A paedophile who had extreme pornography showing a ‘threat to life’ on his phone and hid the device in a bin is among the criminals given jail sentences in Greater Manchester this week. Simon McDonald was also caught in possession of indecent images and videos of children - with the youngest being just one month old.
A prisoner already locked up for assault had his sentence extended after crafting a homemade knife in his cell and attacking officers who were conducting a welfare check on him. A heroin addict was also put behind bars this week, after he and his girlfriend robbed an elderly man during an attack in a shopping centre.
Jail sentences are handed out to the worst offenders each week and Manchester Evening News reporters are in court to cover the most serious cases. Here are the criminals locked up in Greater Manchester this week...
Read more: "Like a pack of animals": Pensioner, 70, among four spared jail after 'disgraceful' brawl
Heroin addict jailed after couple robbed elderly man - and then blamed victim
Two heroin addicts robbed an elderly man in a shopping centre attack - then blamed the victim. Stephen Goulding snatched the pensioner's wallet after he and girlfriend Kayleigh Fox followed him through Rochdale Exchange Shopping Centre.
Goulding, 33, then told police the victim had touched his partner 'inappropriately' in a desperate attempt to explain the struggle. However, it was Fox, 30, who grabbed the pensioner's bottom as she tried to steal his wallet from his back pocket.
Fox held the door open for boyfriend Goulding who ‘struggled’ with the elderly man and eventually managed to grab the wallet and run off on April 6. They were arrested a short time later after the attack was caught on CCTV and security staff from the centre recognised Fox, due to her being banned.
Police also recognised Goulding, who has a string of previous convictions for robbery and burglary, prosecution barrister Adam White told Minshull Street Crown Court. Fox, of Atherstone, Rochdale, and Goulding, of no fixed abode, both pleaded guilty to robbery.
The judge, Recorder David Wood said: “The facts of this case are deeply unpleasant. You both seem to accept that what you did on April 6 2022 was disgusting and have apologised for it.” Recorder Wood jailed Goulding to two years and four months. Fox was given a two year sentence, suspended for two years.
Paedophile with history of sex crimes hid phone with extreme 'threat to life' porn in BIN
A paedophile with an ‘attraction to children’ was caught with extreme porn showing a ‘threat to life’ on a mobile phone that he hid in a bin. Simon McDonald, 44, was also caught in possession of indecent images and videos of children aged between one month old and 11.
Manchester Crown Court heard that the disturbing find was made by police after McDonald’s case worker alerted them to the smashed phone. By way of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, he was banned from owning a phone that could store images, and he was banned from possessing images of a female under 18.
However, following an analysis of the phone after finding it on November 14 2020, officers found a cacophony of vile images of children, and extreme pornography. McDonald was later arrested and interviewed, but gave ‘no comment’.
The court heard that he had eight previous convictions for 41 offences, all of which were breaching of court orders, or sexual offences. Mitigating, Amanda Johnson said her client fully accepted the case against him, adding: "He is somebody who has clearly struggled for many years with this attraction to children of this age."
McDonald, of Broom Road, Wigan, pleaded guilty to possession of indecent images of children, possession of extreme pornography, breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention order, making indecent images and distributing indecent images. He was jailed for five-and-a-half years and was also made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order indefinitely and must sign onto the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
Prisoner brandished homemade ‘knife’ in cell… whilst serving a sentence for attacking prison officers
A prisoner brandished a homemade ‘knife’ in his cell - whilst he was already serving a sentence for attacking custody officers. Gary Brooks, 30, was due to be released in October next year following a number of assaults on emergency workers.
However, in May last year, he jumped at three officers carrying out a welfare check while holding a weapon, fashioned of a razor attached to a stick. The officers were able to get out unharmed, and later conducted a search of the cell, finding the blade hidden in a toilet roll, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Brooks, currently residing at Strangeways, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession of an unauthorised knife or bladed weapon in prison. He was handed a 12 month jail term, which will be added onto his current sentence. This means he won’t be released from custody until October 2024.
He was already serving a 54 month jail sentence for a number of assaults on prison officers and emergency workers at the time. Brooks was previously due to be released in October next year.
Mitigating, his lawyer Damian Zelazowski said his client had previously been self harming and officers were taking him to the medical wing for assistance. “It is something he has come to live with,” Mr Zelazowski said. He added that his client accepted that the way he behaved was ‘entirely wrong’.
Married GMP officer jailed for trying to rape woman he met in pub
A married police dog handler has been jailed after violently attacking and trying to rape a woman he met at a pub. Ernesto Ceraldi, 44, left the woman, who said she thought she was going to die, bloodied and bruised after repeatedly throttling and punching her during the terrifying ordeal.
He was eventually arrested after chasing her outside whilst fully naked and pinning her against a wall as she screamed for help and a watching neighbour shouted at him to stop. Ceraldi, who at the time was a serving GMP officer with 21 years service, was off duty and out with a group of friends on the evening of Friday, April 1, this year when he met the victim in a pub in Rossendale, near Bury.
They initially "enjoyed each other's company", the court heard, as they chatted and he showed her pictures of his police dog on his phone, Preston Crown Court was told. She later invited him back to her home and the pair, who the court heard had both consumed a "large quantity" of alcohol, had consensual sex.
That stopped when they spilled some wine on the carpet and the woman, who was in her 40s, got up to clean it up. The victim said they sat drinking and chatting for a period but that at one point during the evening Ceraldi's "attitude changed."
He began demanding and trying to force her to perform a sex act on him as he grabbed her by the hair and began pulling her towards him, the court was told. He pushed her against a wall, causing a picture hung from it to fall and smash, as he slapped her and put his hands on her throat and squeezed using pressure described by the victim as "horrific", David Traynor, prosecuting said.
He then punched her in the face, causing her to stumble and fall onto the sofa where there was a struggle. Ceraldi continued to punch her and grab her by the throat as she pleaded with him to stop. The woman eventually managed to push him away, unlock her back door and run outside.
However, Ceraldi, who was naked, followed and caught up with her and pinned her against a wall. The woman's face and nose were left swollen and bruised and she also had bruises all over body, Mr Traynor said. Blood splatters were found on various walls with her hair extensions found scattered across the floor having been pulled out.
Ceraldi, of no fixed address, but previously of Darwen, near Blackburn in Lancashire, pleaded guilty to attempted rape and assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH). He was sentenced to five years and four months in jail. He will serve half of the sentence, less his time on remand, before being released on licence.
Violent thug who poured Coke over his girlfriend in vile beatings jailed
A violent thug throttled and stamped on his girlfriend in a campaign of 'degrading' abuse. Leon John Richmond carried out a string of "cowardly" attacks on Chloe Robinson, including pouring Coca-Cola over her in a city centre hotel.
The the 26-year-old, of Bolton, was jailed for 28 months after he pleaded guilty to coercive and controlling behaviour, and common assault. Richmond's ‘campaign’ began in October 2020, when he moved in with partner Chloe. The pair had been dating since May of the same year.
His first attack on Chloe came when he ‘accused her of sending intimate pictures to another man, which she did not’, prosecutor David Farley said. He added: “He strangled her and called her a s**g. He said she ‘brings it on herself’. He also dragged her around by her hair.
“She went to the bathroom, where he was trying to choke her and he stamped on her ribs.” Defending Richmond, who appeared in Minshull Street Crown Court via video link from Forest Bank prison today, was Rachel White. She said: “There appears to be some genuine remorse.
"The defendant appears to have matured somewhere. He has undertaken a course to address violence to address the issues he has with his temper.”
However, His Honour Judge Edwards told Richmond that his best mitigation was admitting his offences, describing his actions as ‘cowardly’. Sentencing Richmond, of Victoria Grove, Bolton, he said: “Leon Richmond, you are still only 26 and for a young man at that age to look at your record and to look at what you did to Chloe is alarming, to say the least. Your best mitigation is that you pleaded guilty and did not put Chloe through it.
“This was nothing short of a campaign of degrading, demeaning behaviour to Chloe. Not only did you demean her, [you demeaned] yourself as a man. It is cowardly."
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