A paedophile who sent more than £20,000 to the Philippines to set up live streams of child abuse is amongst those who have been jailed in Greater Manchester last week.
Also locked up this week was a thieving administrator who stole nearly a quarter of a million pounds from the company he worked for, and a GMP police officer who left a boy in a 'vegetative state' after crashing into him.
Prison sentences are handed down to the worst offenders each week at our region's courts. And Manchester Evening News reporters are on the press bench, day-in-day-out, to cover the most serious cases.
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GMP officer jailed for 30 months after leaving boy, 15, with catastrophic brain injuries
A police officer who caused a teenage boy to be left in a 'vegetative' state after crashing into him while responding to an emergency has been jailed. PC Sarah De Meulemeester, 26, drove at speeds of up to 61mph on 30mph roads in wet conditions through Stockport on Boxing Day 2020.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how De Meulemeester, who was not authorised by Greater Manchester Police to travel at excess speeds, was also going the wrong way around a traffic island. It followed a 'grade one' emergency when officers were told a suspect was carrying a knife.
De Meulemeester crashed into then-15-year-old pedestrian Khia Whitehead on Garners Lane in Adswood, leaving him paralysed and with catastrophic brain injuries. At a sentencing in Liverpool today (May 19), the court heard emotional impact statements from members of Khia's family.
His mum told the court Khia was treated at the Manchester Royal Infirmary for nine months and was ‘initially in a permanent vegetative state with little awareness of the world around him’. She said her son is now 'like a newborn baby' and requires 24-hour care from specialist nurses, including an hour of 'brain rest' a day.
De Meulemeester, of Mill Court, Chinley, Derbyshire, was previously found guilty following a trial and was sentenced two-and-a-half years in prison.
Paedophile sent £20k to women in Philippines to set up child abuse live streams
A paedophile from Wythenshawe sent more than £20,000 to women in the Philippines to set up Skype live streams of child abuse. Bernard Grace, 72, was found with thousands of chat messages, in which he gave people 'instructions'.
Following his arrest, the brazen pervert was found 'liaising' with women online when his offender manager visited. Grace sent images of himself and payments totalling almost £21,000. He's now been jailed for eight years, having admitted his guilt.
Rosalind Scott-Bell, prosecuting the case at Manchester Crown Court, said National Crime Agency (NCA) cops searched Grace's house in October 2020. An Apple MacBook Air was examined.
It emerged 'unrelenting' Grace had offered to make payments to women to arrange the sexual abuse of children. In total, 23 chats were uncovered.
A number of indecent images of children were also found on Grace's computer. NCA officials were granted access to his bank account as they built a case against him.
Between 2015 and 2021, Grace sent more than £20,800.
When his offender manager visited in 2021 - following his arrest - he was sat using a computer and appeared to be 'liaising' with women in the Philippines.
Grace, of Stoneacre Road, Wythenshawe, was jailed for eight years. He pleaded guilty to charges of arranging/facilitating the commission of a child sex offence; and making indecent photographs of a child.
He was made the subject of an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order, restricting his use of the internet. He will be on the Sex Offenders Register for life.
'Bully' pinned down victim at his home before attacking him with hair clippers
A 'bully' who attacked a man in his home with hair clippers before stealing his mobile phone has been jailed. Greater Manchester Police says Mark Spencer would 'prey on the most vulnerable'.
The 47-year-old, of no fixed address, targeted his victim at a flat in Hulme. Manchester Crown Court heard how Spencer was inside the property in February this year before striking.
Spencer pinned the man down and attacked him with the hair clippers, injuring his head. He went on to steal the victim's phone.
Spencer pleaded guilty to robbery and section 47 assault at Manchester Crown Court on March 20. He was back in court yesterday (May 15), where he was sentenced to five years and two months in prison.
Workers face being made redundant after dishonest dad stole nearly quarter of a MILLION from under their noses
A thieving pension fund administrator helped himself to almost £240,000 to pay off his debts, leaving the small company he worked for on the brink of collapse.
David Parker, 37, from Wythenshawe, secretly made 53 transactions under the noses of colleagues at a Manchester-based firm of financial advisors, moving cash into bank accounts he controlled during a four-year campaign of fraud.
The guilt-ridden dad told police about his crimes but cops did 'nothing' until an independent financial advisor spotted 'discrepancies' and his crimes began to unravel, a court heard. Now he has been jailed.
Parker betrayed the trust placed in him by Multiplex Pension Trustees Ltd, where he worked as a pension fund administrator earning £37,000-a-year.
Judge Smith said the defendant had 'pilfered' for a number of years and then attempted to 'cover your tracks', accepting Parker had stolen the money to pay debt rather than fund a lavish lifestyle.
Parker, of Firbank Road in Newall Green, Wythenshawe, appeared shocked when he was jailed for two years and four months. He admitted one charge of fraud and another of acquiring criminal property between August 2016 and July 2020.
Drugs boss 'Green Champ' involved in crime on 'vast' scale was handed Covid loan by government
A drugs boss involved in crime on a 'vast' scale was able to secure a government Covid loan. Lee Walsh, 34, has now been jailed for 14 years for his involvement in peddling heroin, amphetamine, ketamine and cannabis.
In secret messages recovered by police, he told of having access to drugs factories in Scandinavia and Ireland, and of his plan to send cannabis to both locations. Within the encrypted Encrochat network, which was cracked by law enforcement, messages revealed that Walsh was linked to at least four kilos of heroin, 700 kilos of amphetamine, 97 kilos of ketamine and 195 kilos of cannabis.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Walsh, who had previously been jailed in 2011 for being concerned in the supply of drugs, was able to secure £18,000 in Covid grants. In EncroChat messages using his handle 'Green Champ', Walsh told of having two businesses.
Prosecutor Julian Goode said the chats on the EncroChat network gave an 'insight' into the conspiracies, which were 'well established' before the authorities were able to access the messages between March and June in 2020. Walsh was arrested in June 2020 under Operation Venetic, the UK police's response to the EncroChat hack.
Walsh, of Bakestones Avenue, Delph, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A drug heroin, two counts of conspiring to produce class B drugs, amphetamine and ketamine, and three counts of conspiring to supply class B drugs, amphetamine, ketamine and cannabis. He will serve half of his 14 year sentence in prison.
Ex-girlfriend of drugs boss avoids jail by the 'skin of her teeth' for role in gang exploiting vulnerable teens, as two men jailed
Two men have been jailed for exploiting vulnerable 16-year-olds to deal crack cocaine and heroin more than 100 miles away. The ex-girlfriend of one of the dealers who ferried a boy to and from Greater Manchester avoided jail by the 'skin of her teeth'.
Jamie Upton set-up a drugs line in Hull in March 2020, transporting heroin and crack cocaine between there and Manchester, to make 'easy money', having originally come to Newton Heath from the Republic of Ireland. He had taken control of the county lines operation from a male known as 'David' and was taking direction from him, prosecutor Maria Brannan told the court.
In March 2020 Upton, 25, texted his then girlfriend, Georgia Burns, telling her he was going to Hull 'for a while' claiming he could make £3,000 a month. "I need to do anything at the moment," he said.
He went to a property in the Beverley Road area of Hull late in March to set-up operations, texting Burns, 22, that the 'gaff was hanging'. Days after this he travelled to the property with a 16-year-old by train where the teen was expected to live in the "unsanitary living conditions for the purpose of selling drugs," Ms Brannan told Bolton Crown Court.
Upton texted Burns about the teenagers working for him, saying: "They are my joeys, I f***ing pay them so they know where their bread's buttered." Burns replied: "If you’re paying them they can’t say no."
Upton, who was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison following the March 2021 raid, was sentenced to nine years and three months in total today (May 18). He was sentenced to five years and three months for being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs and four years for modern slavery offences. He pleaded guilty to the charges.
Kade Joyson, 28, who was put in charge of the Hull operation whilst Upton went to Northern Ireland, was sentenced to eight years and three months after pleading guilty to being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.
Burns, of Roman Road, Failsworth, was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years. She previously pleaded guilty to two counts of being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine. Judge Walsh said: "This is a difficult and troubling sentencing exercise. You got into a relationship with Upton when you were just 16 and continued the relationship during the period of time when operating the county lines drug supply.”
Husband made wife shave her hair off and whipped her with belt in vile abuse
A controlling thug ordered his wife to shave her hair off and whipped her with a belt during a fit of rage. Kalanther Nibraz, 45, behaved in an 'appalling' way to his wife of 17 years and 'made her life a misery'.
He didn't work and spent his wife's earnings from her job at Marks and Spencer in Piccadilly station on cannabis, Manchester Crown Court heard. On one occasion after looking through her mobile phone, Nibraz, from Altrincham, whipped her 10 times with a belt and then ordered her to shave her head.
"He told her to shave her hair off, which she did," prosecutor Helen Longworth said. She told how the couple, originally from Sri Lanka, met in 2004 before marrying two years later. They moved to the UK in 2007 and settled in Manchester, having three children together.
Ms Longworth said it was an 'abusive relationship from the start'. Nibraz 'couldn't find work' but his wife got a job at Marks and Spencer in Piccadilly station.
Nibraz admitted to his wife that he'd engaged in other sexual relationships while he was in Sri Lanka. He told her that he was unhappy because she 'wasn't rich or beautiful'. Ms Longworth said that Nibraz spent the money she earned as the sole earner for their family on cannabis.
He blamed their financial situation on his wife and prevented her from applying for British citizenship, the court heard. Nibraz also told her that some of her friends were 'bad influences' and prevented her from contacting them.
Nibraz, of Groby Road, Altrincham, pleaded guilty to one count of displaying controlling or coercive behaviour, and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. A restraining order was imposed, banning Nibraz from contacting his wife for five years.
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