This list includes 12 people locked up for crimes linked to Merseyside this past week.
Courts heard about a sexual predator who targeted three victims in Liverpool city centre in the space of just four days. Meanwhile, one judge sentenced a man who raped a woman just days after she gave birth.
Judges had to sentence a gangland "fixer" for his part in a botched shooting. They also sentenced a bully who battered a woman then tried to urinate on her.
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Another disturbing case involved a 'monster' who raped a woman and a schoolgirl. A court also heard about a perverted care worker who exposed himself to a vulnerable woman during a video call.
A judge also had to sentence a woman who conned her best friend out of more than £100,000. Here is an overview of some of those which have concluded this past week.
John Wood
John Wood raped a traumatised mum just days after she gave birth.
The 38-year-old care worker, from Cheshire, met the victim, from Liverpool, at an online conference and they continued to chat. But when she travelled to his new home in Glasgow to meet him, he raped her, and then subjected her to controlling behaviour.
Wood moved into her Liverpool home, she fell pregnant and felt trapped, and he raped her again after she had given birth. He had also twice raped a woman in Scotland and stood trial at Glasgow's High Court charged with raping both women.
Wood, of Dowanhill Street, Glasgow, was found guilty of raping both women. He was jailed for six years.
Lewis Fitzpatrick
Lewis Fitzpatrick helped organise a gangland hit when an innocent man was gunned down by a fake pizza delivery driver.
The victim was shot in the leg by a thug who knocked on his front door and shouted "pizza delivery" while holding fast food boxes. Norris Green "fixer" Lewis Fitzpatrick arranged the hit in Warrington on the evening of April 24, 2020, as part of an underworld war.
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Afterwards, he helped facilitate those behind the shooting to acquire another gun, which had been stored in a shed in Croxteth. The 27-year-old, of Eldersfield Road, was also EncroChat drug dealer "LimeEagle", plotting to supply kilos of ketamine and cannabis.
He was convicted of conspiracies to cause grievous bodily harm, to supply firearms and ammunition, and to supply both drugs. Fitzpatrick was jailed for 26 years, with an extended five years on licence.
Stephen Smith
Stephen Smith beat a mum over the head with straighteners before trying to urinate on her.
He also strangled his now ex-partner with a belt a few days earlier, as part of a series of increasingly brutal assaults. The 32-year-old, from Stockbridge Village, tied the belt around her neck and tightened it on December 21 last year.
He attacked her again on Christmas Eve, knocking a pushchair full of Christmas shopping so it spilled onto the ground. On Christmas Day he hit her in the head with straighteners and her boots, then tried to urinate on her, before spitting at her.
Smith, of Snowberry Road, admitted three counts of assault over the attacks - all witnessed by some of the victim's children. He was jailed for three years.
David Bottomley
Former karate instructor David Bottomley who raped a schoolgirl and a woman was labelled a "monster".
The 58-year-old ex-coastguard and prison security officer was exposed as a "violent and abusive" rapist and paedophile. Bottomley abused a woman by committing a historic sex offence against her, which would today be classed as rape.
In another incident he used a karate kick on the woman's jaw while wearing steel toe capped boots. His second victim was a schoolgirl, who Bottomley, of Hoole Lane, Banks, raped when she was aged about 12.
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Bottomley was found guilty of the historic sex offence and of assault causing actual bodily harm against the first woman. He was found guilty of rape, indecency with a child and two counts of indecent assault against the schoolgirl.
Bottomley was jailed for 14 years, with an extended one year on licence.
John Pennington
Stalker John Pennington who terrorised a woman in Merseyside was jailed again after failing to learn his lesson.
The 39-year-old previously targeted an ex-girlfriend in Liverpool by slashing her tyres and fitting a tracking device to her car. But when he was released from that jail sentence, he contacted a different woman, breaching a non-molestation order.
Pennington, of Crossford Road, Knotty Ash, was convicted of stalking. He was jailed for two years.
Anna Bonner
Anna Bonner lied for years to con her best friend and bridesmaid out of more than £100,000.
She asked Susan Hughes for vast sums of money, which she said was supporting a sick friend's cancer treatment, but actually funded her own lifestyle. The 40-year-old even encouraged a crush Ms Hughes had on the man, who she only met a few times, getting her to write letters and send gifts that she believed were going to him, but were actually received by Bonner.
The man did not have cancer and a judge labelled mum-of-three Bonner "greedy, devious and manipulative" for stealing more than £117, 000 from her friend. Bonner, of Seaview Road, Liscard, admitted fraud by false representation.
She was jailed for two years and four months.
Peter Edge
The dad of a young woman with Down's Syndrome walked in on perverted care worker Peter Edge exposing himself to her during a video call.
Edge, 62, was the director of a company offering respite care to adults with disabilities - meant to give parents and carers a much-needed break. But he betrayed them in the most devastating way, raping and sexually assaulting the victim at a West Lancashire centre when it was empty.
The abuse only came to light when her horrified dad saw Edge had exposed his penis over a webcam while the victim was in her family home. Police discovered Edge had sexually abused her on the first day she was allowed out after shielding from coronavirus as a vulnerable person.
Edge, of Goswell Street, Wavertree, was found guilty of rape, sexual assault and other offences. He was jailed for 15 years, with an extended five years on licence.
Darren Higham
Darren Higham who once complained about living next door to a convicted paedophile was jailed - for being a paedophile.
The 53-year-old once complained to his local newspaper that he was furious his housing association didn't tell him his neighbour was a sex offender. But he is now behind bars for subjecting a young girl to a series of sordid sex attacks from when she was the age of seven until she was around 11.
The abuse ranged from the self-employed musician kissing and touching the child to forcing her to perform sex acts on him on more than one occasion. Higham, of Chaffinch Close, Birchwood, Warrington, admitted four counts of sexual assault of a child under 13 and inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity.
He was jailed for four years.
Philip Read
Philip Read who used the EncroChat handle "EducatedGoose" hid 12 kilos of heroin in a bedroom.
He was also trusted to handle large amounts of cash and use it to buy ketamine and heroin from other dealers on the encrypted messaging service. The 43-year-old said he fell into criminality after running up gambling debts as he used drugs for deals in Merseyside during the first five months of 2020.
When police raided Read's home in Portico Lane, Eccleston in March last year they found 12 kilos of heroin stored in a bedroom. He admitted conspiring to supply Class A and Class B drugs and conspiring to convert criminal property.
Read was jailed for 12 years.
Jennifer Smith
Jennifer Smith held a razor blade to a support worker's throat and threatened to rape another.
She targeted the women in a residential care facility in north Liverpool in a terrifying incident. The 39-year-old, of no fixed address, had long term mental health issues and was staying at the facility.
Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and one count of sexual assault. She was jailed for 16 months.
Ahmed Al-Razawe
Ahmed Al-Razawe bit a woman's breast in a "vicious" street attack inflicting a permanent scar.
The 24-year-old sexually assaulted three victims in Liverpool city centre in the space of just four days. He first groped the thighs of a "terrified" 17-year-old girl and her 18-year-old friend, after asking them for sex and making "strange noises", at Liverpool One bus station on October 23, 2021.
Al-Razawe then launched a second "humiliating and degrading" attack, when he slapped a young woman's bottom. He then sank his teeth into her breast and hit her in the head with a wine bottle, in Lydia Ann Street on October 27.
Al-Razawe, of Upper Park Street, Toxteth, admitted three counts of sexual assault and one count of assault causing actual bodily harm. He was jailed for three years.
Elavi Dowie
Busker Elavi Dowie had a lengthy jail sentence extended for secretly filming private family court proceedings.
The 53-year-old dad was known for playing an electric guitar while rapping on Church Street in Liverpool city centre. He was involved in an acrimonious court battle over his two children and was hit with non-molestation and restraining orders.
In August last year, he was jailed for eight years for breaching them both repeatedly. However, it then emerged he had uploaded covertly filmed clips of family court proceedings to YouTube in June and July 2020.
Dowie, of Preesall Road, Preston, admitted contempt of court and was handed a further eight months in prison.
