The first week of 2023 was as busy as ever in Liverpool courts as saw a woman who beat her housemate to death and a prolific burglar jailed.
A drunk driver who caused the death of an innocent pensioner and a pervert who tried a lure a young girl by offering her Timberland boots and fizzy drinks were also both put behind bars this week.
Here are the faces of eight criminals from our region who were imprisoned in the past week:
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Andrew Stinchcomb
Drink driver Andrew Stinchcomb was jailed after he caused the death of William Ludlow after smashing into him at speed.
The killer motorist was still more than double the limit when tested six hours after the cmash. He was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court, today, Wednesday, after admitting causing death by careless driving. Gerald Baxter, prosecuting, described how both parties were driving on Willaston Road in Neston on the afternoon of July 26, 2021. Stinchcomb's BMW 3 Series and Mr Ludlow's Nissan were travelling in opposite directions as they approached a bend in the 50mph limit road.
But the defendant travelled into the lane of the oncoming pensioner, causing the ultimately fatal collision. Both men had to be cut out of their vehicles by firefighters. Mr Ludlow was airlifted to the Royal Stoke Hospital having suffered "catastrophic injuries". He died two days later on July 28, with his cause of death given as "severe chest and abdominal injuries".
The father-of-two had told police at the scene that he had been "drinking spirits", and he had 165 micrograms of alcohol in his system per 100ml of blood when he gave a sample more than six hours later - the legal limit being 80mg. Stinchcome was handed 56 months behind bars.
Kevin King
A paedophile who lured a girl with fizzy drinks and Timberland boots. Kevin King, 55, repeatedly abused a teenage victim over the course of three years.
King, of Maybank Road in Tranmere, assaulted her on numerous occasions when she was aged as young as 13. The pervert instructed her to perform sex acts on him and forced her to watch pornography and give him pairs of her underwear. He also asked to have sex with her, but she refused.
During this campaign of abuse, King plied her with clothing, shoes - including a pair of Timberland boots - and bottles of Dr Pepper. The predator told her his grooming was a "secret" and that she would "get into trouble" if she told anyone. King, who has no previous convictions, continues to maintain his innocence, but was unanimously found guilty of six counts of sexual activity with a child, two of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two charges of causing a child to watch sexual activity by a jury following a trial.
He was jailed for eight years, as well as being handed a lifelong notification requirement and a restraining order preventing him from contacting his victim for 10 years.
Nicholas Bunclark
Nicholas Bunclark was jailed for 16 months on Tuesday after being convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. It followed an attack at a hostel on Leyland Road in Southport on November 19, 2021.
He was not happy with this sentence however, and immediately jumped out of the dock and despite a brief tussle with officers, he managed to escape the courtroom. It was initially thought that he had subsequently remained within the building, but it is now believed that he absconded in the immediate aftermath.
A heightened security presence was seen around the courts afterwards, with patrolling guards also seen keeping watch outside on Derby Square. He enjoyed just over a day out of custody before handing himself in on Wednesday to local police at Copy Lane Police Station in Bootle.
Bunclark was sentenced to a further four months in prison which is to run consecutively to the 16 month sentence given to the defendant on Tuesday.
Thanh Nguyen
A fraudster who attempted to take driving theory tests while pretending to be other men was jailed on Tuesday. Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 45-year-old sat a driving theory test at the DVSA test centre on Duke Street in Liverpool city centre on November 25 last year.
While Nguyen passed the exam, staff became suspicious that he was not the person seen in the photograph on the provisional licence he had presented to them. Kate Morley, prosecuting, described how Nguyen had also attempted to take theory tests at centres in Doncaster, London and Carlisle over the previous two months.
But he was turned away after similarly presenting provisional licences in other people's names. During interview after arrest, Nguyen said he had been living in Scotland and met men who offered him money which he planned to send home to his family in Vietnam.
The dad-of-two had also made friends with a Chinese man who had moved to Liverpool and offered to buy clothes for him - his only clothing being items given to him by an asylum seeker charity. Nguyen - of no fixed address, but previously of Marsh Lane in Bootle - never received his payment as he was either refused entry to the exams or apprehended afterward.
Nguyen, who appeared via video link to HMP Altcourse and was assisted by an interpreter, admitted four counts of fraud. He was jailed for a year and told to pay a victim surcharge.
Callum Boscoe
A man was jailed after committing 30 burglaries, attempted burglaries, and thefts in the space of a month. Callum Boscoe's offences took place between August 16 and September 21 when he was finally arrested by officers.
On some nights he would target up to three shops, restaurants, pubs or hotels in the same area. Some of the venues included Kelly’s Discount Booze in Birkenhead, PSV Food and Wine in Tranmere, Queen’s Hotel in Birkenhead, Sheridan’s Butchers in Birkenhead, Queen’s Wine Bar in Liverpool and Moose Coffee in Liverpool.
Boscoe was jailed for four years in Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, January 4. Detective Constable Andy Uren welcomed the sentence and said: “It is pleasing that this individual has been brought to justice.
His actions would have caused distress and harm to many local business owners in Wirral and Liverpool.”
Cheryl O'Callaghan
A woman who murdered her "drinking partner" by beating him with a bat and pushing him down a flight of stairs has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years.
Cheryl O'Callaghan was unanimously found guilty of the murder of Adrian Swift by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court in December. The 57-year-old victim told a 999 call that he had been "battered s***less" at their home on Bishopsgate Street in Wavertree before his death.
His killer appeared back before the court this afternoon, Friday, via video link to HMP Styal to be sentenced. She wiped away tears with a tissue as she was handed the life imprisonment. A trial previously heard that Mr Swift had "led a life afflicted by addictions to alcohol and drugs" and by the time of his death was "frail, unwell and vulnerable".
Alex Leach KC, prosecuting, told jurors that in March 2021 he had been living at the address with O’Callaghan, her boyfriend Steven Hardaker and a fourth housemate, Adam Oldland. On March 23 that year, the day before his death, he was taken to hospital after a 999 call in which he told the operator he had been "battered s***less".
Mr Swift also stated to paramedics that 46-year-old O'Callaghan, of Stanton Crescent in Kirkby, had beaten him with a bat and pushed him down a flight of stairs. The following morning, he discharged himself and returned to the property despite sustaining "serious facial and bodily injuries".
Three hours later, 51-year-old Oldland - of Sunnyside, Sefton Park - alerted the emergency services to Mr Swift's death.
Jamie Walsh
A cocaine and cannabis kingpin who fled to Spain had a network of drug runners across the UK on his payroll while posing as a dog-breeder.
Jamie Walsh, 37, was described as the organiser of a sophisticated conspiracy supplying multi kilos of drugs between Liverpool and Cornwall, Cumbria, Scotland and elsewhere. However he skipped bail in April, 2019, and remained on the run until December, when he was detained in Spain.
The court heard National Crime Agency (NCA) officers started targeting Walsh's organisation in July, 2017, as part of an investigation dubbed Operation Sultane. Stephen McNally, prosecuting, told the court on Wednesday that Walsh had been proven to have supplied 96kg of cannabis and 3.75kg of cocaine between July 2017 and his arrest in March 2018.
Detectives discovered that Walsh employed Matthew Lee, 34; Craig Garner, 45, and Claire Stevens, 45, to traffic drugs across the country via the motorways and railway networks, although messages referred to multiple other couriers by nicknames who have not been identified. Garner and Stevens admitted supplying cannabis and were handed suspended prison sentences at the end of 2021.
Walsh was jailed for 11 years and 11 months and Lee was locked up for four years. A woman who attended court to support Lee broke down in tears as he was taken to the cells.
Michael Sadler
Michael Sadler, a violent alcoholic strangled a police constable until he couldn't breathe before biting another officer.
Simon Mintz, prosecuting at Chester Crown Court on Thursday, said police were initially called to Sadler’s partner’s address following a “disturbance” at another house where family members lived at around 8pm on November 3. Upon arriving at the scene, PC Adam Williams took hold of Sadler to prevent him leaving. Sadler became “aggressive” and pulled his arm “tight around around the officer’s neck”.
Mr Mintz said: “The officer couldn’t breathe and feared for his life. “Then the defendant punched him repeatedly to the face, continuing to punch him while he was on the floor.”
When PC Joanne Keppel tried to intervene, Sadler punched her in the face, prompting her to spray him with her incapacitant spray and press the emergency button for the first time in over a decade of policing.
At some point Sadler sat down on the sofa. Two further officers arrived, PCs Jack O’Neill and Sgt Philip Pickering, and again Sadler became violent.
He kicked PC O’Neill in the chest and bit Sgt Pickering on the arm. Eventually he was restrained and taken into custody, where Sadler said “he just lost it - it brought back childhood memories of being bullied” and he wanted to “hurt the officer” and hit the “female officer by mistake”, for which he “apologised”.
Judge Simon Berkson sentenced Sadler to two years in prison to be served immediately and said the “ferocity” of the assaults including the “particularly serious” strangulation meant custody must follow. The sentence comprised 20 months for the strangulation plus four months consecutive for the assault on PC Keppel, and then three concurrent sentences of four months each.
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