A woman who battered a pensioner as he went to pick up his grandchildren from school, a thug who dragged a homeless man down the street as he clung to his car and a racist who kicked a boy's crutches from underneath him were among the Merseyside criminals jailed this week.
Also locked up was a machete-wielding man who slashed his victim in from of terrified motorists. Meanwhile, Liverpool Crown Court heard that a disabled man spent his final days in agony after being attacked with a beer bottle by a "dangerous bully".
Here are the faces of eight criminals from our region who were imprisoned in the past week:
READ MORE: Thug dragged homeless man down the street as he clung to his car
Renee Weaver
The drug addict jumped into a pensioner's car as he was leaving to collect his grandchildren from school and subjected him to vicious beating on his own driveway.
Renee Weaver, 41, punched the victim repeatedly before scrabbling around in his pockets, swiping cash and his phone and threatening to smash his head in with a glass bottle. Astonishingly, it was the pensioner who was arrested after Weaver, of Vulcan Street in the city centre, lied to officers claiming she was a sex worker and he had assaulted her after refusing to pay up for a sex act.
Merseyside Police handcuffed the stunned grandad only to realise he was in fact the victim. Liverpool Crown Court heard the pensioner felt "let down by the people who are supposed to protect us" after the incident on January 29 last year, off Sheil Road in Kensington.
Weaver admitted theft and assault. She was jailed for 10 months.
Mark Buchanan
The delivery driver modified his van to smuggle huge amounts of drugs.
Mark Buchanan, from Everton, was part of an organised crime group and was caught by police couriering drugs to Wales. The 42-year-old was wearing a delivery company uniform and driving a specially-adapted vehicle in order to hide the stash.
He was caught by officers on one of the UK's busiest motorways with 7kg of cocaine, worth approximately £700,000, located in a front passenger seat bulkhead. Buchanan was jailed for 16 years.
Michael Coney
Michael Coney had 20 wraps of heroin and 32 wraps of crack cocaine on him when he was stopped by police in January.
The 58-year-old has 27 previous convictions for 65 offences, including two for dealing class A drugs dating back to 1998 and 2004. He was found guilty of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply and was jailed for five-and-a-half years.
Michael Cain
He kicked a boy's crutch from underneath him before racially abusing O2 staff and throwing a drink over them.
Michael Cain, of no fixed abode, started his attacks on Wednesday, April 20, at 10am when he came face to face with 16-year-old Elliott Heap, who was on the way to a GCSE revision class at Liverpool Life Sciences. The 31-year-old approached the teenager and kicked one of his crutches, directed insulting comments towards him about his disability, and threatened violence.
In a separate incident, at around 4.30pm on Tuesday 24 May, Cain directed racial slurs towards a member of staff at the O2 shop on Church Street in Liverpool City Centre. It was further reported that he attempted to attack members of staff and threw a drink at them before being escorted out by security.
He was jailed for 28 weeks after admitting assault, harassment and criminal damage.
Darren Blease-Maguire
The machete-wielding thug slashed a man in front of terrified drivers.
The street fight broke out between Darren Blease-Maguire and a man he accused of threatening to burn down his flat at about on Saturday, October 22. One witness watched the fight from her car while stuck in traffic on Frederick Street, with the retiree seeing two men “fighting with each other and swinging their arms at each other”.
She heard the victim on the ground “screaming”, which she described as “harrowing”. Meanwhile, Blease-Maguire was seen laughing.
The 26-year-old admitted affray, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possession of a bladed article in a public place. He was jailed for 20 months.
Gerrard Parkins
The drug dealer has been jailed after supplying a county line with crack cocaine and heroin.
Gerrard Edward Parkins, of Dovecot, was found guilty of being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin after a joint investigation by Merseyside Police and North Wales Police forces into the "Irish Mikey Line". The line supplied crack cocaine and heroin between Liverpool and areas of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl.
Parkins was found to be the man controlling the county line during the investigation and, when arrested, was found in possession of the county line phone. The 25-year-old was jailed for five years and seven months.
Stephen Earle
The "dangerous bully" battered a disabled man with a beer bottle in a vicious robbery after spotting him using a Zimmer frame in a hotel.
Stephen Earle, 36, followed vulnerable Peter Keppie into his room at the Scarisbrick Hotel on Lord Street, Southport, at around 10am on August 15 last year. He then rifled through his belongings looking for his medication and took his bank card from his wallet before hitting him on the head with a Desperados bottle.
Earle then snatched the victim's new iPhone, a present he had received on his birthday five days earlier. Tragically, Mr Keppie died three months later and spent his final weeks in pain.
The thug admitted robbery and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was jailed for 12 years and eight months.
Kevin Bartley
The thug dragged a homeless man along the street as he clung to his car before hitting him with his vehicle less than two weeks later.
Kevin Bartley thankfully only left his victim with grazes and bruising after the first incident. But the 37-year-old then hunted him down and threatened to kill him only days later.
He admitted two counts of dangerous driving and was jailed for 14 months.
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