A gang of kidnappers who abducted and shot their victim, a prisoner who knifed a fellow inmate and a baby faced thug involved in a stabbing were among the Merseyside criminals jailed this week.
Also locked up was a teenage gunman who kneecapped a man after opening fire with a pistol outside a convenience store. Meanwhile, Liverpool Crown Court heard that a drug dealer who used the pseudonym "Skint Harry" was ensnared at an airport.
Here are the faces of 19 criminals from our region who were imprisoned in the past week:
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George Powell
An EncroChat dealer was caught at Manchester Airport after sending detailed texts about his family, addresses and his cars.
George Powell, 40, of Hillside Road, Southport, was arrested at the airport on July 21 last year after being identified as the user of the EncroChat handle "SkintHarry". Police linked him to the handle after he sent personal information over encrypted messages including details of relatives, addresses and vehicles linked to him.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin after being involved in the supply 9kg of cocaine and 5kg of heroin. Powell was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to 12 years.
Chesney Miller
A gang of masked teenagers travelled in convoy to a sixth form college to settle a "grudge" before stabbing two students.
The nine youths waited for their target outside Riverside College in Widnes wearing balaclavas and armed with weapons as they sought "revenge" for a rift which had formed during their school days. They then pounced on him and his friends as they left for the day, with one of the victims being knifed in the kidney during the shocking incident.
Chesney Miller, now 18, was one of the thugs - chasing a boy down the street and being "in the thick of the violence", including having "delivered a flying kick" to him. He admitted violent disorder and was handed 11 months.
Kevin McMullen
A man with "one of the worst" criminal records seen by the courts burgled a mosque while a funeral was taking place.
Kevin McMullen also repeatedly targeted a popular restaurant, Hafla Hafla on Lark Lane, after he had been given free food - stealing thousands of pounds from the business despite this gesture of kindness. But his crime spree eventually came to an end when he left a trail of blood behind following a break-in on Christmas Eve.
The 59-year-old admitted four counts of burglary. McMullen was jailed for 10 months.
Nathan Corlett
A former warehouse worker drove a knifeman away from the scene of a brutal stabbing and hid his coat for him in a bid to thwart investigators.
Nathan Corlett, 26, of Wellingford Avenue, Widnes, drove to Warrington on request to pick up Lee Ashton - who, just over an hour earlier, had knifed Robert Bassnett, who was in a relationship with his ex-partner. The attack left the victim staggering in search of help with the blade still stuck in his back and being found collapsed in the road by a passing ambulance - potentially saving his life.
Corlett dropped off Ashton at the Holiday Inn, Runcorn, then took a bag containing the knifeman's coat and possibly other clothes that might have provided vital forensic clues such as DNA and hid them behind bins at another associate’s address. He admitted assisting an offender and was jailed for a year.
Stephen Harold
A man who has committed more than 30 burglaries spat at police officers and called one of them a homophobic name.
Stephen Harold, 52, of no fixed address, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court after being linked to several burglaries. He pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted burglary of a dwelling, one count of burglary of a dwelling, one count of going equipped for theft and two counts of assaulting emergency workers and was jailed for 44 months.
John Gill
A burglar was arrested outside Goodison Park on an Everton FC matchday after breaking into the stock room of a Liverpool ONE store.
John Gill attempted to steal thousands of pounds of goods from the MAC Cosmetics branch in the city centre. He then attempted to hide in the toilet in a bid to avoid detection before telling employee he was lost once he was caught red-handed and fleeing.
Gill admitted two counts of burglary, theft and breaching a suspended sentence order. He was jailed for two years.
Andrew Thompson
A burglar charged at a man while brandishing a hammer after he attempted to thwart the crook's getaway attempts.
Andrew Thompson callously targeted a house on Christmas Day while the homeowner was out having his Christmas dinner. It was also the victim's first Christmas without his mum, whose birthday happened to fall on December 25.
After being alerted to the break-in, his son rushed to the scene and boxed the burglar's car in on the driveway - which he responded to by ramming the vehicle which was blocking his escape. A judge told Thompson had "provided no goodwill to others whatsoever" as he jailed him for four years and eight months.
Daniel Berry
A man who stabbed his fellow inmate was suffering from paranoid thoughts at the time of the attack.
Daniel Berry, 33, of no fixed abode, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday for one count of unlawful wounding and one count of unlawful possession of a bladed article in prison. A court heard that in HMP Altcourse on November 22 2021, Berry launched an unprovoked attack on fellow inmate Dean Kenton with a makeshift weapon and was given an indefinite hospital order.
Joel Harvey
A 16-year-old boy kneecapped a man after opening fire with a pistol outside a convenience store in the early hours.
Joel Harvey, now aged 17, carried out the shooting on Prescot Road in Old Swan in a "revenge" attack against his victim. He was then linked to a second incident in which another man was shot in the chest only weeks later in Broadgreen.
The teenager was locked up for 12-and-a-half years after being convicted of a string of firearms offences. While defendants cannot ordinarily be named until they are 18, reporting restrictions surrounding his identity have been lifted following a legal challenge by the ECHO.
Michael Hartley
A man told a nine-year-old girl he would no longer “play games with her” if she did not show him her genitals.
Michael Hartley, 36, of Winter Grove, St Helens, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to six counts of inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and received three years behind bars. One of the offences took place over a video call and another in a WhatsApp image.
Kevin Boyland
A thug brutally battered his girlfriend then went out for a takeaway "as if nothing had happened".
Kevin Boyland flew into a rage and broke his partner's shoulder after learning he would not be welcome to spend Christmas with her family. This was because he had previously assaulted the nurse with such severity that she was unable to walk for nearly a month.
Boyland admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was jailed for three years.
Carl MacDowall
A man was kidnapped and shot by a gang who demanded a ransom after his relative scooped a £50,000 jackpot.
The victim was blasted in the leg with a shotgun and abandoned on a dark and secluded country lane, having been held against his will for hours by masked men Carl MacDowall, Carlton Mullen and Kieran Kristensen. The thugs laughed and joked as they were handed lengthy prison terms at Liverpool Crown Court.
They were found guilty of kidnapping, wounding with intent and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence by a jury. MacDowall and Mullen previously admitted possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply and were handed 20 years plus an extended three-year licence period, while Kristensen was jailed for 16 years and given an additional three years on licence.
Christopher McConnell
A twisted paedophile was brought to justice after a campaign of rape against a young child.
Christopher McConnell dragged out his victim's ordeal by denying his guilt, resulting in an eight-day trial at Liverpool Crown Court. Jurors heard how McConnell would hold a pillow over his victim's face when they became upset and used threats to keep them quiet.
The 36-year-old, from Warrington but most recently of Prestbury Drive, Stockport, was found guilty of four counts of child rape. He was jailed for 18 years.
Fiona Crooks
A couple sold a firearm to a leading gangster with a history of violence in an Aldi car park to fund "cosmetic dental work".
Police then discovered a second loaded firearm stashed inside a Berghaus man bag next to a pair of children's wellies when they raided the home of Fiona Crooks and Vincent Horsfall. The mum shouted "we're f***ed here" as she learned that officers had stormed their address.
Horsfall - who appeared via video link to HMP Liverpool - admitted selling a firearm, possession of a firearm and ammunition and three counts of fraud and was jailed for six years and nine months. Crooks pleaded guilty to intentionally encouraging the commission of an offence and was handed two years.
Luke Woods
A killer battered his pregnant girlfriend in a park before abandoning her as she lay seriously injured on the ground.
Luke Woods was previously locked up after killing pensioner Len Saunders in a vicious and unprovoked assault, causing serious head injuries with one forceful punch. Six years later, he "acted like an animal" and attacked his expectant partner in a similar manner - knocking her to the floor with a single blow and causing facial scar which may need plastic surgery to be corrected.
Woods admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm during an earlier hearing. Appearing via video link to HMP Altcourse, he was jailed for two years.
Rohit Bindhu
A twisted paedophile caught with sick images of a young child being raped on his computer whined "this is going to ruin my life" as he was arrested.
Using the alias M***Diver, Rohit Bindhu, 28, used an online chatroom to prey on what he thought was a 12-year-old girl, graphically describing his sexual fantasies about her and later sending her pornographic images. When the girl - who was actually an undercover police officer - told him she was just 12, Bindhu sent her an image of a young girl performing a sex act on an adult man, along with the message "the younger the better".
He pleaded guilty to a string of offences, including three counts of making indecent photos of children, possession of indecent images, possession of extreme pornographic images, possession of a prohibited image, attempted sexual communications with a child, arranging or facilitating a child sex offence, attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, inciting a child to watch a sex act and distributing sexual images of children. A judge jailed him for five years and three months.
Ryan Kenny
A "drunken nuisance" got on a bus and told passengers: "I'm going to nonce you up."
Ryan Kenny was today banned from Liverpool city centre by a court order after a spate of offending which also saw him sexually assault a young student, steal Toblerones from B&M and smash his way into Specsavers during a burglary. Despite this, he told a judge: "I'm going back to town whether you like it or not."
Kenny admitted sexual assault, assault, theft and burglary. Appearing via video link to HMP Altcourse, he was jailed for 28 months and handed a criminal behaviour order banning him from the city centre for three years.
James Lawson
A conman posed as a plumber, a roofer and a Dyson engineer to trick innocent people out of their hard-earned cash to fund his gambling addiction.
James Lawson, 30, preyed on vulnerable elderly women, single mums, a cancer sufferer, a disabled amputee and an army veteran with PTSD over a period of three years, conning them out of more than £166,400. He pleaded guilty to 20 counts of fraud and was sentenced to four years and six months in prison.
Liam Mills
A drugs gang courier "decided it was time to come home and face the consequences" after seven years on the run in Amsterdam.
Liam Mills transported tens of thousands of pounds worth of illicit class A substances across the country and collected more than £100,000 in takings. But he fled the country after police brought down the organised crime group of which he was a part.
Mills admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, possession of a prohibited weapon and breaching bail. He was jailed for seven years and seven months.
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