These are the faces of criminals jailed for crimes linked to Merseyside this week.
They include a rapist who was locked up for longer thans some murderers after a horrendous campaign of sexual abuse against a young boy. Also jailed were a criminal gang who cooked an unusual but lucrative drug in a North Wales home.
A robber who orchestrated a terrifying break-in at his ex's home was also handed 14 years in jail, while a serial stalker was locked up yet again after flouting rules preventing her contacting her victim.
READ MORE: 'Home-cooked' drug empire brought hardened crooks profit and then pain
These are the people jailed in our region or for crimes linked to our region this week.
Darren Baptiste
A mum was confronted by a masked gang of robbers brandishing a machete during a terrifying break in.
The woman had a second knife held to her face and believed the raiders were also armed with a gun. The "ringleader" of the "shocking" break-in, her ex-boyfriend Darren Baptiste, was jailed earlier this week.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the single mother was home alone showering at her address in Rock Ferry, Wirral, at around 5.45pm on December 4 last year. She then heard a bang, and her dogs began barking.The woman got out of the shower and found herself confronted by two men in masks and gloves. They had smashed a window at the rear of the property and climbed through in order to gain access.
One of these invaders was armed with a machete, while the other was carrying a flick knife. They demanded cash and took £300 which she had been saving for her children's Christmas presents.
But the pair demanded more, believing there was a "substantial sum" of up to £50,000 in the house, which they "ransacked". The knifeman pressed the blade into her cheek as he threatened her, causing a cut.
She also believed a third offender had been armed with a gun. The court heard that she and Baptiste - of Burnard Crescent, Kirkby - had previously been in a relationship, although he denies this.
Baptiste was jailed for 14 years.
Anthony Carroll, Anthony Hollywood and Daniel Kelly
A gang took nearly £40,000 in cash after raiding seven convenience stores in the space of just over a month.
The Liverpool-based organised crime group targeted Co-op shops across the North West, arming themselves with "heavy duty" tools and breaking in after the premises has closed for the day. Three dads - Anthony Carroll, Anthony Hollywood and Daniel Kelly - were today locked up over their respective roles in the operation.
Liverpool Crown Court heard this morning, Monday, that the crime spree would see the burglars force the shutters of stores open before stealing cash from the safe. The first came at the Co-op on Knutsford Road in Latchford, Warrington, at around 10.30pm on February 10.
Two men with a crowbar entered the building while another remained outside and stole £7,480. The following day saw a branch in Southport targeted at 11.15pm, with just over £6,500 taken.
A shop in Runcorn was then raided to the tune of £3,185 before two attacks on Valentine's Day. One incident in Salford saw more than £10,000 taken shortly before midnight on February 14.
Then, at around 1.30am, the offenders travelled to a convenience store in Hoylake and pinched £6,500. Later that same day, Hollywood was stopped by police and arrested.
Officers subsequently discovered £6,900 in cash in his bedroom, while clothing recovered matched that worn by an offender seen on CCTV footage. The raids continued on March 12 though, when a Co-op in Formby was burgled for £2,697 in cash at around 11pm.
The spate of break-ins ended at the Co-op on Chaise Meadow, Lymm, after men brandishing a crowbar entered late at night and took more than £2,000. The money stolen during all seven burglaries totalled £38,487.
Carroll and Kelly were linked to the crimes by automatic number plate recognition cameras and mobile phone cell siting data. The former had acted as a getaway driver and had only been involved in two of the offences.
All three defendants admitted conspiracy to commit burglary, while Hollywood also pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property. He was jailed for 40 months, while Kelly was locked up for 45 months.
Carroll received 28 months behind bars.
Andrew Holland
A sick paedophile locked a 14-year-old girl in his attic and sexually abused her.
Andrew Holland's victim was branded a liar after police dropped their initial investigation into the child molester. Decades later, he finally confessed to his sickening crimes and has now been brought to justice for sexual offences for a second time.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday that the attack occurred in the attic room of the 60-year-old's then home on Merseyside.
Holland - who has a total of seven previous convictions for 23 offences - admitted indecent assault during an earlier hearing. He was jailed for 32 months.
Thomas Hawkes
A drug dealer used the Encrochat handle ‘Goldgrape’ to collect £1.4m for other criminals.
Thomas Jefferson Hawkes was jailed on Tuesday, August 9, at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis. The 30-year-old, of Valerian Road in Claughton, was also convicted of money laundering.
That related to a six month period between January and June 2020 where it is believed he collected in excess of £1.4m in cash on behalf of other Encrochat handles. The court also heard he was responsible for collecting and distributing 14kg of cocaine and 75kg of cannabis. He worked with other criminals, two of whom have already been jailed.
Hawkes, of Valerian Road in Claughton, was jailed for 11 and a half years.
Keelie Murphy
A woman "infatuated" with her childhood best friend began harassing her again as soon as she was released from prison.
Keelie Murphy has previously been locked up three times for obsessively pestering Gemma Ellison. But after being freed from jail, she immediately resumed her campaign of harassment - bombarding the mum's workplace with constant phone calls which caused the family business to grind to a halt.
Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday that the pair had been friends since the age of 10 but the relationship "soured" after Murphy, from Woolton, "developed an infatuation" with Ms Ellison. The two had not spoken for many years, but got back in touch during 2017.
But in 2020, the 36-year-old was convicted of harassment and handed a restraining order barring her from contacting her former pal or attending her Widnes-based company Ellison Motors for five years. And Murphy, of Halewood Place, has repeatedly flouted this ban since.
Her latest breach of the ban saw her jailed for 30 months - and a judge warned her her prison terms would simply get longer if she continued to reoffend.
Oliver Roughley
An evil paedophile sexually abused a boy when he was aged as young as seven and raped him at a water park.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the now 24-year-old carried out the abuse over a three-year period when he was in his late teens. Roughley, from St Helens, groomed the boy by buying him presents including toy cars and teddy bears.
He also used violence to ensure his silence, including by twisting his arm behind his back. The pervert kept a pair of the child's underwear in his bedroom and messaged him telling him that he loved him.
Roughley - of Bailey Way in Windlehurst - first assaulted the boy when he was aged seven by touching his penis. He then "told him not to tell anyone or he would go to jail and never see him again".
His abuse escalated to raping the youngster in the cubicles of a swimming baths in South Liverpool and Splash World in Southport.
He was convicted after a trial - and continues to maintain his innocence. A judge jailed him for 21 years on Monday.
Shaun Kelly
A “career criminal” led police on a 100mph chase before crashing into a lamp post and fleeing the scene to hide in someone's garden.
Shaun Kelly, 37, was behind the wheel of a stolen Vauxhall Zafira with false plates when officers were alerted to the car in Runcorn at around 7.15pm on November 17, 2020. Ben Berkson, prosecuting, told Chester Crown Court on Wednesday how a constable set off to intercept the Zafira, which proceeded to tear up the rules of the road.
Mr Berkson said the dangerous actions included “speeding through a red light, performing a dangerous U-turn at speed, straddling double white lines, travelling at 70mph in a 40mph zone, undertaking vehicles which were also on the road, travelling at over 100mph in a 60mph zone, and travelling at 60mph in a narrow residential street with a 30mph limit.” The “prolonged” pursuit ended when the Zafira crashed into a lamp post outside Co-op.
He later pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to dangerous driving, criminal damage over a fence he broke while trying to escape, and aggravated vehicle taking in the context of knowing the car was stolen and crashing it into a lamp post. He was handed 16 months in prison.
Christopher Smith
A vile man said he "would like to be there" after watching a video of a little girl being being sexually abused.
Christopher Smith, 31, sent messages to paedophile, Vicki Bevan, online and responded to a clip of her abusing a young boy with "that’s hot" and to one of her abusing a girl with "I would like to be there". Bevan was part of a paedophile ring based in St Helens and carried out some of her appalling sexual fantasies alongside Paul Rafferty and Tony Hutton by raping and abusing a young girl.
Bevan also spent time discussing with another man their desire to “kidnap, rape, torture, kill and then eat children” after sexually abusing them. The vile woman made contact with Smith, who lived 230 miles away, on internet chat rooms before sending at least two clips to him.
Charlie Barrass-Evans, prosecuting, said Smith was caught by an undercover police operation, where officers posed as chatroom users on Kik. Smith was using the hashtag andysmith01 and offered to "trade" child images before being traced through his phone.
Smith of Clare Drive, Tiverton, Devon, admitted two counts of distribution and four of making, by downloading, indecent images of children and was jailed for two years and four months by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court.
Leslie Radley-Braithwaite
A stables worker was jailed after a fight erupted there over a dead horse.
The scuffle involved a 'vikingologist', a Liverpool FC fan who is banned from matches and his mother-in-law. They all squared off after the aggrieved family barricaded the entrance to the site in Formby.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Thursday that Lisa Masterson had seven horses housed at Kentonwood Stables, Freshfield, but one died. Afterwards, there was "some upset as to the cause of death of the horse".
The 54-year-old also had "difficulties paying" and was instructed to find another site to house her animals. The court was told that there had been an unspecified "incident" at the stables on August 16 2020.
Masterson, of Maple Close in Croxteth, returned the following day with family members in tow. They blocked the entrance to the premises with three vehicles, intending to retrieve equipment she owned.
But the mum became "verbally abusive and aggressive" to staff members, pushing one. Her daughter's 23-year-old boyfriend Sam Lomax, of Camp Road in Woolton, then retrieved a craft knife from his car.
Stables worker Leslie Radley-Braithwaite, of Redgate in Formby, armed himself with two large kitchen knives in response and the arguing "escalated". The hearing was played mobile phone footage of part of the dispute, during which Masterson was heard to say "f*** off, will you get our stuff?".
The police were called, but "things had calmed down" by the time officers arrived. Masterson admitted using threatening behaviour and was handed a 12-month community order with 150 hours unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 20 days.
Lomax pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article in a public place and possession of cannabis, after a small quantity of the class B drug was found upon him during his arrest. He was given a 10-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months, plus 150 hours of community service and a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
Radley-Braithwaite admitted affray and two counts of possession of a bladed article in a public place. He was locked up for 10 months.
Nine members of the same drugs gang
A Merseyside gang who produced hundreds of kilograms of drugs have been jailed for more than 187 years.
The men, who were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court this morning, shipped large quantities of their injectable amphetamines across England, Scotland and Wales as part of a multi-million pound scheme. They were also involved in dealing cocaine, heroin, ketamine and other drugs, while two of the gang’s ringleaders made attempts to get hold of weapons in the months before they were brought to justice.
A judge at Liverpool Crown Court said this morning that the gang’s leaders, who got 93 years in jail between them, were characterised by their rock solid commitment to producing huge quantities of illegal drugs and trading them across Britain. Nicola Daley, prosecuting, told the court earlier this week that the gang’s huge drug production operation was initially discovered after the Encrochat messaging service was breached by investigators in 2020.
The National Crime Agency then discovered a slew of messages alluding to a drugs lab on the outskirts of Chester, which appeared to be used to produce amphetamine.
Officers from Merseyside Police and North Wales Police later discovered the cottage, on Deeside Lane, was being used by a gang to produce drugs there on a massive scale.
The North Wales Factory was eventually closed down and another one opened elsewhere but the gang were caught after police raids in June 2020.
They were sentenced as follows:
Anthony Saunderson, 42, of Formby, was jailed for 35 years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine, conspiracy to supply other Class A drugs, conspiracy to supply other Class B drugs and conspiracy to transfer a prohibited weapon.
Paul Mount, 38, of Halsall, was jailed for 34 years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine, conspiracy to supply other Class A drugs, conspiracy to supply other Class B drugs and conspiracy to purchase a prohibited weapon.
Darren Owens, 48, of Huyton, was jailed for 24 years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine and conspiracy to supply other Class B drugs.
Kieron Hartley, 32, of Knotty Ash, was jailed for 23 years after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine and conspiracy to supply other Class B drugs.
Steffon Beeby, 42, of Halifax, West Yorkshire, was jailed for 15 years and six months after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class A and Class B amphetamine.
Lee Eccles, 33, of Maghull, was jailed for eight years and nine month after being convicted of conspiracy to produce and supply Class B amphetamine.
Stephen Shearwood, 38, of Maghull, was jailed for 14 years and four months after being convicted of conspiracy to produce Class B amphetamine, supply Class A and Class B amphetamine and to supply other Class A and Class B drugs.
David Kelly, 44, of Ormskirk, was jailed for 15 years and three months after being convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B amphetamine and conspiracy to supply other Class A and Class B drugs.
Michael Pope, 35, of Maghull, was jailed for 17 years and six months after being convicted of conspiracy to supply Class B amphetamine and conspiracy to supply other Class A and Class B drugs.
Jordan McMullen-McCourt, Jamie Chesterton and Callum Miller
A gang stopped off at McDonald's before torching a man's home over a drug debt.
Jordan McMullen-McCourt, 25, Jamie Chesterton, 29, and Callum Miller, 22, from St Helens and Haydock all appeared in Caernarfon Crown Court after they travelled to North Wales in a stolen car on April 29.
The gang bought a canister and filled it with unleaded petrol before going for food at McDonalds. They then left the petrol as an accelerant by the front door of the house of multiple occupancy in Wales before fleeing. The man they had targeted, Darren Fleming, lived in the middle floor, with other tenants on the ground floor and second floor, NorthWalesLive reports.
Prosecutor Oliver King said the victim had met McMullen-McCourt in prison and they had become friends. But the friendship soured when the victim owed money for drugs.
At 8.30pm on April 29 McMullen-McCourt went to Mr Fleming's flat demanding immediate payment and threatening to burn his partner's house down. He then left. Mr Fleming rushed to that property, but then got a message from a friend to return as his own flat was engulfed in flames.
Caernarfon Crown Court heard witness Thomas Rowlands saw three men near an alley by the flat at 9pm. He saw two of them get out of a silver car, go away and come back smelling of petrol. One threw a container onto the railway tracks and they drove away.
The three men were later apprehended and all admitted arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered. McMullen-McCourt also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.
Judge Timothy Petts said McMullen-McCourt, of Chadwick Road, St Helens, had been the "prime mover". His driving had been "incredibly dangerous" which could have had "horrendous and calamitous results...killing or injuring many people".
He jailed him for six years for arson and six months consecutively for dangerous driving. He also disqualified him from driving for six years and three months and until he passes an extended retest.
He sent Miller, also of Chadwick Road, St Helens, and Chesterton, of Maple Avenue, Haydock, to prison for five years and three months each.
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