Phillip Schofield's paedophile brother and a wealthy Nigerian politician are among the criminals locked up over the last month
A twisted killer who burned a mother-of-two alive after raping her and a mum and dad who 'worked together' to murder their 10-month-old son were just some of the worst offenders sent to jail in the UK in May.
These are some of the most shocking court cases that have been widely reported in the UK in recent weeks. The trial heard how Kemp made a 999 call on November 6 last year in which he said: “I have killed my girlfriend. We got into a fight, and I ended up strangling her.” The defendant had fled the scene and crashed into a tree between the villages of Hemswell and Willoughton, where he was arrested.
However, the jury found Schofield guilty on all counts with a majority of 10-2 after more than five-and-a-half hours of deliberation. Mrs Justice Cutts, sentencing Schofield at Bristol Crown Court on Friday, told him: “You exploited his innocence at this stage of his life for your own sexual gratification. It was wrong on every level for you to behave as you did."
Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden Two parents who “worked together” to murder their “perfect” 10-month-old son were jailed for life after what a judge called “unimaginable cruelty”. Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden – described as “monsters” by a relative – inflicted “vicious and repeated assaults” on their son, Finley Boden, in the space of just over a month in their filthy home near Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
Finley was exposed to what prosecutor Mary Prior KC said were “vicious and repeated assaults” at the family home in Holland Road, Old Whittington, near Chesterfield, that culminated in his “savage and prolonged” murder. She said during the trial that the broken pelvis was possibly from sustained “kicking or stamping”, with injuries likened to a multi-storey fall.
Officers said that Owusu and James were on Arundel Gate in Sheffield, just before 1am, when they bumped into a teenage girl they knew. They shared some alcohol before a violent altercation occurred, with Owusu punching the 17-year-old girl in the face. Stephen McHugh A drug dealer murdered a 22-year-old woman when he deliberately drove into a crowd of pedestrians. Stephen McHugh has now been jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years.
McHugh, who has previous convictions related to dealing cannabis and cocaine and the seizure of sawn-off shotgun in Merseyside in 2019, treated pedestrians “like they were human skittles", judge Mr Justice Andrew Baker told the court. He was jailed for life and told he must serve a minimum of 24 years before he is eligible to apply for parole. Sentencing Bennett, 23, from Ballingry in Fife, at Edinburgh High Court, Lord Arthurson said: “Your crimes against Ms Barclay were unimaginably wicked and indeed medieval in their barbarity.”
Bennett was given a punishment period of 24 years for the rape and murder, and four years for defeating the ends of justice, to run concurrently. He was also placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely. The senior judge said: “People-trafficking across international borders for the harvesting of human organs is a form of slavery. It treats human beings and their body parts as commodities to be bought and sold. It is a trade that preys on poverty, misery and desperation.”
The sex offender murdered Nikki in a derelict building in Sunderland’s East End in a “brutal” way which must have terrified his victim, judge Mrs Justice Lambert said. But the judge reduced what she would now have imposed as a 37-year minimum term to one of at least 29 years behind bars, because the sentencing regime in the early 1990s was less harsh.
Boyd remained at large while an innocent man stood trial for the killing, before he was acquitted on the orders of the judge in 1993. Boyd was free to indecently assault a nine-year-old in a Teesside park in 1999 and he later told his probation officer he had previously had sexual fantasises about “young girls”.
The court was told they had deliberately set out for a “glide” or gang attack on enemy gang territory. As Rishmeet headed for home he saw the two males running towards him and ran back towards his friends warning them to “run, run”. He tripped and fell in Raleigh Road, where he was fatally stabbed by the defendants in an attack lasting 27 seconds. Police and medics were alerted by a member of the public and Rishmeet died at the scene.
Anthony Beard, Christopher Zietek and Alan Thompson A gang supplied “golden ticket” falsified passports to fugitive criminals including murderers and drug dealers. High-level criminals paid up to £20,000 for the fraudulently obtained genuine passports, which enabled them to go on the run and start a new life abroad in countries including Spain, Portugal and cities such as Dubai.
Passing sentence, Deputy Circuit Judge Nicholas Ainley said of the scheme: “It was to enable very wicked, sophisticated, violent criminals to escape justice by providing them with documents that because they were genuine would deceive the authorities to enable them to escape.” He said that Zietek was “clearly the organiser”, providing a link to serious criminals, while Beard was “the leg man” and Thompson had a lesser role.
Wearing a balaclava and with his hood up, he waited for the 21-year-old, known as Ania, to finish her shift at a Las Iguanas restaurant in west London before following her and a young man she was close with. Judge Rajeev Shetty, jailing Akpomedaye at Kingston Crown Court, said the attack was “ferocious and savage”.
Kazem’s black Range Rover Sport SVR, valued at up to £180,000, hit a top speed of 110mph on the 40mph-limit A40 westbound before he lost control, hitting a curb. CCTV footage of the incident played at Isleworth Crown Court showed the airborne vehicle crash across a pavement, through a fence and into a lower-level car park.
Peter Nash, 47, was found covered in blood and holding a knife. He had strangled his wife after she began a relationship with a work colleague. Nash then tried to gas himself and his non-verbal autistic daughter to death and, when this failed, he stabbed her in the stomach and stabbed himself in the chest multiple times.
Michael Harrison A man waited for almost four hours to call an ambulance after inflicting fatal injuries on his “undernourished” 11-year-old son. Michael Harrison pleaded guilty last month to the murder of Mikey Harrison, who died in hospital in June last year after paramedics were called to a country park.
Denis Kadena A 34-year-old man was jailed for the “horrific” rape of a 13-year-old girl who he winked at as she walked to school before he lured her into his van and attacked her. They added: “Kadena had initially passed the girl, winked at her, before turning the van around to follow her. Whilst in the van, Kadena sexually assaulted her before driving her to a layby. He then told her that he needed help with something in the back of the van, where he raped her before dropping her off near her school.”
Fraudsters were supplied with tools from the site that disguised phone calls so they appeared to be from a trusted organisation, such as a bank, so they could empty their targets’ accounts. Police said iSpoof was created in December 2020 and at its peak had 59,000 users, with up to 20 people per minute targeted at one point by callers using technology bought from the site.
Scott McCulloch A man murdered his 84-year-old grandmother by repeatedly punching and stamping on her, causing her to die from her injuries six days later. Scott McCulloch, 26, pleaded guilty to murder and was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years when he appeared by video link at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Mrs Bitters was taken to hospital where a CT scan showed significant haematoma and haemorrhage in her brain, as well as bruising to her sternum. The court heard the pattern of injuries was consistent with being stamped on numerous times. Mrs Bitters died on September 3 and a post-mortem examination showed she had a subarachnoid haemorrhage, brain hypoxia, and a hardening of the arteries over many years.
Madden's sentencing hearing also heard that two laptops and a mobile phone were seized and a search of the devices showed he had “extreme right-wing views” and an “unhealthy interest in firearms, weapons and proscribed organisations”. He told police he would not have used the weapon other than in “extreme circumstances” to defend himself and his wife in the event of a “complete breakdown in society”.
Shabazz Suleman A British man travelled to Syria to join so-called Islamic State after going missing during a family holiday to Turkey. Shabazz Suleman has been given a life sentence after making the trip nine years ago. He said: “You went to Syria in order to join IS. You understood IS was a proscribed organisation in English law.” He added: “Your ambition was to become a sniper."
Scott had lodged with the pensioner at her home in the town, but he killed her and then burnt her body in the garden after she asked him to leave due to his drunken and aggressive behaviour. In the hours after, Scott went to buy gin and tonic from a local shop using Mrs Holland’s bank card. Jake Drummond and Louise Lennon A couple were locked up over the death of a 15-month-old boy who was murdered following a campaign of “cruel and sadistic” abuse. Jacob Lennon suffered a catalogue of injuries to his face, body and genitals over three weeks at the hands of his mother’s cocaine addict boyfriend Jake Drummond.
In the televised sentencing, the senior judge said Drummond was “emotionally volatile” which was made worse by his drug use. He rejected Lennon’s claim that she was coercively controlled by her boyfriend, saying she had prioritised her relationship over her son’s welfare. Both women were sexually mutilated by Smith, who was known to colleagues as the “Honey Monster” or “Lurch” because of his 6ft 3in height and heavy build.
Luton Crown Court heard a 999 call was made on June 5 2020 after Archie went into cardiac arrest at a property in Biddlesden, Buckinghamshire. He was pronounced dead at the scene despite the efforts of paramedics.
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