|
History
>
2014 > UK > Justice (I)
Man gets life term
for killing and dismembering father
Nathan Robinson, 27,
told he will serve minimum of 30 years
for
stabbing to death William Spiller
at the flat they shared
in Bournemouth
Wednesday 10 December 2014
14.50 GMT
Last modified on Thursday 11 December 2014
00.05 GMT
The Guardian
Press Association
A man has been jailed for life for stabbing his father to death,
dismembering him and placing his body parts in storage boxes he used as a
television stand.
Nathan Robinson, 27, was told he would serve a minimum of 30 years when he was
sentenced at Winchester crown court on Wednesday for the murder of William
Spiller at the flat they shared in Bournemouth, Dorset, in May 2013.
Robinson used a Stanley knife, a hacksaw and a saw to cut up the 48-year-old
taxi driver’s body and put the parts in the boxes, with a television placed on
top, in the victim’s bedroom. His head was placed in a box and put in a filing
cabinet.
Robinson denied murder but admitted manslaughter on grounds of diminished
responsibility. Last month it took the jury just 90 minutes to find him guilty
of murder.
Dorset police said Robinson had gone to great lengths to try to mislead officers
and Spiller’s partner Glenys Molyneaux.
Robinson stole his father’s mobile phone and thousands of pounds in cash before
travelling to Glasgow, Birmingham and Bristol to visit friends and relatives,
police said.
While he was in Scotland, he gave one of his friends a boxset of the Saw horror
films, the court was told.
Robinson claimed that he had only limited memories of the killing and that he
had been abused as a child by his father and by another man on a separate
occasion, the trial heard.
He said his mother, Elaine Robinson, worked as a prostitute and he had found an
advertisement that she used to offer her services.
But prosecutor Nigel Lickley QC said the likely motive for the killing was
financial as Robinson owed his father £36,000.
Advertisement
He also took almost £8,000 of Spiller’s cash, which he used after the killing to
go out with his friends and to take his mother to a vegan weekend.
Police only discovered Spiller’s remains a month after the killing after
receiving a “concern for welfare” call from Molyneaux, a force spokesman said.
Robinson was arrested at his mother’s home in Birmingham in June 2013 and
admitted killing his father and cutting up his body.
The court was told a carpet cleaner and steamer found in Spiller’s home had been
used to clean up the crime scene and Robinson had posed as his father, sending
texts to Spiller’s partner.
Following the sentencing, Molyneaux said the past 18 months had been “extremely
traumatic from first receiving the dreadful news of Will’s death until the trial
which revealed the full horror of what happened that day”.
She said: “Will was a loving, caring man with a hilarious sense of fun and
humour. No sentence can bring him back but we are satisfied that the verdict of
guilty was the appropriate one for this heinous crime. As a family we would like
to thank people for their love and support during this dreadful time.”
Man gets life term for killing and dismembering father,
G, 10 December 2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/10/man-gets-life-term-killing-dismembering-father
Teenager convicted
of murdering pregnant girlfriend
and jailed for life
Aston Robinson, 18, will serve at least 14 years
for strangling Kayleigh-Anne Palmer, 16,
who was 24 weeks pregnant
Friday 3 October 2014
18.38 BST
Press Association
The Guardian
Last modified
on Saturday 4 October 2014
00.03 BST
A teenager who murdered his pregnant girlfriend has been jailed
for life. Aston Robinson, 18, will serve a minimum of 14 years in prison for
strangling Kayleigh-Anne Palmer, 16, at his parents’ home in Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire, on 2 April.
Robinson left his girlfriend – who was 24 weeks pregnant and in her school
uniform – frothing at the mouth and blue in the face, then locked the house and
headed to a nearby bookmakers to check on a £20 bet.
Kayleigh-Anne, known as Kay to friends, died in hospital three days later after
doctors induced the birth of her daughter, who also did not survive.
Robinson later admitted he had punched his girlfriend and wrapped a tartan scarf
around her neck in a bid to make her “be quiet” after she asked: “How would you
like it if I met boys?”
While awaiting trial in prison, Robinson wrote two letters to Kay’s distraught
mother, Helen Bage, describing himself as “single forever me” after the death,
and used the phrase “lol” – short for laugh out loud.
In one letter he described how the pair had travelled to Birmingham together but
did not have ID required to book a hotel room, so “took the train home and snuck
into my house lol x”.
Robinson, of Humber Road, Cheltenham, was on Friday convicted of Kay’s murder
following a two-week trial at Bristol crown court. A jury found him not guilty
of child destruction.
Judge Neil Ford QC, the recorder of Bristol, sentenced Robinson to life and said
he would spend a minimum of 14 years behind bars.
“Mr Robinson became Kayleigh’s boyfriend in the summer of 2013 when he was 17
and she was 15,” the judge said.
“She had the greatest affection for him and I am in no doubt that he valued the
relationship with her, but he became irrationally concerned that Kayleigh would
leave him for another boy or that another boy would lure her away from him.
“He didn’t have the emotional maturity to cope with that situation. He became
increasingly jealous, possessive and controlling. He simply couldn’t bring
himself to trust in Kayleigh.”
The jury was told Robinson used both hands to pull the scarf tight around Kay’s
neck for at least 15 to 30 seconds at around midday.
His sister Michaela arrived at their parents’ home a short time later and
Robinson double-bolted the front door to prevent her from gaining entry before
fleeing on a borrowed BMX bike.
CCTV images showed Robinson checking a £20 bet, believed to have been made on a
horse, at the same time as paramedics battled to save Kay and her unborn child.
Kay was later taken to hospital but never regained consciousness and the
heartbeat of her baby, named Lily-Rose, stopped the following day, on 3 April.
Doctors induced labour and Kay, who had been in a relationship with Robinson for
14 months, was pronounced dead on 5 April.
In the first letter written from his prison cell to Kay’s mother, Robinson said:
“I am so sorry for your loss, my loss as well, lost a daughter as well. I’ve
lost everything that mattered to me.”
He added in a second letter: “I was hoping that after I waked up and after my
jail sentence I would go back into Kay’s arms but God took her away in peace,
away from my accusations and controlling behaviour.
“All that because I loved and adored her.”
The jury heard Robinson had been abusive to Kay throughout their relationship
and punched her in the stomach when she informed him she had missed a period.
“He said, ‘This will stop you having a baby,’” Christopher Quinlan QC,
prosecuting, said.
Kay was discovered face down in the lounge of Robinson’s parents’ home, with the
scarf around her neck, at 11.47am.
She was pronounced dead at 10.31 on 5 April, with a postmortem examination
establishing the cause of death as brain injuries following her strangulation.
A pathologist found 20 separate injuries to her body, from bruising to her cheek
and arms and legs, to ligature marks from one side of her neck to the other.
Teenager convicted of murdering pregnant girlfriend and jailed
for life,
G, 3 OCTOBER 2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/03/
teenager-found-guilty-murdering-pregnant-girlfriend
Life sentence for man
who murdered baby daughter
in Peterborough
Brutality of Aurimas Medvedevas almost defies belief, says judge, with bite
marks on child’s head ‘particularly shocking’
Thursday 25 September 2014
13.59 BST
Last modified on Friday 26 September 2014
00.03 BST
Press Association
The Guardian
A “callous and brutal” father who murdered his baby daughter by
repeatedly biting, punching and shaking her has been jailed for life with a
minimum of 22 years.
Aurimas Medvedevas, 23, inflicted terrible injuries on two-month-old Aukse on 5
September last year, the day her mother went back to work for the first time
since giving birth.
His partner, agency worker Dzesika Urbikaite, 22, returned to their Peterborough
home that night to find her daughter dead in a cot.
Medvedevas, who is Lithuanian, denied murder, but on the third day of his Old
Bailey trial he changed his plea to guilty in light of the overwhelming evidence
against him.
Jailing him on Thursday, Judge Timothy Pontius said the brutality of the attack
on a defenceless baby almost defied belief and the bite marks on her head were
“particularly shocking”.
He said the fact that baby Aukse suffered considerably for hours before her
eventual death “demonstrated a callousness that is as incredible as it is
inhuman”.
He added: “The murder of any human being is always a tragedy, the murder of a
defenceless child of any age, the more so. The murder of a helpless infant only
a few weeks old in circumstances of brutality which almost defy belief is an
appalling crime beyond comprehension.”
Pontius went on: “The responsibility – his alone – for so horrific a crime will,
I imagine, weigh heavily upon his conscience for the rest of his life. So it
should.”
The mother of baby Aukse wept quietly in court as her partner was sentenced.
Earlier, defence lawyer Sallie Bennett-Jenkins QC said Medvedevas had shown
“heartfelt” remorse for what he had done to his own daughter. She said: “The
horror of having realised that his child was badly hurt will never leave this
young man. What he does recall is holding her.
“He recalls she died in his arms and afterwards he was terrified as to the hurt
he had inflicted on her and his girlfriend who he loved very much. He was in a
state of utter terror and hurt.”
She said the defendant was a loving and caring man who had suffered a “clear
mental disturbance”. At the time of the murder he was struggling to find work
and, Bennett-Jenkins said, “matters were really at quite a desperate state”
financially.
Last week, jurors heard of the horrific injuries inflicted on baby Aukse. She
survived for up to six hours after the attack and would have suffered
considerably while her father did nothing to help her, the court heard.
A post-mortem examination uncovered bruises, cuts and abrasions on her body as
well as two distinct bite marks on her head. She had significant internal
injuries including a deep cut to the liver, five rib fractures, and bleeding on
the brain and eyes indicating that she had been shaken.
An examination of one of the bite marks showed it matched the defendant’s teeth
imprint, the court heard.
Prosecutor Karim Khalil QC told the jury: “For reasons known only to him but
which may well be rooted in the pressures of home life and his own inability to
cope with the change in his circumstances, he took hold of his own baby, he bit
her on the head, he struck her repeatedly and he shook her hard. As a result of
all that, she died, not immediately, but a few hours later.
“As he committed those acts of violence against baby Aukse, he must have
intended to kill her or cause her really serious harm. That is murder.”
Medvedevas initially denied murder but repeatedly changed his story. After he
was arrested, he said he had been in sole care of the baby but denied hurting
her. Before his trial, he produced an account claiming the baby must have fallen
out of bed and hit her head on the side of the cot while he was beside her in a
deep sleep.
On the day his original trial was due to start in May, he produced a radically
different account, accepting for the first time that he caused the injuries. He
admitted murder last Friday after listening to the prosecution case against him
for two days.
After the sentencing, Supt Jon Hutchinson, of Cambridgeshire police, said: “The
appalling nature of this crime has been reflected in the sentence handed down to
Medvedevas today.
“Medvedevas did not want to look after his daughter and his response was
brutally violent. The baby’s injuries were likened to those suffered in a car
crash or as a result of being dropped from a one-storey building.
“He failed to seek assistance that could have saved her life and then refused to
tell the truth on arrest and right through the legal process.
“Aukse’s mother is continuing to rebuild her life and I hope the conclusion of
the legal process today and the knowledge that justice has been done makes that
process a little easier.”
Life sentence for man who murdered baby daughter in Peterborough,
G, 25 SEPTEMBER 2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/25/
life-sentence-man-murdered-baby
Teenager filmed
beating engineer to death
jailed for life
Ryan Sheppard, 18, will serve minimum of 12 years
and three months for unprovoked attack on Mark Roberts
Monday 4 August 2014
18.07 BST
Press Association
The Guardian
Last modified on Monday 4 August 2014
18.20 BST
A teenager who beat an engineer to death in an unprovoked attack
filmed on his friend's mobile phone has been jailed for life.
Ryan Sheppard, 18, will serve a minimum of 12 years and three months'
imprisonment after admitting the murder of Mark Roberts, 35, in
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on 12 October last year.
Roberts had been walking home alone following a night out with friends when he
was approached by four teenagers, then aged between 15 and 17.
Sheppard began pestering Roberts for a cigarette and to take him to a pub –
requests the stepfather-of-two declined, instead suggesting the group "go home".
The teenager responded by hitting Roberts to the floor before a girl, then aged
15 and who cannot be named for legal reasons, took out her iPhone and started
filming. Bristol crown court heard she filmed for about 90 seconds as Sheppard
kicked and stamped on Roberts before using both hands to repeatedly slam his
head on the pavement.
Sheppard and his friends then walked away, leaving Roberts, who suffered a
cardiac arrest, lying unconscious in a pool of blood.
Residents called paramedics and Roberts was taken to Weston general hospital,
where he died 36 hours later.
As doctors battled to save Roberts, Sheppard, then aged 17, was showing the
video of his fatal attack to friends.
Police later arrested Sheppard, who admitted murdering Roberts, along with the
girl who was filming. She was acquitted of murder and manslaughter following a
trial at Bristol crown court in June.
Judge Neil Ford QC, the recorder of Bristol, jailed Sheppard for the
"unprovoked, sustained and brutal" attack.
"For some reason you suddenly lost your temper and punched him to the head and
predictably he fell to the ground," the judge said.
"Once he had done that he was wholly helpless. When he was on the ground you
punched him further and kicked him repeatedly, you also struck him with your
elbow.
"A wholly independent witness saw you repeatedly raise his head with both of
your hands and smash it on the ground.
"At some stage you stamped on his head. Your attack has been described as
cowardly. It was also unprovoked, sustained and brutal.
"He was a hard-working 35-year-old. He was engaged to be married this year."
Roberts, who lived nearby with his fiancee and her two children, spent the
evening of 11 October drinking with friends at the Devonshire Road Social Club.
Sheppard had been drinking with friends, two 15-year-old girls and a 15-year-old
boy, and had also taken cocaine that night.
Residents spotted Sheppard and one of the group running over cars, an act
described to the court as "monster trucking".
Roberts left the social club at midnight and was followed and attacked by
Sheppard as he walked through a park.
Adam Vaitilingam QC, prosecuting, said Sheppard boasted as he showed off video
of the attack to friends later that day. "There was an element of triumph of
what he had done," he said. "This was a souvenir that could be shown to others
about what Ryan Sheppard had done to Mr Roberts."
Roberts was declared dead at midday on 13 October in the intensive care ward of
Weston general hospital.
A postmortem examination found he suffered bruising and cuts to the left side of
his forehead, above his right ear and had cuts to his lower lip and beneath his
chin.
It also showed Roberts suffered a fractured nose, with bruising of both eyes and
cuts across his face.
Bruising and a partial footprint from Sheppard's shoe was found on Roberts'
forehead. His blood was found on Sheppard's clothing and shoes.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Roberts's fiancee, Zara Powell,
described how his murder had left her suicidal.
"He will always be my one and only," she said. "As well as my children, Mark was
my whole life. In the short time we had together we achieved a lot. He made me
so happy."
Roberts's aunt, Theresa Sheldon read a statement by his mother, Lesley Roberts,
describing their loss.
"Until the day we die, Mark will be 35," she said. "We will never see him age or
get married. Mark died when he was at his happiest. His life and future have
been taken away from him."
At the end of the statement, Sheldon turned to Sheppard and told him: "You
showed Mark no mercy, you should be shown none."
Sheppard was on licenceat the time of the offence, having robbed three boys of
their mobile phones in March 2013. He has previous convictions for possessing an
offensive weapon and handling stolen goods.
Representing Sheppard, Richard Smith QC, said his client was remorseful for his
actions. "It is a dreadful word to use in respect of this defendant's case but
he is a coward, he accepts that and it is how he describes himself," Smith said.
Sheppard, wearing a blue shirt, remained emotionless as sentence was passed.
Members of Roberts's family wept in the packed public gallery.
In the victim impact statement, Roberts and her husband Andrew described
Sheppard as "the face and voice of evil".
"We have been left broken-hearted knowing the last Mark saw on this Earth was
his attacker, the face and voice of evil. One of us should have been that
person," they said.
Speaking after the hearing, Detective Inspector Lorna Dallimore, of Avon and
Somerset police, said: "Mark died following a brutal and unprovoked assault as
he walked home following a night out.
"There was no reason for Ryan Sheppard to suddenly turn on Mark and beat him to
death but that is what happened. Now, as he begins a lengthy prison sentence, he
must face up to the consequences of his actions."
Teenager filmed beating engineer to death jailed for life,
G, 4 AUGUST 2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/04/
teenager-filmed-beating-engineer-death-jailed-life
Gloucester man jailed for life
after stabbing ex-girlfriend to death
Security guard Asher Maslin told he will serve at least 24 years
after murdering Hollie Gazzard at hair salon where she worked
Wednesday 16 July 2014
13.05 BST
Last modified
on Wednesday 16 July 2014 14.03 BST
The Guardian
Steven Morris and agency
A security guard who stabbed his former partner to death as she
worked in a hairdressing salon four days after she broke up with him has been
jailed for life and told he will spend at least 24 years in prison.
Asher Maslin stabbed Hollie Gazzard 14 times in the neck, torso and chest in
front of horrified customers and colleagues at the salon in Gloucester city
centre. Bystanders tried to save 20-year-old Gazzard but were warned off by
Maslin and she died as a result of massive blood loss.
Gazzard had ended her relationship with Maslin, 22, because he had been violent
to her, and she went to the police two days before she was murdered to report
him after he threatened her and her family.
The police watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has
launched an investigation into Gloucestershire police's contact with Gazzard
before her death.
Following the attack in the Fringe Benefits salon, Maslin, of Cheltenham, was
arrested at a friend's house, and last month he admitted a charge of murder.
Friends and relatives of the popular hairdresser packed the public gallery at
Gloucester crown court to see Maslin sentenced.
Stephen Mooney, prosecuting, told the court: "The postmortem examination
revealed that in the one minute and 52 seconds that he was in the salon, Asher
Maslin, in a brutal and sustained attack, inflicted 14 stab wounds to Hollie. In
addition, a number of defence wounds were found to her arms as she tried fend
off the assault to her."
Mooney said Gazzard met Maslin in February last year. They moved to Edgware in
north London and later to Watford before returning to Gloucester in July, as she
wanted to be near her family.
"It was then that the defendant became violent towards her and he grabbed her
around the throat after a night out," Mooney said.
The court heard that he also hit her in November but Gazzard did not report
either incident to the police.
Mooney said the last straw in the relationship was when Maslin kicked her in
January this year. Gazzard and Maslin met for a meal at a pizza restaurant in
Gloucester city centre on Valentine's Day and she told him the relationship was
over, the court heard.
"He gave her his provisional driving licence and his mobile phone and told her
he no longer needed them as he was going to kill himself," Mooney said. "He
later told her that he wanted them back and she agreed to meet him."
Maslin and Gazzard met in a pub. "He threw a glass of water in her face, telling
her: 'You need some cold water over your cold heart'," Mooney said.
Maslin stole her cash card, telling her he wanted to "cause you inconvenience as
you have caused me". He took £300 from her bank account and texted her: "This
poxy £300 means nothing to me."
He sent her other messages, including: "I am going to come into your house now.
Going to smash your house up." Another said: "It's Asher give me a ring now or
dis bat is going to hit your dad's head."
Gazzard contacted the police on 15 February to report that her card had been
stolen. Officers spoke to her that day and the next.
On 17 February – the day before the attack – Maslin sent Gazzard another
message: "Hollie ring my phone or call. I don't want to get fucking violent as
I'll take it too far."
On 18 February Maslin bought a knife from a branch of Wilkinson's in Gloucester
for £3 after selling a DVD player at Cash Converters for £5 earlier in the day.
CCTV footage captured him walking towards the salon at around 6pm.
Mr Justice Teare told Maslin: "The number of stab of wounds on a defenceless
young woman show that this was a merciless killing. It was carried out in
public, witnessed by customers of the salon, colleagues of Hollie Gazzard and by
passersby.
"Hollie Gazzard was 20 years of age and at the start of her adult life. As her
father said, the world was at her feet. Her family has lost a daughter and a
sister. Hollie's father and sister have described the devastating effect
Hollie's death has had on them and on other members of the family.
"Her death has been felt throughout Gloucester, as is shown by the circumstance
that over 900 mourners attended her funeral at the cathedral."
As he was taken down, Maslin nodded to his weeping family and said: "Sorry."
The IPCC said two police officers and a call handler had been served with
misconduct notices informing them that their actions connected to the case were
under investigation.
Its investigation is focusing on two contacts Gazzard had with police before she
was murdered. The first occasion was in July 2013 when CCTV operators witnessed
Maslin grab Gazzard by the throat in Gloucester. The second was Gazzard's call
to the police to report that Maslin had stolen her bank card.
The IPCC said in a statement: "IPCC investigators are reviewing the action taken
after each of the incidents to see whether the potential risk Hollie faced was
correctly graded and the appropriate action taken to protect her. The force's
training and policies are also being reviewed to see if there are any
improvements the force can make in these areas.
"As part of the investigation two police officers and a call handler have been
served with misconduct notices informing them their actions are under
investigation. Statements were received from each of the officers, and they
along with the call handler have been interviewed by IPCC investigators."
Associate commissioner Guido Liguori said: "Our investigation is progressing
well, and once concluded we hope it will answer the question of whether
Gloucestershire police could or should have been done more to protect her."
Gazzard's father, Nick, described how the 20-year-old would "light up any room".
He said: "She was lovely, she was bright, she was bubbly, she was funny. She was
a character, she would keep you on your toes. She used to light up the room when
she came home from work.
"It is such a loss now not to have her around. It was like a light bulb going on
when she came in. She was the life and soul of every party that she went to."
He said the family now believed that Maslin abused Hollie throughout the
couple's relationship, though it was not clear at the time. "She tried to hide
it from us. She wanted to protect us from him," he said.
Gloucester man jailed for life after stabbing ex-girlfriend to
death,
G, 16 July 2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/16/gloucester-asher-maslin-sentenced-life-murder-ex-girlfriend-gazzard-hairdresser
Max Clifford sentenced to eight years
for his crimes and contempt of women
Publicist found guilty
of eight charges of indecent assault
against women and girls as young as 15
between 1977 and 1985
Friday 2 May 2014
19.10 BST
theguardian.com
Josh Halliday
This article was published on the Guardian website
at 19.10 BST on Friday 2 May 2014.
It was last modified at 19.44 BST on Friday 2 May 2014.
It was first published at 14.27 BST
on Friday 2 May 2014.
Celebrity publicist Max Clifford was jailed for eight years on
Friday as a judge ordered him to pay a severe price for sexually abusing four
teenage women and trivialising his trial with a "contemptuous attitude" that
added to his victims' trauma.
Judge Anthony Leonard imposed a sentence more than double than had been
expected, partly because of Clifford's attitude during the trial at Southwark
crown court, where he was "laughing and shaking his head" in the dock at some of
the accusations made against him.
The judge said his conduct had made his victims "extremely upset" and as
Clifford listened through a hearing loop from the court dock, Leonard concluded:
"I find your behaviour to be quite extraordinary and a further indication that
you show no remorse."
Clifford was told that had some of offences been tried under today's law, they
would be considered as rape or assault by penetration with a maximum sentence of
life imprisonment.
When the judge finished speaking, Clifford removed his hearing loop and turned
and smiled at his supporters in the public gallery, most of whom were in tears,
before he was led to the court cells and then to Wandsworth prison. His victims,
who were in court with friends and family, comforted each other before being led
through to the judge's quarters.
The length of the sentence stunned many inside the packed courtroom, with
sources close to the trial expecting Clifford to be jailed for between two and
three years due to the sentencing guidelines at the time of the offences.
The sentence, of which Clifford, 71, is expected to serve half in prison, seals
the fate of a man who had been instrumental in the downfall of a string of
public figures through tabloid stories he had sold.
Leonard sentenced Clifford to four and a half years in prison for his abuse of
one victim alone – a 15-year-old girl who was left traumatised by a long
campaign of sexual abuse. She told the trial she wanted to kill herself after
being repeatedly sexually abused by Clifford in 1977.
He would take her for long drives in his yellow Jaguar and wooed her parents
with promises to make their daughter the UK version of Jodie Foster, while
secretly molesting her and forcing her to perform sex acts on him. In a victim
impact statement read to the court, the woman – who was in court to see Clifford
jailed – said he left her relying on counselling and ruined her relationship
with her husband and her parents, whom she felt she had deceived by not telling
them of the abuse.
She said seeing Clifford protest his innocence on television brought back
feelings of "intimidation and fear", adding that her trauma was compounded by
seeing him refuse to apologise following his conviction.
Clifford became the first public figure to be convicted under Scotland Yard's
Operation Yewtree inquiry on Monday, when he was found guilty of eight counts of
indecent assault against four girls between 1977 and 1985. He was cleared of two
other charges of indecent assault and prosecutors let another charge remain on
file.
His convictions lifted the pressure on the Crown Prosecution Service following
the recent acquittals of Tory MP Nigel Evans and Coronation Street actor William
Roache.
The director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, said she was satisfied
with the outcome. "A guilty verdict means victims have been abused and for them
it's been a long journey," she said. "I was pleased they were believed, so from
that perspective it's a vindication."
She added she had written to Clifford's victims asking to meet them and said
that, more generally, she felt women in sexual abuse cases had, as witnesses and
victims, a raw deal.
Judge Leonard told Clifford on Friday: "These offences may have taken place a
long time ago when inappropriate and trivial sexual misbehaviour was more likely
to be tolerated or overlooked, but your offending is not trivial but of a very
serious nature and any perception to the contrary on your part is misconceived."
He said the offences did not come to light sooner because of Clifford's dominant
character and his position in the entertainment world, which meant his victims
"thought you were untouchable, something I judge that you, too, believed and
traded upon".
The compassion shown by Clifford to his disabled daughter, Louise, who was not
in court on Friday, was not shown to the girl he molested on holiday in Spain,
the judge said. He added: "Although your charitable work has gone on long after
your offending ceased, I cannot ignore that for decades you were leading a
double existence."
Clifford will go on the sex offenders' register for life, meaning that when he
is released he will only be able to live at an approved address and will have to
notify authorities of his movements, including travel abroad.
But as Clifford was driven by prison van to Wandsworth prison, south-west
London, his solicitor, Paul Morris, said they were considering an appeal against
his conviction and "seriously considering" an appeal against the eight-year
sentence.
Outside court, DCI Michael Orchard, the senior investigating officer in the
case, thanked Clifford's victims for their bravery in contacting police.
He added: "My officers carried out a painstaking investigation to identify all
historic and current evidential opportunities, to ensure this case was brought
to trial. I hope this gives other victims the courage to come forward, knowing
we will make every effort to investigate their allegations regardless of the
passage of time.
"As a result of high-profile cases such as these we have seen a significant
increase in the number of sexual abuse allegations reported to police.
"Our specially trained officers will continue to work tirelessly with colleagues
at the Crown Prosecution Service to bring sex offenders, whether recent or not,
to justice. Over the last 12 months we have seen an increase of 1,436
allegations of sexual abuse reported to the Metropolitan police."
Max Clifford sentenced to eight years for
his crimes and contempt of women,
G, 2.5.2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/02/
max-clifford-sentenced-eight-years-jail-indecently-assaulting-four-girls
Former government vet killed man
during sadomasochistic sex session
Kirk Thompson, who helped lead response
to bird flu outbreak,
found guilty of manslaughter
and causing actual bodily harm
Wednesday 2 April 2014
20.02 BST
The Guardian
Press Association
This article was published on the Guardian website
at 20.02 BST on Wednesday 2 April 2014.
A version appeared on p16 of the Main section section
of the Guardian on Thursday 3 April 2014.
It was last modified at 00.07 BST
on Thursday 3 April 2014.
A former government vet has been convicted of killing a man
during an extreme drug-fuelled sadomasochistic sex session.
Kirk Thompson burned and cut David Kochs, whom he met online, and caused him
severe internal injuries.
Thompson, who played a lead role in the response to the bird flu outbreak while
he worked at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra),
then left the body under a duvet and engaged in sex with another man.
Newcastle crown court heard both Thompson, 46, and Kochs, 43, had been taking
the drug crystal meth when they engaged in the violent episode at the former's
flat in the city's Jesmond area in March last year.
The jury was told the defendant "enjoyed inflicting pain on others" and that
night he boasted on the internet about the kind of activity the two had engaged
in.
At some point during the evening, Thompson, a former altar boy, became aware
that Kochs was either dead or unconscious, and he covered him with a duvet on
the floor of his living room.
He then had sex with another man he invited round and had also met online as the
body of Kochs lay in the flat.
The next morning, after the second man had left, Thompson messaged his father
and said: "Can you come down immediately, something tragic has happened, just
you not Mum please ASAP."
On arriving at the flat, his father immediately dialled 999 and paramedics and
the police arrived at the scene.
After being arrested, Thompson told police the men had engaged in "extreme no
limits anything goes sex" but he believed Kochs had been asleep and that was why
he covered him with the duvet.
The jury found him guilty of manslaughter and causing actual bodily harm.
Mr Justice Globe said sentencing would take place tomorrowand told Thompson he
should expect a jail term.
"There is only one sentence that can be imposed and it is a custodial sentence,"
he said.
"I will be giving consideration to what it should be and I will hear submissions
tomorrow morning."
In other evidence, the court heard Thompson had used the Nazi term "SS" in
internet messages with potential partners as part of "a silly game".
He explained how he had contracted HIV in his third year of his veterinary
medicine degree at Edinburgh University, when he was around 22, but did not take
a test for a further 10 years.
In the meantime, he studied in the US, graduated from Edinburgh, won a
scholarship to Oxford and also worked part-time at a local vets in the city.
He eventually moved to Defra, based in Whitehall, in 2003 and during the 2004-5
bird flu scare said he worked on guidelines on how to deal with the threat.
But he had to leave Whitehall, despite being tipped for the top role of chief
vet by his boss, he said, and moved back to north-east England where his parents
lived.
Former government vet killed man during
sadomasochistic sex session,
G, 2.4.2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/02/
former-government-vet-kirk-thompson-guilty-of-manslaughter-bird-flu
Joanna Dennehy:
serial killer becomes first woman
told by judge to die in jail
Judge told the murderer of three men she was 'a cruel,
calculating, selfish and manipulative serial killer'
Friday 28 February 2014
20.49 GMT
The Guardian
Vikram Dodd
This article was published on the Guardian website
at 20.49 GMT on Friday 28 February 2014.
A version appeared on p9 of the Main section section
of the Guardian on Saturday 1 March 2014.
It was last modified at 00.07 GMT
on Saturday 1 March 2014.
Joanne Dennehy has become the first woman ordered to die
behind bars by a judge, who told the murderer of three men she was "a cruel,
calculating, selfish and manipulative serial killer".
Mr Justice Spencer decided on Friday that Dennehy's crimes were so exceptionally
serious, that he became the first judge to sentence a woman to serve a
whole-life term, following a dramatic hearing at the Old Bailey in central
London.
But during the hearing Dennehy smiled and chatted to some of the three
accomplices sat in the dock with her who were also sentenced.
The judge revealed the 31-year-old had told a psychiatrist that she killed "to
see if I was as cold as I thought I was. Then it got moreish and I got a taste
for it".
The mother of two was driven by a "sadistic lust" for blood, stabbing three men
she knew to death within 10 days in Peterborough last March, before travelling
to Hereford where she knifed two men at random in broad daylight within nine
minutes of one another as they walked their dogs .
Dennehy, from Peterborough, had pleaded guilty to the three murders and two
attempted murders.
Her first victim was a Polish man, Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, who was lured to a
property in Peterborough via suggestive texts and then stabbed through the
heart. He had come to believe Dennehy was his girlfriend, which led him to send
a text to a friend that read: 'Life is beautiful.'
His body was dumped in a wheelie bin after he was stabbed through the heart,
with Dennehy at one point opening the lid to show a 14-year-old girl the corpse.
Within ten days Dennehy used a pocket knife to kill her housemate John Chapman,
56, stabbing him once in the neck, twice in the heart and three times in the
chest. Afterwards she told an accomplice: "Oops, I've done it again."
The third victim was her landlord and boss, Kevin Lee, 48, who Dennehy lured
with the promise of sexual favours.
Lee was found in a ditch dressed in a black sequinned dress with his backside
exposed. The judge, who said he had studied pictures of the corpse, said the
body had been posed in this position in a ditch in a "final humiliation" and
added: "The way in which his body was dumped was part of the playing out of your
sexual and sadistic motivation."
The judge said Dennehy had written him a letter showing no remorse for the
murders but claiming some for the attempted murders, which she blamed on
"drunken cruelty" and "lack of respect for human life".
In Hereford on 2 April at 3.42pm she stabbed Robin Bereza from behind, who
condemned her as "evil" after she was caught.
Nine minutes later she stabbed John Rogers, leaving him for dead and stealing
his dog.
The court also heard that Dennehy became excited at reports that police were
hunting for her.
She is only the third woman in English criminal history to be assessed to be so
dangerous she can never be released.
The other two were condemned to die in jail by a home secretary – Jack Straw –
rather than a judge. The first was Moors murderer Myra Hindley, who is now
deceased. The second was Rosemary West, for her part in a campaign of at least
10 murders with her husband Fred.
The judge on Friday said the whole life term was merited because each of the
three murders involved substantial degrees of premeditation or planning.
Spencer said Dennehy had a personality disorder and had been diagnosed as
suffering from paraphilia sadomasochism, a condition in which sexual excitement
is derived from pain and humiliation. He said she also lacked the normal range
of human emotions.
Her accomplice Gary Stretch was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 19
years, for helping Dennehy dump all three bodies and for his role in the two
attempted murders. He drove Dennehy as she scoured Hereford looking for men to
attack.
Leslie Layton was sentenced to 14 years, and a third accomplice, Robert Moore,
55, who admitted assisting an offender, received three years.
Lee's wife Christina said: "We feel Joanne Dennehy brainwashed Kevin, causing
him to make a bad decision, and he has paid for that with his life."
Bereza said he had been left a changed man by Dennehy's random attack. The
retired firefighter said: "I'm not as confident as I used to be – I'm quieter
and not my normal self."
Dennehy is the second person to receive a whole life term this week, and the
second since the court of appeal cleared any doubt that ordering people to be
jailed until they die is lawful.
On Wednesday Michael Adebolajo, the ringleader of the terrorist attack in which
the soldier Lee Rigby was murdered, was ordered never to be released. That case
was also heard in court two at the Old Bailey.
Joanna Dennehy: serial killer becomes first
woman
told by judge to die in jail, G, 28.2.2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/28/
joanna-dennehy-serial-killer-first-woman-die-in-jail
Lee Rigby murder:
Michael Adebolajo
gets whole-life jail term
Michael Adebowale is given 45-year minimum term,
after sentencing is interrupted by violent scuffle in dock
Wednesday 26 February 2014
21.05 GMT
The Guardian
Vikram Dodd
This article was published on the Guardian website
at 21.05 GMT on Wednesday 26 February 2014.
A version appeared on p1 of the Main section section
of the Guardian on Thursday 27 February 2014.
It was last modified at 00.09 GMT
on Thursday 27 February 2014.
It was first published
at 17.18 GMT on Wednesday 26 February 2014.
The two terrorists who murdered British soldier Lee Rigby on a
south London street fought with guards yesterday in the dock of the court yards
from the grieving family of the soldier they butchered as a judge sentenced the
mastermind of the attack to die in prison.
Michael Adebolajo, 29, who hacked at Rigby's head, was sentenced to a whole-life
term for leading the first al-Qaida- inspired terrorist attack on British soil
to claim a life since the 7 July bombings eight years ago. The sentence means he
is unlikely to ever be released.
His accomplice, Michael Adebowale, 22, who stabbed at the soldier's torso, was
ordered to serve a minimum of 45 years in jail. Both men had been convicted
unanimously by a jury in December.
The men disrupted sentencing at the Old Bailey, with the dead soldier's family
sitting nearby, as the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, branded them traitors to their
religion. The judge began sentencing for the "sickening and pitiless" attack by
saying that Adebolajo and Adebowale were converts to Islam who became
radicalised and extremists.
Adebolajo had claimed his act of butchery was a military strike commanded by God
and that he was a soldier of Allah.
The judge said their actions were "a betrayal of Islam and of the peaceful
Muslim communities who give so much to our country".
Adebowale shouted "that is a lie" at the judge, later shouting "you know nothing
about Islam" in Sweeney's direction.
After more barracking, the judge said: "Gentlemen you have a choice"– only to be
interrupted as mayhem broke out.
Adebowale shouted: "I swear by Allah that America will not be safe."
At that point Adebolajo joined in, shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest"),
and nine security guards flanking them in the dock grappled with the men.
Adebolajo was pinned to the ground, his legs in the air, before being carried
out head first to the cells. Adebowale was also dragged out.
The violence lasted over a minute and was so severe that protective screens over
the dock rocked as scuffles continued.
The disturbance broke out yards from Rigby's family, some of whom were left in
tears by the fresh violence from the pair who mutilated their loved one.
The judge continued sentencing after the killers had been
removed, with the agreement of their lawyers, in what was already a unique
exercise in English criminal history.
The pair were the first al-Qaida-inspired terrorists to carry out their plan to
murder on British soil without killing themselves in the process to come before
an English court for sentencing.
The savagery of the murder on 22 May 2013, in which Rigby, 25, was repeatedly
stabbed and hacked in the neck with a cleaver, tore at community relations.
Adebolajo and Adebowale had waited for a victim as they turned British soldiers
into prey, stalking them near Woolwich barracks in south London.
After running Rigby down with a car and pulling his body into
the road, mutilating him so badly that he had to be identified from dental
records, they remained at the scene and encouraged people to take pictures with
their mobile phone cameras.
Adebolajo was filmed at the scene brandishing a cleaver and a knife in his
bloodied hands, and with the body of Rigby lying metres away, saying: "The only
reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day. This British
soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
The judge cited the political and terrorist motivation of the crime as part of
his justification for passing a whole-life tariff on Adebolajo. Such sentences
are meant to be used rarely and only in the very worst cases.
As murder carries a mandatory life sentence the only issue for the hearing was
what minimum term the pair should serve before they could be considered for
release.
The judge had delayed sentencing until a court of appeal ruling clarified
whether those convicted of the most serious murders could receive sentences
meaning that they would never be released.
That ruling came earlier this month and paved the way for a whole-life term to
be imposed.
Sweeney told Rigby's killers that even though one person had been killed, a
whole-life term was deserved for Adebolajo, for whom there was no hope of
rehabilitation.
The judge said that for Adebowale his lesser role, age and "pre-existing and
continuing mental condition" meant he would escape being sentenced to die in
prison but would instead spend nearly half a century in jail before any
consideration could be given to his release.
He said: "It is no exaggeration to say that what the two of you did resulted in
a bloodbath. You both gloried in what you had done."
Outside court the Rigby family welcomed the sentences, saying: "We feel that no
other sentence would have been acceptable and we would like to thank the judge
and the courts. We feel satisfied that justice has been served for Lee. It just
remains to be said: rest in peace Lee."
Adebolajo has decided to appeal against his conviction, claiming the judge made
legal errors. There is little expectation that he will succeed.
Lee Rigby murder:
Michael Adebolajo gets whole-life jail term,
G, 26.2.2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/26/
lee-rigby-killers-michael-adebolajo-adebowale-whole-life-ruling
Joanna Dennehy:
two men guilty of helping serial killer
Gary Stretch and Leslie Layton
guilty of helping Peterborough
ditch murderer Joanna Dennehy
during 10-day spree
Monday 10 February 2014
16.23 GMT
Theguardian.com
Press Association
This article was published on the Guardian website
at 16.23 GMT on Monday 10 February 2014.
It was last modified at 16.23 GMT
on Monday 10 February 2014.
It was first published at 14.55 GMT
on Monday 10 February 2014.
Two men have been found guilty of helping the serial killer
Joanna Dennehy.
Gary Stretch, 47, of Riseholme, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, was found guilty at
Cambridge crown court of three charges of preventing the lawful burial of three
men and one count of attempted murder.
Leslie Layton, 36, of Bifield, Orton Goldhay, was found guilty of perverting the
course of justice.
Dennehy, 31, also of Orton Goldhay, admitted to murdering Lukasz Slaboszewski,
31, Kevin Lee, 48, and John Chapman, 56, over a 10-day period last March.
She also admitted preventing the lawful and decent burial of all three victims
and two charges of attempted murder.
The jury is still considering one charge of attempted murder against Stretch and
two counts of preventing a lawful burial against Layton.
Stretch's attempted murder conviction relates to Dennehy's attack on John Rogers
in Hereford on 2 April.
The jury will continue to consider its verdict in relation to his involvement in
the attempted murder of Robin Bereza in Hereford on the same day.
Layton is accused of preventing the lawful burial of the bodies of Chapman and
Lee but the jury is yet to reach a verdict on those counts.
The convictions follow Dennehy's killing spree in March last year.
Afterwards she drove to Hereford with Stretch in a Vauxhall Astra registered in
the false company name Undertaker and Sons.
Once there, Dennehy, a diagnosed psychopath, randomly selected and repeatedly
stabbed two dog walkers – Bereza and Rogers – in the street. Both survived
despite suffering critical injuries.
During the trial, prosecutors said Dennehy "cast a spell" over her alleged
accomplices and some of her victims as she killed "for fun".
At the height of a nationwide man-hunt, she bragged to one witness that she had
killed eight people – although no further murders have been detected.
All of the murder victims died from multiple stab injuries, including wounds to
the heart.
After his death at a house in Rolleston Garth, Peterborough, on or around 19
March, the body of Slaboszewski was stored in a wheelie bin.
At one point a smirking Dennehy showed the body to a teenage girl, prosecutor
Peter Wright QC told the court. Along with John Chapman, who was killed in the
block of bedsits he shared with Dennehy in Bifield on 29 March, his body was
later dumped in a ditch near the isolated Thorney Dyke.
Lee was also killed on 29 March in the same house as Mr Slaboszewski. His body
was found wearing a black sequin dress and positioned in a sexual pose in a
separate ditch near Newborough, in what Wright described as a "final act of
humiliation".
After the Peterborough killings, Dennehy had bragged that she and Stretch were
"like Bonnie and Clyde" as they drove 140 miles across the country to search out
further victims.
Describing the involvement of the two defendants, Wright said both had been
"willing and able" participants in the plot. Neither man gave evidence in the
trial, but both claimed they had been acting under duress.
A third man, Robert Moore, 55, of Belvoir Way, Peterborough, is awaiting
sentence after admitting assisting an offender.
Joanna Dennehy: two men guilty of helping
serial killer,
G, 10.2.2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/10/
two-men-guilty-helping-joanna-dennehy
Five gang members jailed
for
trafficking women
from
Hungary to UK
Four Hungarian
men and one British woman brought at least 44 women to Britain over two years to
work as prostitutes
Wednesday 8
January 2014
14.36 GMT
Last modified
on Friday 20
June 2014 17.21 BST
Press
Association
Guardian
Five members
of an organised crime gang who brought women from Hungary to the UK to work as
prostitutes have been jailed.
The Hungarians Mate Puskas, Zoltan Mohacsi, Istvan Toth and Peter Toth, and
Puskas's former girlfriend Victoria Brown, from Bognor, West Sussex, brought at
least 44 women into the country over almost two years, setting them up in hotels
and flats, including at the University of Sussex campus, and uploading their
profiles on to a website which advertised sexual services for sale, the court
was told.
The defendants, including the Toth brothers, from Eastbourne, who are on the run
and were sentenced in their absence, were found guilty of conspiring to traffic
women into the UK for sexual exploitation after a seven-week trial at Hove crown
court.
Judge Richard Hayward told the remaining three defendants they had behaved in a
way that "society finds repugnant".
Puskas, from Croydon, was jailed for six years, Brown for three years, and
Mohacsi, from Ilford, east London, for four years for conspiracy to traffic
women into the UK.
Istvan and Peter Toth were jailed for five years and four years respectively for
the same offence, but both had nine months added to their sentences after being
convicted of contempt of court for breaking bail.
Hayward said the women, some of them barely adults, were brought into the
country and put up in hotels and flats in East Sussex, Kent, Gatwick,
Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff and Glasgow.
Adverts were placed on an adult website offering sexual services including
unsafe sex and extreme sexual acts and the charges were fixed, he continued.
One woman who was sent back to Hungary because she was underage was forced to
work in Austria and Germany as a prostitute to pay back her airfare to the UK,
he said.
Customers who were using the women thought they were texting them directly, when
in reality they were texting the defendants who fixed times and charges, and
decided where and how long the women would work for, he told the court.
Puskas, 26, was told that even though he was younger than his co-conspirators he
had "business acumen" and was undoubtedly at the heart of the operation.
The judge said: "You were at the centre of the conspiracy and very much in
control. This conspiracy was an extension of your career, which you had already
chosen."
Brown, 25, was described by Hayward as a "loyal lieutenant" to Puskas, who was
drawn skilfully into the operation by her boyfriend over a period of time.
She wept as he told her she had run an unattractive defence of duress, seeking
to blame her actions on Puskas, the father of her 21-month-old son.
He said: "It is very sad to see you in the dock. You are intelligent, you come
from a respectable family, you had a good job, and you threw it all away for
Mate Puskas."
Nicholas Hamblin, representing Brown, told the court she had performed
"secretarial activities" and "was acting to a certain extent under pressure".
Hamblin added that she had made no personal gain from the trafficking and that
loans of £21,000 taken out on behalf of Puskas had left her bankrupt.
The court was told that Mohacsi, 36, was one of the middle conspirators whose
common-law wife and sister-in-law both worked as prostitutes in Hungary and the
UK.
Hugh Mullan, mitigating on his behalf, said: "He preyed upon an economically
deprived area of Hungary. It [prostitution] was rife in that area and he did not
create the rifeness of that situation.
"His wife was an active prostitute and carried on after he was taken into
custody. She is heavily pregnant and due to give birth to their first son in
February."
The court also heard from barristers representing 35-year-old Istvan Toth and
his brother Peter.
Aleksander Lloyd, representing 28-year-old Peter Toth, said he was not
considered to be one of the leading actors in the case and that he had been
referred to as the "gentleman pimp" by the prosecution because he acted with
kindness and courtesy to some of the women involved.
During the trial, jurors heard that many of the women had come to the UK to
escape financial difficulties at home. Their flights were paid for by the
defendants and the debts were used as a hold over the women, who were forced to
work for up to 12 hours a day.
The prosecutor David Walbank told the court that the women were seeing up to 15
men a day and charging £100 an hour.
He said many of the women were victims of financial extortion, left with only
10% of their daily earnings while the defendants took the rest.
Threats and force were used as forms of coercion and one woman was told that
posters would be put up in her home town telling people about what she was doing
if she did not comply, Walbank said.
Five gang
members jailed for trafficking women from Hungary to UK,
G,
8 JANUARY 2014,
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/08/
five-gang-members-jailed-trafficking-hungary-uk
|
