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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Nick Tyrrell

Faces of 23 people jailed in Merseyside this week

This is a list of people from Merseyside who have been jailed for their crimes in the past week.

The cases include a woman who sexually abused a teen and had a baby with him and a pair of security guards who caused mayhem in a pub, assaulting guests and staff alike. The courts of our region also saw the cases of paedophiles who were caught out after sending sexual messages to accounts they believed were young girls but which were actually run by vigilantes.

A thug who fled the UK after hitting a young child and leaving her with serious injuries was also locked up, as was an Encrochat dealer who moved cocaine, heroin and amphetamine in kilo amounts.

READ MORE: Mum made fake rape claim to avoid justice for her own campaign of sexual abuse

Here are the people jailed this week.

Paul Munro

A paedophile who sent messages saying he wanted to have sex with teenage girls told police “I’ve been silly again” after he was confronted outside his home.

Paul Munro sent vile messages to a chatroom account he thought was run by a 13-year-old. But the 47-year-old, from Oxton, was actually revealing his sexual interest in children to an adult who then handed them over to the police.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Monroe sent a series of messages to accounts run by a member of a vigilante group. He sent the messages only months after a community order handed to him for a previous offence ended.

A judge labelled Munro, of Woodchurch Road, a danger to young girls as he jailed him for four years with another six on extended licence.

Michael Doyle

A drug dealer who plotted the transfer of kilos of Class A drugs was found with a vacuum sealed block of cocaine in a cupboard in his house.

Michael Doyle directed the movement of large amounts of cocaine, heroin and amphetamine throughout the first half of 2020. The Bickerstaffe dad was jailed earlier this week after an investigation laid bare his criminality.

Police were able to link Doyle to the transfer of 7kgs of cocaine, though there were messages alluding to larger deals which were not concluded. Other messages showed Doyle’s interest in bringing drugs in from the Netherlands and transferring millions of euros to South America.

Doyle, of Heyescroft, was jailed for 12 years.

Paul Shaw

A paedophile sent 100 messages a day to Facebook accounts he thought were run by a young teen.

Paul Shaw thought he was speaking to a 13-year-old girl when he sent messages saying he would make her “feel tingles” if they met. But the 61-year-old grandad from Bootle was actually speaking to a vigilante who later confronted him and handed the messages to the police.

The court member of the group No More Silent Voices had set up a Facebook profile posing as a 13-year-old and received a friend request from Shaw. She then began receiving increasing numbers of messages from him.

Shaw continued to message the account and said he would have sex with the girl and asked her to masturbate for him. Like Paul Munro, he was caught after members of the vigilante group went to his house and police were called.

Shaw, of Aylward Place, was jailed for two years and eight months.

Dean Potter and Callum Pope

Dean Potter, 24, of Victoria Road, Runcorn, has returned to prison for breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order. (Cheshire Police)

Two drug dealers are back behind bars after one gave the other a lift home from prison despite them being banned from associating with each other.

Cheshire Police said Dean Potter, 24, and Callum Pope, 22, were slapped with Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBO) in 2019 in a bid to curb their “repeated involvement” in antisocial behaviour, selling drugs and threatening behaviour in the town.

Despite this, at 10am on Friday Potter picked up Pope from HMP Risley in Warrington after his release from prison to drive him back to Runcorn.

Callum Pope, 22, of Lime Grove Runcorn, has returned to prison for breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order. (Cheshire Police)

Pope was jailed for eight months and told to pay a £156. Potter was given six months in prison and must pay a £128 surcharge.

Following the sentencing Chief Inspector Andrew Blizard, of Runcorn Local Policing Unit, said: “It is beyond belief that Pope would breach the terms of his CBO within minutes of being released from prison by getting a lift home from Potter.

“The pair were well aware that they were banned from associating with each other, yet they chose to get into a car together. As a result of that action both of the men are now behind bars.”

Lewis Lally

A man riding an e-bike fled to France after ploughing into a six-year-old girl, and leaving his victim seriously injured in the street.

Lewis Lally, 24, had a suspended prison sentence hanging over him when he drove "at full pelt" into a six-year-old girl on Windsor Road, Tuebrook, on March 4 this year. Harrowing footage of the crash was played at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, June 14, which showed the child get hit by the e-bike and lifted into the air by the force of the impact.

Lally, of Belvoir Road, Widnes, then caught a ferry to France the next day with another man on his way to Barcelona and after numerous attempts to locate him he was eventually arrested in Widnes on March 27.

He eventually pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving when he first appeared in the crown court in April. Jailing Lally for a total of two and a half years Judge Brian Cummings, QC described the CCTV footage as “shocking.”

Kevin Campbell

(Liverpool Echo)

A "sickening" pervert spied on people using the toilet.

Kevin Campbell appeared for sentencing earlier this week at Liverpool Crown Court . The 58-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to five counts of voyeurism.

Campbell, who lives in Allerton, planted a camera in a toilet in Birkenhead and filmed unsuspecting members of the public over the course of a year. The defendant stored the footage on his laptop, where an IT company uncovered his stash in December 2020.

The court heard Campbell was "distraught" when probed on the videos - and immediately admitted his guilt. However, David Watson, prosecuting, read out a number of statements from his numerous victims, who are still traumatised after footage of them was used for the defendant's own "sexual gratification".

Campbell, of New Heys Drive, was jailed for eight months.

Sarah Campbell

A mum sexually abused a 15 year old boy for months and eventually gave birth to his child.

Sarah Campbell had sex with her victim on a golf course and under a blanket while others were sleeping in the same room. The mum, now 40, would also ply the boy with cocaine and cannabis so they would “get off their barnets” together as part of her sordid plot to make him her “sexual play thing” between 2016 and 2017.

Martine Snowdon, prosecuting, said Campbell started grooming the boy and abusing him for the first time in 2016. She said they had sex multiple times and that she would offer him drugs. Ms Snowdon said: “They would “get off their barnets” regularly, as [the victim] put it, smoking cannabis and taking cocaine provided by her.”

Ms Snowdon said Campbell would try to avoid social services and others finding the boy by getting him to sneak into her house at odd times of day and hide. She then fell pregnant with a child later determined to be his and was charged with multiple sexual offences against him.

Campbell was found guilty after a trial earlier this year and was jailed for nine and a half years on Tuesday.

Darren Nelson and Robert Wood

A drug dealer bragged he had a key worker in his gang who transported illicit packages during lockdown.

Darren Nelson, of Whitfield Road, Walton , bragged about Virgin Media worker, Robert Wood's freedom to roam, a court heard. On Tuesday, seven of the 14 people in both gangs were jailed at Caernarfon Crown Court for a total of 66 years and 11 months for their crimes in North Wales and Merseyside.

Andrew Jones, prosecuting, said cocaine and cannabis were sourced via Liverpool and distributed and adulterated in North Wales between December 2019 and April last year.

Mr Jones said Wood, 58, worked for Virgin Media at the time and was a key worker during lockdown. He moved cocaine around North Wales, while other consignments were brought by other gang members.

But police breached their EncroChat messages - on which the conspirators used handles including Powerwhale and Excellent Wolf - and officers seized drugs from properties and vehicles.

All of the people involved admitted conspiring to supply a controlled drug of Class A - cocaine - and conspiring to supply a controlled drug of Class B - cannabis resin. Nelson and Wood's sentences included their part in a Liverpool gang's offences.

Nelson, 32, of Whitfield Road, Walton, was jailed for 15 years and nine months. Wood, 58, of Stamfordham Drive, Garston , was jailed for nine years and 11 months.

Kevin Hill

Kevin Hill, 48, of Tarbock Road, Speke (West Mercia Police)

A senior member of a drug gang was jailed after he claimed he was a dog breeder selling XL bully dogs.

Kevin Hill, of Tarbock Road, Speke , led a Merseyside organised crime group that was responsible for the distribution of wholesale amounts of cocaine to Herefordshire between May 2021 and February 2022. The 48-year-old took over the illegal enterprise from his twin brother Keith Hill, of Ridgemoor Road, Leominster, who himself is currently serving a nine-year jail sentence.

West Mercia Police said the brothers were at the pinnacle of the organisation, and it's estimated that they distributed in excess of a kilo of cocaine. The police operation managed to gather significant mobile phone evidence which implicated Hill, with him pleading guilty and receiving a reduced sentence.

Hill was sentenced to nine years in jail for supplying cocaine and possessing offensive weapons on Monday, June 13 at Worcester Crown Court.

Jonathan Gordon, Dylan Johnston and Stephen Wissett

Gangland enforcer Jonathan Gordon (NCA)

A dangerous and ruthless hitman behind a string of shootings was jailed for life after launching a bottle of acid into a dad's face for money - leaving him with permanent injuries.

Known Deli Mob gang member Jonathan Gordon , 34, offered his services on the encrypted EncroChat phone network using the handle 'ValuedBridge', and was hired by an unidentified gang boss behind the handle 'AceProspect' to carry out sickening attacks on several enemies. The messages revealed how Kirkdale based Gordon charged £6,000 for an acid attack, rising to £10,000 to permanently blind the victim.

Gordon was identified as the man behind a devastating attack on Lee Deakin , from St Helens , who was targeted on April 14, 2019 as he stepped outside his home to get a phone charger from his car. Mr Deakin remains in a constant battle to keep his sight, and even required emergency surgery this week due to complications from the attack three years on.

Dylan Johnston was found guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life, and conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. (NCA)

Liverpool Crown Court heard as well as being convicted of the near-blinding of Mr Deakin, Gordon was also convicted of two plots to carry out similar attacks that were aborted at the last stage, plus a spate of shootings including two running gun battles on the streets of Liverpool.

Judge Aubrey said Gordon's "extreme dangerousness" and lack of remorse meant a life-sentence was needed to protect the public. Gordon was handed a minimum term of 24 years and eight months before any possibility of being released by a Parole Board.

Gordon’s accomplice, Dylan Johnston, was handed a lengthy extended sentence of 27 years in prison with an additional four on licence.

Stephen Wissett, who drove the car during the attack, was earlier sentenced to 12 years in prison, of which he must serve two thirds before being released on licence.

Michael Wilde

Michael Wilde, 73, who sexually abused children at the school he worked at in Widnes (Runcorn Weekly News)

A former teacher, who sexually assaulted boys at the school where he taught for 38 years, was put back in jail for a fifth time.

Michael Wilde, 73, was first jailed in 2015 after two of his victims came forward, which led to three more revealing their ordeals at his hands for which he was again sent to prison. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Wednesday, June 15, how Wilde was jailed again in 2019 and 2020 after another two former pupils of Wade Deacon High School in Widnes came forward.

The latest victim revealed what Wilde had done to him when he was aged between 11 and 14 in the 1970's while police were speaking to him about an unrelated matter in 2020.

Wilde, a granddad, of Drake Close, Burtonwood and Westbrook in Warrington, pleaded guilty to three offences of indecent assault and was sentenced to two years behind bars. The judge also ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

Thomas Henwood

A driver who was racing a friend to Tesco ploughed into his car and left one of his passengers with serious head injuries.

Thomas Henwood was going well over the speed limit on Southport’s Sussex Road when he botched an attempt to overtake another car and crashed into it, causing his car to flip over. The soft top of his Mazda MX5 convertible crumpled inwards during the crash, leaving friend Harrison Povey, who was in the passenger seat, with a head injury that required 47 staples to be inserted into his skull.

The court heard Henwood and Povey were racing another of their friends to Tesco when the crash occurred. The 21 year old admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving earlier this year.

Henwood, of Aintree Lane, was jailed for 20 months.

Joshua Kehoe and George Harper

A pair of security guards battered a landlord, his bar staff and customers during a rampage through a Merseyside pub.

George Harper and Joshua Kehoe terrorised the Manor Farm pub in Rainhill as it hosted an 18th birthday party to which they weren’t even invited. They knocked a customer out before kicking his unconscious body, punched a man on crutches at the bar and thumped the licence holder so hard with a wine bottle his nose was left disfigured.

The pair went to the pub on Saturday, May 29, 2021, because their boss was providing security - though they themselves were not working. However, after an argument with the landlord’s partner, who believed she saw Kehoe routing through a bag.

Things escalated rapidly. Kehoe accused Ms Casey of having “a bad attitude” and became embroiled in an argument about what he had been doing. Mr Lunt asked the pair to leave and, while they did so, Kehoe shouted to him: “You need to sort your f***ing bird out.”

Harper and Kehoe then went and sat outside the pub for a number of minutes. They had been let out by a fire door and after a few minutes Kehoe opened it and went back in. Stephen Gledhill, another employee who had helped escort the pair out, was inside with Mr Lunt.

They assaulted both of them before going in and assaulting another one man inside the pub and another outside. They then returned to the bar and attacked a further two men before hitting Mr Lunt with a wine bottle.

Finally, they went outside and Harper punched another man in the head.

Kehoe, of Cretan Road, Liverpool, was jailed for four years. Harper, of Holland Street, was jailed for two years and eight months.

Peter Beecham

(North Wales Police)

A man who managed to run an arm of a £6m cocaine and cannabis operation from prison and helped arrange a courier to bring drugs into jail.

Thanks to surveillance and cracking into encrypted phone messages, police managed to bring Thomas Davies's organised crime group down, along with a Liverpool-based group. On Tuesday seven defendants were sentenced to a total of 66 years and 11 months for their part in flooding North Wales with Liverpool-sourced drugs.

The day before, the same judge jailed six more people to a total of 42 years and eight months. In total, 11 men and two women have been put behind bars for a total of 109 years and seven months.

Among them was Peter Beecham, from Merseyside, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Beecham, 38, of St Brides Road, Egremont, was jailed for five years and three months for conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis resin.

Stephen Francom

Stephen Francom of Paton Close, West Kirkby, was jailed for two years and two months and banned from driving for four years and four months (Merseyside Police)

An unwilling teenage passenger was flung from a stolen van after it crashed after a 17 minute police pursuit.

Horrified police officers saw the girl being hurled onto a grass verge on April 8 and on finding her unconscious feared the worst but miraculously, although seriously injured, she survived.

The teenager and her friend accepted a lift in the vehicle when Francom, who they did not know, offered to take them to a nearby petrol station for cigarettes. But once there, while her friend was in the garage shop, a police car drew up alongside and Francom drove off as he was a disqualified driver and did not want to go back to prison.

During the chase, she was thrown through an open window and sustained serious injuries.

Francom was later arrested and was found to have 47 micrograms of alcohol in 100 ml of breath, which was 12 micrograms over the limit. A wipe test was positive for cocaine but he refused to have a blood test.

Francom, of Paton Close, West Kirkby, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, theft of the van, driving while disqualified and failing to provide a specimen and was jailed for two years eight months.

Stephen Jennings

Stephen Jennings, 39, of The Glen, Runcorn, after an earlier hearing last year. (runcornweeklynews)

A paedophile left his young victim suffering “night terrors” of a man at the end of her bed after she was sexually assaulted twice.

Stephen Jennings, 39, of The Glen, Runcorn, appeared at Chester Crown Court on Friday for sentence after three guilty pleas to possessing indecent images and conviction at trial over the two assaults.

Philip Clemo, prosecuting, said Jennings initially groped his victim over clothes. When she asked him to stop, “he refused” and assaulted her again. The abuse came to light when the child’s mother heard her using “inappropriate language”, and she then said what had happened.

It was reported to the victim’s school. In a voluntary interview with Cheshire Police , Jennings denied what took place and any “sexual interest in children”.

That lie was left in tatters when a search of his two phones revealed 10 Category A abuse images - the most serious type and including one of a girl of about 10 years of age “in distress” being raped, 10 Category B and 178 Category C.

Recorder Mark Ford sentenced Jennings to four years in prison, and placed him on a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and the sex offenders register, both for life or until further notice.

Steven Bragger

A vile bully stamped on his girlfriend’s head and hit her with a bag that had a drill in it.

Steven Bragger also punched the woman in the face in front of her horrified friends, leaving her with a split lip. The 33-year-old, from Warrington, subjected his then girlfriend to a series of violent assaults throughout 2019 and early 2020.

The court heard Bragger and the woman, who the ECHO has chosen not to name, got into a “turbulent” relationship and that he attacked her on numerous occasions.

Bragger, of HMP Liverpool, was jailed for three years and four months.

Christopher Woo

An angry customer threatened a shop worker with an axe after a dispute over a faulty mattress.

Christopher Woo also shattered a mirror and broke a table during the incident at Worldwide Furniture earlier this year. He left the worker terrified and caused more than £1,000 of damage to the Walton Road business.

The court heard Woo, 67, of Chatsworth Road, became angry after finding out a replacement mattress had not been ordered and went and got an axe from his car before threatening the worker and damaging furniture.

A judge jailed him for 16 months.

Paul Ball

A Liverpool man who bombarded his former partner with vile messages threatening to slash her face and douse her with acid has been jailed.

Paul Ball also threatened to shoot the woman, destroy her sentimental jewellery, attack her under the cover of darkness and in front of her children.

The 42-year-old also threatened to get social services to take her young child and set her home on fire. His victim told Liverpool Crown Court , “No eight-year-old should ask, ‘nan what would acid do to mummy’s face?’"

Ball, of Richard Kelly Drive, Walton, had pleaded guilty to harassment between October 30, 2019 and 30 October 2020. He was jailed for two and a half years.

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