These are some of the people jailed for crimes in Liverpool this week.
They include a dad who left his ex’s mum left her fighting for her life after knifing her multiple times and trying to run her over.
Others jailed this week include a stalker who subjected a colleague to a three year campaign of online harassment and a woman who acted as an “accountant” for drug dealers as part of an Encrochat cannabis conspiracy.
READ MORE: Thug befriended man at pub before robbing him at knifepoint
A nan who spearheaded a massive fraud and a dealer who hid tens of thousands of drugs in his children’s backpacks were also sent to prison by judges in Liverpool this week.
Here are the people jailed in our region this week.
Michael Moon
A man stabbed his ex's mum in the street 22 times before trying to run the critically-injured 67-year-old over with his car.
The grandma's arm was partially-amputated during a sickening and unprovoked assault by cocaine and vodka-fuelled Michael Moon, but she managed to roll out of the way of the oncoming vehicle - despite laying stricken on the ground with grave and life-changing injuries and still having the eight-inch knife lodged in her shoulder. Carmel Ratcliffe only survived the attack thanks to vital treatment from a neighbour, who happened to be a recently retired paramedic.
Moon was jailed for 22 years earlier this week after admitting attempted murder. The incident came after he blamed his victim for the breakdown of his relationship with her daughter and subsequent difficulties with child contact.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 39-year-old's relationship with Leanne Finnegan, with whom he shares a nine-year-old daughter, ended around three years ago. Issues began to arise while she was pregnant with their child, including an incident which saw him barge past the expectant mother - who at the time was holding another child, then aged one - and slash a sofa and a mattress with a blade.
There were numerous other disputes in the run up to his violent attack on Ms Finnegan’s mum, including Moon falsely reporting Ms Finnegan for child neglect.
Shortly after 9pm on June 4 this year, he drove to Ms Ratcliffe’s neighbourhood after consuming nearly two litres of vodka and more than half a gram of cocaine and spotted her walking along Tabley Avenue. Moon honked his horn and pulled up next to her, briefly speaking to her out of the window but then getting out of the car armed with a large 13in kitchen knife with an 8in blade.
He then stabbed Ms Ratcliffe eight times to the head and upper body, then knifed her a further 14 times after she fell to the floor. The knifeman "backed off" after neighbours ran to her aid.
Moon threw the knife at the pensioner from a distance of 4ft, causing it to became lodged under her shoulder blade. Ms Ratcliffe began crawling away in a desperate attempt to escape, but he told her he would "run her over" and mounted the curb as he drove away and veered towards her.
Miraculously, she was able to avoid being run over by rolling into bushes. Kenneth Reid, her neighbour and a former paramedic with nearly 30 years of experience, administered life-saving first aid at the roadside alongside Ms Ratcliffe's husband Alan.
Doctors later said Ms Ratcliffe likely would have died quickly had she received that medical help. Moon later admitted attempted murder and possession of a bladed article.
David Hughes
A man "bombarded" a colleague over a three-year campaign of "disturbing and sinister" online stalking after they kissed.
David Hughes, 41, hounded his colleague and his “paranoid” behaviour led her to thinking of ending her life. On Monday (September 5), Liverpool Crown Court heard that Hughes hacked the social media accounts of his stalking victim, repeatedly changed her passwords and followed one of her young children on Instagram.
Hughes, who identified with violent screen characters, “bombarded” her with texts as well as on social media. He sent her frightening “coded messages” including a photograph of her earring dropped in his car, saying: "bad things are coming your way.”
Hughes, of Harris Street, Dentons Green, St Helens , pleaded guilty to stalking involving serious alarm between February 2018 and July last year, as well unauthorised computer access with intent to commit other offences and voyeurism. Sentencing him to two years and eight months behind bars, the judge, Recorder David Knifton, QC, said that Hughes had become “infatuated” with the stalking victim.
David Cooper
A dad-of-three sexually pursued a "13-year-old girl" despite knowing he could "lose everything".
David Cooper chatted with 13-year-old 'Grace' via Kik Messenger, and tried to incite the teenager to have sex with him. But unknown to Cooper, 'Grace,' was actually an undercover police officer whose role was to find paedophiles online.
Cooper agreed with the girl in a series of online messages that her mum would kill her if she knew about their chats. The defendant added: "She won't know but I could go to prison and lose everything."
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Thursday, September 1 that Cooper, 35, of Nicholas Road, Widnes , was a diagnostic technician at a car manufacturer on the brink of promotion. But the family man's career was now in ruins.
told the court Cooper had told the girl he was 30 and lived in Warrington. He said the defendant pursued conversations with her despite her telling him she was 13 - and he repeatedly asked her to send him photographs of her thighs and crotch area in leggings or tights.
Cooper sent 'Grace' a photograph of his penis and moved their conversations onto Instagram. He told her "it's our secret" and made lewd remarks. He asked about her underwear, told her he was pleasuring himself while thinking about her, and said he wanted to have sexual intercourse with her.
The contact, which spanned from May 11 to August 4 last year, came to an end and he was arrested in November. Cooper pleaded guilty to attempted communication with a child and attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity.
He was jailed for 27 months.
Faye Dunn
A successful businesswoman who worked as an accountant for a drug gang wailed "I can't believe it" as she was jailed.
Former professional footballer Faye Dunn was ensnared at an airport after police rumbled the million pound cannabis trafficking operation. The mum became involved in the underworld when her business ventures began to falter due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Tuesday, that the 38-year-old and her dad Michael Dunn operated using EncroChat - an encrypted communications platform commonly used by criminals. But authorities gained access to the network in 2020, with Operation Venetic subsequently revealing that the daughter had been using the handle StiffNinja.
Meanwhile, her convicted drug smuggler father went under the name ZincBat. Faye Dunn was found to have been in close contact with a user known as LedZeppelin, with messages revealing she had "involvement in the supply and production of cannabis".
The mum-of-two was described as an "accountant for an organised criminal enterprise", while she had smuggled ill-gotten cash abroad. Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said: "She played an operational role within the drugs supply chain but appeared to have significant influence upon others in the chain, facilitating meetings between criminal associates in relation to the supply of controlled drugs, and also instructed others to undertake tasks such as the collection and movement of packages of both drugs and cash.
"Significantly, she appears to have acted as the accountant for the organised criminal enterprise and has concealed not only her EncroChat device but also cash when travelling abroad in order to evade detection by the authorities."
Faye Dunn was arrested at Manchester Airport on June 13 and remained silent throughout her interview with officers. Michael Dunn was held on July 11 and also gave no comment.
Both defendants, of Walpole Avenue in Whiston, admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis and money laundering. The former, previously of Kingsway Parade in Huyton, has previous convictions for drink driving and driving while disqualified.
Faye Dunn was jailed for three years and nine months, while her father received a two year prison term suspended for two years.
Paul Brown
A county line drug boss continued dealing crack cocaine and heroin after a close call with police.
Paul Brown, of Quickthorne Crescent, Stockbridge Village was caught out when he was spotted leaving a flat that was being used as a base to supply crack cocaine and heroin. When police spotted 42-year-old Brown leaving a home on Lilac Drive in Northwich, he was already under investigation after being stopped in a car on Runcorn Road in April 2019.
A search of the car he was a passenger in led officers to find two knives in the boot and £2k worth of drugs. Brown was arrested at the scene, questioned and released under investigation.
When he was arrested for a second time on June 9, 2022, he was seen leaving a flat which had crack cocaine, heroin, £200 in cash, three mobile phones and drug paraphernalia inside. Brown was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin and subsequently charged.
He appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, August 26 and was jailed for 68 months after pleading guilty to the offences.
David Alty
A thug who strangled a woman in a vicious assault killed his own dad 17 years ago in an attack so severe that doctors found more than 100 injuries across his body.
David Alty was jailed last week after launching an attack on a family friend who gave him a place to stay.
Alty, now 36, was heavily drunk and in the midst of a psychotic episode when he punched the woman before strangling her and telling her he was going to kill her at her home in Litherland earlier this year.
He was detained in hospital after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm after the woman, who the ECHO has chosen not to name, said she feared she was about to die during the attack.
Lyn Karran
A nan posed as an accountant in a scam potentially worth up to £1.2million.
Lyn Karran submitted fake expenses claims to HM Revenue and Customs on behalf of dozens of clients, swindling the public purse out of at least £300,000 in doing so. The 46-year-old is now beginning a lengthy prison sentence, only days after the birth of her first grandchild.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Wednesday that the nan ran previously a firm by the name of LK Accounting Services. Between October 2015 and 2017, she acted as an "unauthorised tax agent" - making fraudulent repayment claims for her customers in order to "enrich herself".
Karran, who is also known as Lyn Wilson, secured a total of £1.2million for 150 clients - most of whom were plumbers and heating engineers whose work she gained through word of mouth and liaised with via WhatsApp - during this period. Peter Killen, prosecuting, described how they were "generally on a PAYE taxation basis and unfamiliar with the self-assessment scheme".
She instructed them to register for self-assessment and provide her with their personal details, giving her control of their accounts. Karran, of Tithebarn Lane in Melling, never asked the workmen to provide receipts and never told them of the value of the claims being made in their names.
These included backdated payments from up to three years earlier. They paid her a flat fee of £150 plus 10% of the rebates earned, netting her around £190,000.
Karran's company also had a "misleading" website which "gave the impression it was a professional registered business". She "failed to follow the rules required of fee-earning tax agents" and did not register with HMRC or report that she was acting on behalf of others when completing self-assessment tax returns.
The amounts claimed triggered an automated response from software and led to an investigation into the 150 tradesmen, beginning in 2017. At this point, Karran ceased contact with her customers and stopped replying to messages.
She was eventually charged with fraud and was found guilty by jury earlier this month. She was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Simon Rogers
A drug dealer hid nearly £30,000 of heroin and cannabis in his own children's rucksacks in a desperate attempt to avoid being caught red-handed by police.
Simon Rogers, from Formby, stashed the illicit substances in the kids' bags after he was pulled over while driving a stolen Audi with his two young sons in the back. The opportunist dad almost got away with his audacious attempt, but officers ultimately discovered the drugs alongside tens of thousands of pounds in ill-gotten cash.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Wednesday that the owner of the grey Audi Q2 awoke at 6am on June 10 this year to find that her SUV had been taken from outside her house in Gateshead overnight. Then, at around 4pm on July 15, Merseyside Police spotted the stolen vehicle being driven on cloned number plates in the Kirkby, Aintree and Maghull areas.
Driver Rogers was subsequently boxed in by officers on the M57 northbound and detained. The 40-year-old was allowed to explain the situation to his children before they were transported to the homes of other family members.
He was also given the chance to gather their belongings in the car in holdalls before being taken into custody. Police subsequently attempted to carry out a search of his Alt Road home, but the house key was not on a set that had been seized.
Officers then returned to search the bags that the boys had been left with, hoping to find the key. Instead, they found a block of heroin and two of cannabis resin plus a "huge amount of cash" totalling £15,000 with his nine-year-old son - who had been dropped at his grandma's in Kirkby.
The other youngster had been taken to his mum's house in Speke. There, a search of his belongings revealed paperwork in his dad's name and another block of cannabis resin stashed underneath a bundle of clothing.
The authorities did not find the outstanding key, but were ultimately let into the address at roughly 8pm by Rogers' partner. More monies were discovered in the kitchen, with £1,000 in a handbag and £21,800 in a cupboard.
A search of the car then revealed a further block of cannabis resin. The 369g of heroin was found to be of 49% purity with a street value of up to £22,000, while the cannabis was worth an estimated £5,200.
Rogers admitted possession of heroin and cannabis with intent to supply, handling stolen goods, possession of criminal property and driving without insurance. He was locked up for four-and-a-half years.
Mark Green
A sushi restaurant worker turned his entire flat into a £90,000 cannabis farm then claimed the "extraordinary" amount of drugs was for personal use.
Mark Green appeared before Liverpool Crown Court for sentence on Thursday after admitting production of cannabis. Carmel Wilde, prosecuting, described how police raided his apartment on Feltwood Close in West Derby on January 6.
Inside, officers discovered the whole of the unit had been given over to a grow with a potential yield of between £20,000 and £90,000 of class B drugs. No bed was found in the flat and there was no food in the fridge.
This was because Green had not been living in the social housing property, instead "sofa surfing" at friends' houses. The tenant initially claimed the cannabis was intended for his own use, but later conceded it was a "commercial operation" for onward supply.
Green, now of St Albans Road in Bootle , also pleaded guilty to abstracting electricity. He was jailed for two years due to his "poor compliance with court orders" - the offences were committed while he was on post-sentence supervision.
Carlos Graham
A serial burglar broke into a woman's home while she was attending her dad's funeral.
Carlos Graham stole a haul of goods worth more than £25,000 over the course of one morning during a spate of break-ins. The "regular, repeated and habitual" offender was previously part of an organised crime group which tied up victims and attacked them with weapons.
Andrew McInnes, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that the burglaries occurred in the Sefton Park area on the morning of June 30 this year. Among the properties targeted was a flat on Croxteth Road.
One of the occupants was working away in Canada at the time, while his partner had been out between 11am and 4pm. She returned to find the door deadlocked and the kitchen window open, and was forced to climb inside as a result.
There, she discovered that her home had been "ransacked", with coats left scattered around after being searched and drawers opened. Among the items stolen were a wallet with two credit cards, two backpacks, a PlayStation and games and £25,000 of professional recording equipment - described as the "tools of the trade" of the absent owner.
Footage showed Graham burgling the home and he went on to target an address at nearby Ashby House, on Ivanhoe Road. Occupant Ben Davies left home for work at around 7.30am but received a mobile phone notification shortly before 11am, with his CCTV system alerting him of an intruder.
Graham could be seen on the footage outside the patio doors attempting to gain entry. Mr Davies later mentioned this to David Ashton, who lived in a neighbouring unit with his wife.
Her dad's funeral was to be held that day, and she left the flat at around 9am. Mr Ashton followed on shortly after 11.45am.
He was informed of the attempted break-in by Mr Davies at around 6pm and returned home. While he did not notice anything amiss at first, when his partner arrived later she found that the spare bedroom had been broken into - with an iPad and a digital camera taken.
Graham admitted two counts of burglary and one of attempted burglary. He was jailed for five years and three months.
Adam Baker
A drinker befriended a man at a pub before robbing him at knifepoint in his own home.
Adam Baker met the victim in a pub in Bootle and was invited back to his home to keep drinking.
However, hours later, after gaining the man’s trust, Baker used a knife from the kitchen to threaten the man into giving him his bank card and pin number. Baker, 30, and an accomplice then stole hundreds from his victim’s account.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Baker targeted the man after meeting him in the Cooksons Bridge pub in July this year.
Baker, of Pall Mall, Liverpool, was jailed for four years and one month and a restraining order prevents him from contacting the victim for five years.
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