This is a list of the people jailed for crimes linked to Merseyside over the past week.
The cases include a mum who ransacked her neighbour’s home to try to fund her drug and alcohol habit and two sisters who were jailed for their part in a major Encrochat conspiracy. The courts of our region also saw the cases of a robber who attacked a man in Southport in the dead of night and a drug dealer who, after being stopped by the police, told them the drugs bags in his house were to “hold chicken nuggets”.
A man who dragged a teenager into a house and pinned her down by the neck and a burglar whose campaign of harassment forced a shopowner to move were also sent down by judges during the past seven days.
READ MORE: Faces of 33 predators every parent in Merseyside should know about
Here are the people jailed in our region over the past week.
Lauren Blaney
A mum ransacked her neighbour’s home then tried to hide from police behind a bin.
Lauren Blaney “trashed” the house on Handfield Road while on bail for doing almost exactly the same thing to her ex-boyfriend’s house months earlier. The 30-year-old overturned a fish tank, stole a TV and smashed up numerous rooms during the bizarre incident last summer.
Zahra Baqri, prosecuting, said Blaney’s then neighbour returned to his home during the afternoon of June 17, 2021. She said the front door was locked as normal but that he found the rooms inside “trashed”.
Blaney was later seen running down the street and tried to hide from police behind a bin but was arrested later the same day and admitted burglary. Blaney’s victim suffered financial losses of around £1,000 due to the burglary.
The court heard her offending was driven by drug and alcohol abuse. Jailing Blaney for 12 months, Judge Anil Murray appealed to her to continue with efforts to address her addiction issues while in prison.
Olivia Kamara
A drug dealer was found hiding in a bathroom with more than 150 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin during a house raid.
Olivia Kamara had a previous similar conviction and Liverpool Crown Court heard on Monday, June 6 that she had not long been released from prison when she was caught again. The 26-year-old was found with Class A drugs after police raided a house on Lovely Lane in Warrington on the morning of September 9 last year.
Police raided the house after spotting another woman, Louise Butler, involved in a drugs transaction in Lovely Lane. Butler went back into the house on Lovely Lane where she was living with her "abusive and bullying" partner.
After a few minutes she re-emerged and walked towards Colin Street, reportedly to meet a drugs customer. But Butler was intercepted by police and wrestled to the ground. She then spat out five wraps of drugs.
Police then found Kamara was hiding in a house with more drugs. She admitted possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply and was jailed for four years three months. Butler was sentenced to 23 months imprisonment but suspended it for two years.
John Stanley
A man tricked a teen on a night out into getting in his car then drove her to a flat, locked her in and pinned her to the bed by her throat.
John Stanley targeted the 17-year-old in Liverpool city centre back in 2018. After telling the victim, who the ECHO has chosen not to name, that he needed help getting home, the former taxi driver launched an attack which a judge today said would “send a chill down the spine” of girls and women in the city.
Stanley, now 35, protested his innocence for years but is now behind bars after a jury at Liverpool Crown Court saw through his lies.
His trial heard Stanley manipulated the girl, coaxing her into his car and asking her to drive him home, crying when she said she couldn’t do so. She eventually agreed to get in his car with her friend and the other man, to try to help him. However, Stanley then drove off, letting the girl’s friend and the other man out the car.
Mr Gibson said once they were alone Stanley’s mood changed dramatically and he became aggressive. He refused to drive the girl home and instead took her to another house he was renting and said he would call a taxi.
The teen tried to contact a friend for help but didn’t know where she was being taken. When Stanley parked the car she refused to get out and asked him to call her a taxi outside but he grabbed her by the head and dragged her into the flat, throwing her against a wall in the process.
After pinning her down and choking her on a bed she managed to escape by hitting him with a high heel and running out of the property. Stanley was jailed for 11 years after being found guilty of false imprisonment.
Neil Griffiths
A young dad robbed a stranger in Birkenhead after marching him to a cash machine.
Neil Griffiths, 27, and a friend approached the victim at 3am on a winter morning and asked him if any local pubs were open. The victim told Griffiths and the companion there were none open at the time of day.
Following this, there was pushing and shoving and the victim was elbowed in the face, Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday. Rebecca Smith, prosecuting, said Griffiths, who had been drinking since 5.30pm the previous day and his friend then took him to a nearby ATM and made off with the £65 he was made to withdraw.
The victim suffered soft tissue swelling to his face, knee and hands. Griffiths, of Brunswick Court, Birkenhead, pleaded guilty to the robbery which took place on 20 February, 2020. Judge David Potter said because of his record, including multiple previous conviction, only immediate imprisonment was appropriate and jailed him for two and a half years.
Alan Underwood
A burglar’s campaign of harassment against a shop owner forced the man to sell his shop and move home.
Alan Underwood burgled Prescot Mobiles & Computer Services back in 2019, causing around £1,000 in damage to the shop in the process. Yet when owner Shakir Ur Rehman recognised Underwood on CCTV and challenged him about the burglary Underwood threatened him and terrorised his shop for weeks.
The 40-year-old’s campaign against Mr Rehman came before he launched a sickening attack on another shop worker in Prescot, throwing scalding hot coffee at her. Underwood, of HMP Altcourse, was jailed for three years. A restraining order will also prevent him from contacting the shop owner for seven years.
Tyrone Grimes
A drug dealer who hid 58 wraps of crack and heroin in his bum said he strayed into peddling Class As to cope with having to pay for his mum’s funeral.
Tyrone Grimes, 25, was arrested by police after they spotted him carry out a suspected drug deal in the Widnes on May 11 this year. Paul Wood, prosecuting at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, said officers pulled over a Citroen Berlingo on Hale Road and arrested the driver, Grimes, who “tried to struggle”.
The officer also seized a “burner” phone from Grimes’s pocket. At Cheshire Police’s northern custody suite, officers strip-searched Grimes.
Grimes was recalled to prison on licence after his arrest in Widnes, and pleaded guilty at Chester Magistrates’ Court on May 12 to two counts of possession with intent to supply a Class A drug, namely heroin and crack cocaine, and one of acquiring or using criminal property.
Grimes was initially charged with assaulting an emergency worker in relation to his arrest in Widnes on May 11 but the count was ordered to lie on file on Thursday. He was jailed for three years and four months in prison. The sentence had been reduced by a third from five years to reflect credit for Grimes’s guilty pleas.
Craig Walker
A drug dealer told police the drug bags found in his house were “to hold chicken nuggets”.
Craig Walker’s bizarre attempts to get out of trouble came as he was caught by police with 70 wraps of crack cocaine down his trousers just weeks after being released from jail. A judge at Liverpool Crown Court warned him he was at risk of wasting his life if he didn’t stop dealing Class A drugs to fund his own addiction.
Anthony O’Donohoe, prosecuting, said police spotted Walker, 30, during a suspected drug deal on the edge of the city centre on May 17, 2020. The car turned off Angela Street and into Pennygate Close and after seeing someone get in the car to buy drugs police stopped the vehicle.
He appeared to have something down his trousers and was later found to have wraps of 70 wraps of crack cocaine. When asked by police about drug bag in his house, Walker told them they were to hold chicken nuggets.
He later admitted possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and was jailed for four years.
Claire and Amy McGlone
Two sisters moved kilos of class A drugs and tens of thousands in cash across the country as part of a major drugs conspiracy.
Amy and Claire McGlone used the handle “Moodyalpha” to take instructions on couriering cocaine, heroin, cannabis from Merseyside to destinations across the UK. Police who arrested the pair found a massive drugs “hide” in their Mazda, while the hacking of the Encrochat network revealed the full extent of their criminality.
Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said the sisters worked together, passing the Encro phone from one to the other as they both took instructions from their boss, “secretgold” during the spring of 2020. It is unclear when exactly the McGlones, neither of whom have any previous convictions, became involved in dealing drugs.
However, a stream of messages show the pair were ferrying drugs to and from Merseyside throughout April and May of that year.They were stopped by police in South Wales on May 20, 2020 and later admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
The court heard there was no evidence the women or their families were living “a lavish lifestyle” as a result of drug dealing, with Amy McGlone’s financial situation appearing to be particularly bad. Ms Daley said they appeared to be paid only a few hundred pounds for each trip.
Claire McGlone was jailed for four years and nine months and Amy McGlone was jailed for four years and six months.
Callum Unsworth
Callum Unsworth was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court for the brutal robbery of a man in Southport. Yet supporters missed his sentencing after their outbursts saw them removed from the courtroom.
Unsworth targeted a man while he was getting cash out in the early hours of January 29 this year. The victim had been at a bar in the town centre and gone to get money from a cash machine but as he went to take it Unsworth came up behind him and took the cash, pushing the man to the floor.
Bernice Campbell, prosecuting, told the court the man’s knee was injured in the process and his glasses were broken in the robbery, which saw 23-year-old Unsworth run off with £30. Unsworth was later arrested and admitted robbery.
Unsworth, of no fixed abode, for two and a half years but said he believed the circumstances of his earlier years had made him more vulnerable to crime.
Martin Grant
Martin Grant, 33, was jailed for over 14 years on Friday, June 10, after Liverpool Crown Court heard he began using an EnroChat phone shortly after he was released from prison on licence. Grant, a father-of-two originally from Old Swan, specialised in high quality cocaine imported from Bolivia.
Police were able to link Grant to the EncroChat handle SwiftOrchid after they identified pictures of his home on the device. Grant, who lived in the Southport area, sent pictures of a bouncy castle on the device.
Ben Jones, prosecuting, said Grant acted as a "wholesale broker" and distributed Class A drugs to the midlands, Lancashire and Carlisle area. Last week the court heard how Grant's younger brother Liam used the Encro handle Beigepalm to supply cannabis. Liam Grant was jailed for four years and six months during an earlier hearing.
Mr Jones told the court Grant had previous convictions for vehicle taking, blackmail, handling stolen goods, section 18 wounding and possession of an offensive weapon. Grant had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, conspiracy to supply heroin, conspiracy to supply amphetamine and conspiracy to supply cannabis.
