
Thomas Hastie
Thomas Hastie set fire to a nearby business' trailer in a "revenge attack" following a parking row.
The 31-year-old, of Harbern Close, West Derby, ran Top Soil Supplies on Juniper Street in Kirkdale. He was irritated with Gaskells Waste, based on nearby Foster Street, parking articulated vehicles near his yard.
Hastie set fire to the trailer, which was parked just metres away from another facility containing gas canisters, by lighting a diesel-soaked rag and throwing it on top of it, on May 2, 2021. Firefighters were able to put out the blaze before it could spread beyond the trailer. However, there was damage estimated at £8,596.
Hastie admitted arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered. He was jailed for two years and eight months.
Robert Neal
Robert Neal shot the owner of a takeaway he visited five times a week and stole money from the till to feed his cocaine addiction.
The 31-year-old, of Brows Lane, Formby, walked just a matter of yards from his home to Flames takeaway, where he pointed a BB gun at the shop's owner. The armed robber entered the takeaway, at around 11.45pm, on January 24 this year, wearing a mask and latex gloves, and threatened Kagan Kocak.
CCTV footage showed how Neal then fired the gun, which looked like a Glock pistol, and the pellet hit the victim in the chest, leaving a small red mark, before he escaped with £189. He admitted robbery and possessing an imitation firearm with intent to commit robbery. Neal was jailed for six years and eight months.
David Hickman
David Hickman launched a vicious, humiliating attack on a nurse before trying to destroy her career.
The 33-year-old bit, punched and spat at his then partner, who he shoved through a glass shower partition and poured bleach over her. Hickman ignored her pleas to be released and locked her in his flat in Wallasey overnight after England lost the Euro 2020 final on July 11, 2021.
The victim, who the ECHO chose not to name, fled barefoot when Hickman fell asleep the following morning and the attack was reported to the police. Hickman, of Poulton Road, went on the run for a fortnight but continued to message her, threatening to commit suicide if she supported a prosecution.
He was jailed for seven years, with an extended three years on licence.
Ross Lambert
Ross Lambert helped set fire to a car wrongly identified as being owned by a paedophile.
The 'vigilante', of New Brighton, smashed the front offside window of the white Jaguar parked on a road in Wallasey with a hammer on October 24 last year. But the 28-year-old cut his hand while smashing the car window, before an unknown accomplice hurled a petrol bomb at the car, causing £13,000 of damage.
Police were able to link Lambert to the crime by DNA as he had wiped his bloodied hand on the bonnet. Lambert admitted arson. He was jailed for four and a half years, with an extended licence of four and a half years.
Connor Dockerty's teen killer and John Batey
A teenage boy who stabbed a dad-of-two in the heart was locked up, along with a man who tried to help him get away with murder.
Connor Dockerty was repeatedly knifed in the chest by a then 14-year-old boy, Boy A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in a Huyton street. Mr Dockerty, 23, staggered into a nearby garden, bleeding from four stab wounds, and with his last words said: "I'm dying - tell my kids I love them".
Boy A, who was riding a red mountain bike, attacked Mr Dockerty in Kingsway, near the Oak Tree Pub, at around 8pm on Monday, April 19 last year. The victim had earlier been involved in a minor altercation in Liverpool Road, which led to Boy A going to confront him.
The teenager, now aged 15, from Huyton, claimed he acted in self-defence and Mr Dockerty had a blade, but the victim was in fact unarmed. Boy A was found guilty of murder in December, after a six-week trial. He was handed a life sentence, with a minimum of 14 years behind bars.
John Batey, 44, of no fixed address, but from Huyton, was found guilty of assisting an offender. That was for disposing of Boy A's "distinctive" red Trek bike - "critical evidence" in the wake of the killing.
He was jailed for three years.
Robert Trigg
Robert Trigg took sick photographs of himself raping and sexually abusing a little boy.
The paedophile had been accessing child sex abuse images online and National Crime Agency officers raided his home and seized his iPhone. On the device they recovered Category A, B and C indecent images of children, including Category A files showing him raping a young boy.
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The pervert, formerly of Wirral but now of Fairclough Crescent, Haydock, had moved the images of the child to a secure “keep safe vault” on his phone. He admitted rape, two counts of causing or inciting the boy to engage in sexual activity and three counts of taking indecent photographs of the boy.
Trigg was jailed for 11 and a half years with an extended licence of 12 months.
Andrew Murphy
Andrew Murphy shouted "I love you" to his current girlfriend as he was jailed for racially abusing his ex-partner.
The 37-year-old saw his ex-girlfriend in the street and called her a racial slur, before spitting at her and squeezing her neck. The couple had broken up four weeks before this happened in a first incident, on March 10, 2020.
Murphy then sent threats in racially abusive texts and voicemails, before kicking and banging at her front door. Then, on March 14, he broke into her house while she was out and stole a TV set.
Murphy, of Carr Meadow Hey, Netherton, admitted racially aggravated harassment. He cried as he was jailed for two years and 11 months.
