Four men charged over a £10m cannabis farm discovered in Everton are facing jail after an investigation concluded none of them were trafficked into Britain.

Vietnamese defendants Le Nam, 49, Van Nguyen, 36, Thanh Dong, 49, and Doan Quynh, 39, were arrested after police uncovered the crop at Candia Towers on June 10.

Prosecutors had been investigating the possibility that Quynh and Dong may have been trafficked into the country.

Liverpool Crown Court had previously heard this could affect their level of culpability and have a significant impact on sentencing.

A Cannabis farm found in Candia towers on Jason Street, Everton.

But Christopher Taylor, prosecuting, today said the Home Office had ruled that neither of them came to Britain against their will.

The farm was contained within eight flats and spread across three separate floors of the high rise apartment block in Jason Street.

It is believed the crop, which contained more than 2,000 plants, could have been capable of producing up to £10m of cannabis a year.

Officers forced entry and discovered cannabis plants growing in the bedrooms, bathrooms and living areas of the apartments.

Nam, Nguyen, Dong and Qunyh, all of no fixed address, have pleaded guilty to production of cannabis.

The four defendants appeared in court this morning for a sentencing hearing.

However, Judge Robert Warnock adjourned sentencing until November 26, when all defence counsel will be present.

He remanded all four men in custody.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

The sentencing of four men who admitted being involved in a £10 million cannabis farm in an Everton high-rise was delayed after three of them claimed they were trafficked into the country.

They were due to be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court today over the drug operation which was spread across eight flats on different floors in Candia Towers, Jason Street.

Police experts say it was capable of producing up to £10m of cannabis a year.

Le Nam, 49, Van Nguyen, 36, Thanh Dong, 49, and Doan Quynh, 39, have all pleaded guilty to producing cannabis with intent to supply.

However Chris Taylor, prosecuting, said three of the men claimed they had been trafficked into the country for the purposes of growing the drug.

The court heard immigration officers are making enquiries with Vietnamese authorities to check the claim and asked for the case to be adjourned.

Mr Taylor said the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to prosecute could be “revisited” depending on the outcome of the enquiry.

Officers discovered the drug operation after smelling cannabis and noticing the windows were covered in sheets.

The defendants were found hiding amongst the plants after police forced entry into flats on the fifth, sixth and eight floors.

A two-day operation saw a special cannabis dismantling team remove plants and paraphernalia, including special heat lamps.

The “industrial sized” crop has been described as one of Merseyside’s biggest ever cannabis farms.

At the time of the discovery, Detective Sergeant Paul Jones, of Liverpool CID, said: “It just goes to show how a suspicious smell can lead the police to uncover major criminal activity and I would urge the public to help us spot more of these farms by knowing what the signs of a cannabis farm are and how to report it.”

Sentencing was put back until November 10 and the four defendants were remanded in custody.

If anyone wants to report a cannabis farm they should call Merseyside Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A well-to-do family ran a fake vets practice at their Woolton home so they could order nearly 400,000 Diazepam tablets to flog at a profit.

Barbara Ray, 70, named the bogus surgery Atalaya after the house she shared in Gateacre Brow with her husband David Ray, 76.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how drugs were regularly delivered to the property, which were signed for by Barbara and David using fake names.

Unexplained payments of £70,000 and £45,000 later appeared in Barbara Ray’s bank accounts as well as those of their daughter Sarah Ray, 38, .

Judge Andrew Menary, QC, said: “They appeared to be a perfectly ordinary, respectable family. Mr Ray has a property business.

“Clearly Mrs Ray, apart from making jam and Victoria sponge, was overseeing the supply of massive quantities of diazepam.”

Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said all three defendants were charged with being concerned in the supply of a Class C drug.

But Barbara died in May this year and her co-accused pleaded guilty on the basis she had been responsible for setting up the scheme.

Miss Daley said Barbara used the personal details of a South African vet, who treated their pet while working at an Aigburth practice in 1997, to set up the scheme and place orders with Centaur Services.

Barbara bought small amounts of legitimate products such as dog worming medicine but also more than 370,000 diazepam tablets from the veterinary wholesalers.

At one stage she ordered 100,000 diazepam tablets over 12 months, which raised suspicions at Centaur, and it reported the matter to the authorities.

Miss Daley said: “Sarah said she was recruited into it, with her mother asking for her bank account to be used for the purchase of drugs.”

Sarah accepted she provided her bank card and some drugs were also delivered to her home.

Around £4,700 was paid out of Sarah’s account to Centaur from June 2007 until June 2014.

Meanwhile from January 2013 to July 2013, £700 was paid from David’s account to the firm.

Miss Daley said: “The Crown say even if it was Sarah and David simply allowing Barbara to use their cards, they must have been aware of those payments being made.”

When interviewed by police, Barbara admitted the diazepam was being sold commercially.

Gerald Baxter, defending David, said he worked for his dad’s telegraph systems business – founded in 1890 – before retiring due to ill health.

He said he went into property and spent much of his time in a basement office at home with “little outside contact”.

Mr Baxter said: “This was a criminal enterprise set up and run by his late wife. It seems a mystery as to how or why she did that.”

He added that the wheelchair user, who suffers from depression, had adequate income from his pension.

Erimnaz Mushtaq, defending mum-of-one Sarah, now of Halewood Road, Woolton, said: “It is certainly unusual that a family of this background appears before these courts.”

Judge Menary said Barbara was the “principal offender”, but Sarah and David “clearly had some appreciation of what she was doing”.

He said “It is odd because it doesn’t appear this family needed money.”

The judge handed David a conditional discharge for two years, due to the “exceptional circumstances” of the case, his age and poor health.

Judge Menary gave Sarah a 20-month sentence, suspended for two years, with 12 months’ supervision and 100 hours of unpaid work.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A mum who gave birth in a Southport amusement arcade toilet described leaving her baby girl as a “terrible mistake”.

Nicola Glover, 30, was due to be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court today but must wait a further six weeks before learning her fate.

Glover, of Hughes Avenue, Prescot, had pleaded guilty to child cruelty at an earlier hearing but problems with a psychiatric assessment meant a pre-sentence report was not available.

The baby, later named April by nurses at Ormskirk hospital, was found on the floor of a disabled toilet by staff at Silcock’s Arcade, Southport, at around 7pm on April 16.

Anya Horwood, prosecuting, told the court: “She said she regretted all of her actions and said in her own words she wished she could turn the clock back.

“She said she had made a terrible, terrible, terrible mistake. She was hopeful the baby would be found and was happy when she saw a police presence and a helicopter in Southport.

“She said she had not touched the baby after the birth but could tell that she was breathing.”

Ms Horwood said assistant manager of the arcade, Warren Chadwick, wrapped April in towels and rubbed her back until she “turned from a blue colour to pink” and began to cry.

Judge Alan Conrad, QC, said Mr Chadwick was “to be commended” for his actions.

Glover, a mum of five including baby April, was found the following day after a widespread appeal.

She had been with her mother, Jackie Glover, and other relatives on a trip to the seaside town when the offence took place.

Ms Horwood said Glover had been acting normally until around 5pm, when she told her mother she needed to use the toilet.

She said: “(Glover) returned some time later and her mother noticed she had blood on her hands and her clothing. She said she had been on her period.”

The court heard Jackie Glover did not believe her and noticed a swelling below her diaphragm had reduced.

Ms Glover had been harbouring suspicions her daughter was pregnant for some time, although Glover denied this.

Later that evening staff at the arcade, who were on a rota to clean the disabled toilet, noticed blood on the floor.

Ms Horwood said they discovered a baby girl, with her placenta still attached, lying on the floor with her head towards the door.

Baby April was taken to Southport A&E before being transferred to Ormskirk Hospital neo-natal unit.

Ms Horwood said: “Medical professionals said things could have been very different if she had been left for any length of time in the state she was in.”

Nicola Glover outside Liverpool Crown Court.

The court heard Glover was confronted the following day by her mum after media reports of the incident.

She initially denied the baby was hers, but later told her mum to call the police after being warned “things were going to spiral out of control.”

Glover was treated in hospital, where she told medical staff she panicked after her waters broke. She was declared fit for interview on April 23, when she told police officers she had given birth in the toilets “suddenly and unexpectedly” and she had “made the worst decision of her life.”

The court heard she found she was pregnant around Christmas time after taking a pregnancy test.

She had informed an aunt but later claimed she had lost the baby.

Glover claimed she had and no symptoms of pregnancy, and her other daughter had also been a “spontaneous birth.”

Baby April and two of Glover’s children who had been living with her have since been taken into care.

Her oldest two children had already been adopted.

Charlotte Atherton, representing Glover, said two psychiatrists had come to conflicting conclusions about her client.

She asked the court to adjourn the case as one of the psychiatric assessments had not been submitted in time for the Probation Service to complete a pre-sentence report.

Glover will now be sentenced on November 18.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A judge blasted a “morally bankrupt” teenager who filmed himself having sex with a schoolgirl and then sent the clip to a friend who put it on Facebook.

Luke Patten, 19, – claimed he was sorry after admitting having sex with the 15-year-old and distributing the video.

But while on bail – just six days after an adjourned court hearing – he punched, kicked and stamped on a man leaving him for dead, before then having sex with his girlfriend in the street.

Patten, of Bridle Road, Eastham, Wirral, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm, but was cleared after a trial of twice raping and sexually assaulting the girl, 17.

Judge Steven Everett, QC, said: “I’ve been a lawyer and a judge now for 35 years. Rarely have I ever come across somebody as morally bankrupt as you.”

The judge handed Patten four-and-a-half years in a young offenders’ institution but only after slamming prosecutors for not charging him with more serious attempted grievous bodily harm.

Judge Steven Everett at Liverpool Crown Court.

Liverpool Crown Court heard drunken Patten had consensual sex with the 15-year-old after holding a three-day party when his parents went away on holiday in August 2013.

She had drunk half a bottle of vodka and had no idea that Patten, then 17, pulled out his iPhone, filmed her, and turned the camera to capture his grinning face as he stuck his tongue out.

David Polglase, prosecuting, said Patten – who had sex with several girls at the party – sent the video to another girl, who put it on Facebook and tagged the victim.

She was alerted to the clip while out shopping, but Facebook refused to remove it.

Judge Everett said the girl who shared the video received a police warning but should also have been prosecuted.

Another girl also shared the footage, which the “desperately humiliated” victim said was seen by friends and family and led to her being taunted with shouts of “porn” at school.

The devastated girl, who changed her appearance and has not had a boyfriend since, said: “I just want my life to be normal again.”

Mr Polglase said the 19-year-old man attacked in March last year by Patten “genuinely thought he was going to die”.

Patten stamped on his head, shouted “stay down” and threatened his mum and sister, before having sex with the girl. The court heard the jury could not be satisfied they had sex without consent.

The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, Liverpool Crown Court. Photo by Ian Cooper

Judge Everett said Patten “could have killed” the man, who has heart problems and needed an operation to replace an existing internal heart monitor.

Lee Bonner, defending Patten, said his client did not intend for the video to be put on Facebook and was remorseful after eight months in custody.

However, Judge Everett said: “The only person he feels sorry for is himself.”

He said: “You have used cannabis since you were 12, cocaine since you were 16 and rather too often you drink to excess.

“You have shown you care for nobody but yourself. Your behaviour has quite clearly had a seriously detrimental affect on many people who have been unfortunate enough to know you and come across you.“Your parents love you as a son but hate the individual you have become.

“You are essentially a person with no morals at all. You have all the morals of a tom cat.

“With no understanding of how much you must change, you will inevitably spend the rest of your life in custody.”

Judge Everett said Patten pursued the second woman, even though he knew she had a boyfriend.

He said: “You didn’t care because you believe you are God’s gift to women and they will do whatever you want.

“You have just carried out a serious attack on a young man, whom you have left for dead, and what were you thinking? ‘I’m going to have sex with his girlfriend’.

“You were having sex when police and an ambulance turned up to take him away.

“When cross-examined you said ‘I was only thinking about having sex – I went home with a smile on my face’.

“I am quite satisfied you are at the moment incapable of remorse.”

Judge Everett gave Patten a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and told him to sign on the Sex Offender Register for five years.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

The mum who abandoned baby April in a Southport amusement arcade toilet was today spared a jail sentence.

But should the 30-year-old, who pleaded guilty to child cruelty, have been put behind bars?

Under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, Nicola Glover faced a maximum of 10 years in jail.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Glover, of Hughes Avenue, Prescot, suddenly and unexpectedly went into labour at Silcock’s arcade in the town centre while on a family day out on April 16.

She was first charged with attempted murder but this was later downgraded.

Judge Alan Conrad, QC, sentenced Glover to eight months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

Photo issued by Merseyside Police of newborn baby April, as Nicola Glover, 30, who gave birth in an amusement arcade toilet before abandoning her has been spared an immediate prison sentence. Merseyside Police/PA Wire

Speaking after she was sentenced, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it was necessary to balance justice with compassion.

Alison Mutch, deputy chief crown prosecutor for Merseyside and Cheshire, said: “It has been important to strike a balance between prosecuting Ms Glover but also showing compassion and we feel that very difficult balance has been struck.

“She will no doubt regret the actions of that day for many years to come.”

The judge said it was only due to quick-thinking of members of the public who discovered the baby, who is now in care, that she survived.

“Abandoning baby April in the way you did exposed her to the gravest risk,” he added.

A psychiatrist’s report said Glover was overwhelmed with auditory hallucinations – false perceptions of sound – after the birth, which drove her to abandon the child.

Poll loading …

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

Terrified drivers swerved to avoid smashing into a stolen car being chased by police through West Derby .

Joshua Farrell, 20, left a motorcyclist in the gutter in an attempt to escape before crashing into another vehicle on the East Lancs Road, on Monday. He was later arrested and told police he had been forced to drive the stolen Ford C Max to pay off a £600 drug debt.

Farrell, of Townsend Lane, Clubmoor, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving, driving without a licence, driving without insurance and failing to stop at the scene of an accident at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court today.

Lionel Cope, prosecuting, said the chase started on Lower House Lane, West Derby, when officers spotted a car, which had been reported stolen, waiting at a red light.

He said: “As he passed they turned around to take up a position behind the car, but the driver appeared to be aware of them and accelerated away, weaving between lanes one and two between other vehicles.”

The court heard the officers activated their emergency lights and gave chase in the direction of Dwerryhouse Lane.

Farrell headed right onto Oak Lane before hitting a red light at the junction with Croxteth Hall Lane.

Mr Cope said: “He went onto the wrong-side of the road to avoid the stationary traffic, causing a silver Nissan to make an emergency stop, before heading onto Croxteth Hall Lane, reaching 50mph and overtaking other vehicles.”

He added that other drivers were forced to brake sharply and a motorbike rider was forced to swerve into the gutter to avoid a collision.

The chase came to an end on the East Lancs Road after Farrell shunted a black Volkswagon Golf and briefly tried to run away on foot.

Risha Bedi, representing Farrell, said her client had been told to drive the car to pay off a drugs debt.

She said: “This is something that has been hanging over him for the last few months, causing him to fear for his own personal safety. This debt has been following him around so badly he has been forced to leave his own home.”

The magistrates’ bench refused jurisdiction and committed the case to Liverpool Crown Court, where Farrell is due to be sentenced on December 16.

He was remanded in custody.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A supermarket car parking assistant was spotted having a sexual encounter in broad daylight with a suspected prostitute.

A shocked witness saw David Lean when she arrived at the Iceland store on King Street, Southport, with her mum and three-year-old child, on May 21.

Liverpool Crown Court heard she knew him from previous visits when he was particularly friendly with her daughter.

When they came out of the store ten minutes later she noticed 68-year-old Lean with a young woman walking down the side of the store to the delivery area near some shrubbery.

Simon Duncan, prosecuting, told the court that she saw he had his hand down the woman’s pants and then saw him on his knees in front of her engaging in sex act.

The outraged shopper went and told the store manager who came out and was also shocked to see what was going on in public view.

The woman, believed to have been a young prostitute, walked off and when the police arrived they found Lean at the side of the building and arrested him.

When interviewed Lean, of Portland Street, Southport, said he had “a good idea what she was” as he had seen her before and she asked for £10 for a sex act. He said he had put his hand down her pants but denied doing anything else.

Lean, who has no similar previous convictions, pleaded guilty to outraging public decency.

He was sentenced to four months imprisonment suspended for 12 months and a 20 day probation activity requirement.

Mark Phillips, defending, said that Lean has now lost his job and has been targeted locally since news of the incident came to light.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A convicted murderer was handed a further two years behind bars after he was found guilty of wounding a prison guard at HMP Liverpool .

Wesley Dennis Rowlands, 32, beat a dad-of-three David Lavender to death on a pub crawl after he objected to him urinating on a landlady’s dog.

Mr Lavender, 37, protested to Rowlands, who turned on his pal and brutally attacked him in a park in Chester on May 20, 2012.

Rowlands – who was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years in jail – was an inmate at Walton prison on January 25 this year.

Rowlands faced a trial at Liverpool Crown Court after denying that he stabbed a 46-year-old officer in the chest with a home-made knife.

Prosecutors said the unprovoked assault happened at around 3.45pm during meal time in the serving area on the jail’s F wing.

The officer was taken to hospital with a 2mm puncture wound to the left side of his chest, plus scratches to his left shoulder and the side of his face.

He was signed off work as a result of his injuries and an investigation was launched by Merseyside Police and Ministry of Justice officials.

Rowlands, previously of Westminster Road, Ellesmere Port and Chevron Close, Blacon, Chester, denied wounding with intent.

He accepted attacking the guard, but said he did not have or use a knife during the incident.

A jury took just 22 minutes to find him not guilty of wounding with intent, but guilty of the lesser offence of wounding.

Judge Andrew Menary, QC, sentenced Rowlands to two years in prison, to be served consecutively to his existing sentence.

The violent thug was jailed for the attack on Mr Lavender – nicknamed Lavo – of Sycamore Drive, Lache, Chester, in 2013.

Chester Crown Court heard how they were drinking at a pub when they were ordered to leave for abusing the dog.

Rowlands admitted subjecting him to a prolonged assault and leaving him for dead at Edgar’s Field Park in Handbridge, Chester.

He was found guilty of murder after claiming that he had not intended to kill his friend or cause him serious injury.

Judge Elgan Edwards said: “Once you started you could not stop.

“You treated this victim in a thoroughly brutal way. Stamping on a man’s head, when he could not defend himself, was quite appalling.”

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

More than two thirds of ECHO readers believe baby April’s mum should have been jailed for abandoning her newborn child in a Southport amusement arcade toilet.

An ECHO poll concluded 69% of readers think Nichola Glover, 30, of Hughes Avenue, Prescot, should have been given an immediate jail term – 31% believed the judge was right to give her a suspended sentence.

Glover hid the newborn in the disabled toilet at Silcock’s arcade after suddenly and unexpectedly going into labour on a day out in April.

Judge Alan Conrad, QC, yesterday sentenced Glover to eight months in prison, suspended for 18 months. Glover pleaded guilty to child cruelty.

He said: “Abandoning baby April in the way you did exposed her to the gravest risk.”

Alison Mutch, deputy chief crown prosecutor for Merseyside and Cheshire, said: “It has been important to strike a balance between prosecuting Ms Glover but also showing compassion and we feel that very difficult balance has been struck.

“She will no doubt regret the actions of that day for many years to come.”

A psychiatrist’s report said Glover was overwhelmed with auditory hallucinations – false perceptions of sound – after the birth, which drove her to abandon the child.

Baby April, and Glover’s other children, are now in care.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

The jury has gone out in the trial of a sacked Merseyside police officer accused of being the “inside man” in a plot to burgle cannabis farms.

Ex-PC Barry Parkinson, 45, is accused of selling police information to underworld associates to keep them “one step ahead”.

The dad-of-two is also accused of passing on the addresses of suspected cannabis farms to criminals as part of a conspiracy to break in and steal the drugs.

He denies misconduct in a public office, conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to supply cannabis between January 1 and June 27, 2014.

Parkinson, of Beechburn Crescent, Page Moss, was a Field Intelligence Development Officer in Liverpool South Basic Command Unit from 2006 to 2014.

He denies knowledge of any conspiracy but has admitted two counts of misconduct in a public office, in relation to information he accessed for his friend Robert Gerrard Sloan.

Robert Gerrard Sloan leaves Liverpool Crown Court

Parkinson told the jury his links to Sloan, 44 – who prosecutors say “dealt cocaine by the kilo” – were actually due to their shared love of watching Liverpool FC.

The former policeman said regular payments made to his bank account were down to him selling football tickets.

He said he falsified an arrest report for Sloan – suggesting he had been suspected of money laundering – to get people his friend owed money to “off his back”.

Nicholas Johnson, QC, prosecuting, said Parkinson was plagued with debt and borrowed thousands of pounds from his family.

He said Parkinson accessed police computers to find suspected cannabis farms, then passed the details to Sloan, who called another co-defendant, David Gould.

The court heard police observed Sloan and Gould meeting up, before Gould rang a man named Shaun Blackburn.

Blackburn was later seen at a Belle Vale address, believed by police to house a cannabis crop.

Taxi driver Sloan said he had no dealings with cannabis and was not a “major” cocaine dealer as the prosecution suggested.

The former bouncer and bailiff admitted using and supplying steroids and growth hormone, but denied having debts with people outside the city or owing money to “big time drug people”.

Sloan told the jury he asked Parkinson for help because he just wanted to “have an easy life and to get out of doing favours and jobs and the line of work I was in”.

He said he had been tracking a traveller called Bernie Campbell – one of the people who Parkinson looked up on the police database – because he owed money to his late friend, who died from cancer.

The ex-doorman said he promised his dying pal that he would get the money for his family back from Mr Campbell and had asked Gould to help.

Sloan, of Steeple View, Kirkby; Gould, 52, of Grange Avenue, West Derby; and Blackburn, 30, of Kenbury Road, Kirkby; all deny conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to supply cannabis.

Sloan has admitted two counts of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office.

David Nuttall, 44, of Bonnington Close, St Helens, denies conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.

He has already pleaded guilty to production of cannabis and abstracting electricity.

(Proceeding)

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A man has admitted stabbing a bouncer in the neck after he was assaulted by a group of doormen in Concert Square in Liverpool city centre.

Kyle Crowe, 21, argued with doorman Kieran Sheridan, 23, outside Modo Bar at around 9pm on Saturday, August 23.

Crowe, of Swallowhurst Crescent in Norris Green, is alleged to have told the bouncer: “I will cut you up,” after he was asked to leave the area.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Crowe was pushed over by Mr Sheridan, before he was “attacked” by a group of security staff.

Crowe then left the scene, armed himself with a knife and returned to the bar at around 10pm, when he stabbed Mr Sheridan in the neck.

Crowe, with short brown hair and wearing a grey sweatshirt, appeared at court today via video link from HMP Altcourse.

He pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon.

Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, said Crowe denied threatening to cut the doorman before he was assaulted by the bouncers.

He said this was not accepted by the prosecution, but would not be subject to a legal hearing to establish whether or not it was said.

Mr Blasbery said: “There has been an altercation with a doorman. In his victim statement he says he pushed the defendant to the ground and he was on his back.

“The victim has been economical in his evidence in terms of what has taken place after. There is clearly an assault by a number of doormen.

“He has gone away, armed himself with a knife, come back and stabbed him.”

The court heard Crowe has no previous convictions.

Judge Alan Conrad, QC, adjourned sentencing until November 26 and remanded Crowe in custody.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A mum-of-two knifed her sleeping friend in the neck in a revenge attack after she had bottled her during a two-day cocaine and booze binge.

Jamie-lea Lundon, and Charlene Tootle, both 26, set off on the bender on Monday, October 5 this year.

Liverpool Crown Court heard they ended up back at Lundon’s home in Cubbin Crescent, Vauxhall .

Miss Tootle hit her pal with a beer bottle, causing a cut to her right ear, before passing out on a sofa.

She awoke an hour later to find Lundon kneeling beside her on the phone to emergency services.

Frank Dillon, prosecuting, said: “She was shouting ‘I’ve stabbed her, she needs help, she is bleeding’.”

He said Miss Tootle – who claimed the pair had not argued before she fell asleep – felt very dizzy and drifted in and out of consciousness.

Lundon dialled 999 and told the operator she had “stabbed her mate three times in the neck and in the thigh” with a large kitchen knife.

When armed police arrived they found Lundon covered in blood, screaming that she stabbed her friend because she had been bottled.

Miss Tootle, whose clothes were also covered in blood, asked police: “am I going to die?”

Miraculously, all four of her wounds including a 1cm gash to her left thigh were described by doctors as “superficial” and did not require stitches.

The court heard Miss Tootle later tried to retract a police statement and refused to sign a victim personal statement.

Still drunk Lundon, who confirmed she had not eaten or slept for two days, told officers: “I’m making a full and frank admission, I stabbed that girl, I hope she dies.”

Lundon said she had felt blood trickling down her face as she sat seething after she was bottled and “snapped”.

But she accepted it was not self-defence as it happened an hour later and again said she hoped Miss Tootle died.

Lundon denied attempted murder but pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

She has 11 previous convictions for 24 offences, including a racially aggravated public order offence in 2013.

The court heard a petrol station worker in Scotland Road, Vauxhall told her and a man not to smoke by the petrol pumps and she called him a “f***ing p***”.

Lundon also received a caution for battery after she was seen to hit one of her daughters in the head with an open palm.

She told police she had struck the child because she was “dawdling”.

The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court

Simon Driver, defending, said the two women had known each for many years.

He said according to Lundon’s mum “they have a mutually harmful effect on each other as they both share addictions and on occasions binge together”.

Mr Driver said: “They travelled from licensed premises to licensed premises, sustaining themselves with cocaine enabling them to drink far more than they would otherwise have been able to consume.”

He said after Miss Tootle bottled his client, Lundon “stewed on it for some time”.

Mr Driver said: “She viewed it through the prism of her alcohol and cocaine consumption and became vengeful.”

The court heard Lundon’s mum is now looking after her children and hopes she can get the help she needs in prison and change her ways.

Judge Alan Conrad, QC, said a broken bottle was found at the scene and accepted there was some provocation for the attack.

He said: “It was only by sheer good fortune the injuries you caused were not much more serious. It is right to say upon realising what you had done, you did everything to assist and atone.

“You are an intelligent young woman, who when sober is an entirely different person.”

Judge Conrad sentenced Lundon to four years and eight months in jail.

She replied: “Thank you so much, thank you judge,” before shouting: “Mum I love you – ta ra”.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A mum-of-two knifed her sleeping friend in the neck in a revenge attack after she had bottled her during a two-day cocaine and booze binge.

Jamie-lea Lundon, and Charlene Tootle, both 26, set off on the bender on Monday, October 5 this year.

Liverpool Crown Court heard they ended up back at Lundon’s home in Cubbin Crescent, Vauxhall .

Miss Tootle hit her pal with a beer bottle, causing a cut to her right ear, before passing out on a sofa.

She awoke an hour later to find Lundon kneeling beside her on the phone to emergency services.

Frank Dillon, prosecuting, said: “She was shouting ‘I’ve stabbed her, she needs help, she is bleeding’.”

He said Miss Tootle – who claimed the pair had not argued before she fell asleep – felt very dizzy and drifted in and out of consciousness.

Lundon dialled 999 and told the operator she had “stabbed her mate three times in the neck and in the thigh” with a large kitchen knife.

When armed police arrived they found Lundon covered in blood, screaming that she stabbed her friend because she had been bottled.

Miss Tootle, whose clothes were also covered in blood, asked police: “am I going to die?”

Miraculously, all four of her wounds including a 1cm gash to her left thigh were described by doctors as “superficial” and did not require stitches.

The court heard Miss Tootle later tried to retract a police statement and refused to sign a victim personal statement.

Still drunk Lundon, who confirmed she had not eaten or slept for two days, told officers: “I’m making a full and frank admission, I stabbed that girl, I hope she dies.”

Lundon said she had felt blood trickling down her face as she sat seething after she was bottled and “snapped”.

But she accepted it was not self-defence as it happened an hour later and again said she hoped Miss Tootle died.

Lundon denied attempted murder but pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

She has 11 previous convictions for 24 offences, including a racially aggravated public order offence in 2013.

The court heard a petrol station worker in Scotland Road, Vauxhall told her and a man not to smoke by the petrol pumps and she called him a “f***ing p***”.

Lundon also received a caution for battery after she was seen to hit one of her daughters in the head with an open palm.

She told police she had struck the child because she was “dawdling”.

The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court

Simon Driver, defending, said the two women had known each for many years.

He said according to Lundon’s mum “they have a mutually harmful effect on each other as they both share addictions and on occasions binge together”.

Mr Driver said: “They travelled from licensed premises to licensed premises, sustaining themselves with cocaine enabling them to drink far more than they would otherwise have been able to consume.”

He said after Miss Tootle bottled his client, Lundon “stewed on it for some time”.

Mr Driver said: “She viewed it through the prism of her alcohol and cocaine consumption and became vengeful.”

The court heard Lundon’s mum is now looking after her children and hopes she can get the help she needs in prison and change her ways.

Judge Alan Conrad, QC, said a broken bottle was found at the scene and accepted there was some provocation for the attack.

He said: “It was only by sheer good fortune the injuries you caused were not much more serious. It is right to say upon realising what you had done, you did everything to assist and atone.

“You are an intelligent young woman, who when sober is an entirely different person.”

Judge Conrad sentenced Lundon to four years and eight months in jail.

She replied: “Thank you so much, thank you judge,” before shouting: “Mum I love you – ta ra”.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A DRUNK pervert from Widnes who incited a teenage girl to engage in a sexual activity has been caged.

John Carr, 49, of Bell House Road, was sentenced today at Warrington Crown Court to three years imprisonment by Judge Neil Flewitt QC.

The court heard from Matthew Dunford, prosecuting, that the incident took place on the afternoon of Thursday, June 4, this year.

Mr Dunford said that the victim – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – was returning from a shop down an alleyway to the back of her house and saw the defendant.

The prosecution said that Carr – who wore a dark T-shirt in the dock – had a small dog on a lead and that he walked towards the victim and made an indecent proposition to her.

Mr Dunford said the victim was ‘shocked’ and backed away, before Carr asked her ‘can I have your knickers?’ in an incident took place outside the house gate.

The victim shouted to her father and ‘started to panic’, the prosecution added, and she ran up a path and back to her house.

Mr Dunford said that the victim’s father initially ran to try to find the defendant, before jumping into his car and discovering Carr.

The defendant was later arrested by police and told officers in interview that he had been ‘drinking all day’ and ‘denied saying anything to the girl at that stage’, Mr Dunford said.

Personal statements from the victim read out in court by the prosecution said that the incident is ‘always on my mind’ and that she ‘never’ wants to go out of her house’s back gate.

A statement from the victim’s mother said that her daughter was ‘up all night vomiting’ following the incident and was ‘shouting for her dad’ in her sleep.

The defendant’s previous convictions included a community order given at Chester Crown Court for making and possessing indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography last December.

Jamie Baxter, defending, said that his client had drunk two bottles of brandy and two bottles of cider at the time of the offence.

The defence said that Carr had no recollection of walking towards the girl or saying either sentences.

He said: “He had been living quite a sorry life and had been so for quite a few years.

“He accepts he simply must have said what he did.”

Mr Baxter added that the incident was ‘spontaneous’ and said that his client made ‘no attempts to grab hold’ of the victim when she fled the scene.

Sentencing Carr to 36 months behind bars for one count of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, Judge Flewitt said that the victim was a ‘potentially dangerous man’ and said that there were ‘a number of serious aggravating features’.

He said: “Firstly and most significant is the location at which this offence took place.

“It took place effectively on this young girl’s doorstep and the consequences of that are clear by the victim personal statements made by the girl herself and her mother.

“You were heavily under the influence of alcohol, prescriptive and non-prescriptive drugs at the time of committing this offence.”

Following the sentence, the judge asked the prosecution to tell the victim of his ‘admiration’ for her and that she is a ‘very brave girl’.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A Liverpool council worker who lived a “champagne lifestyle” thanks to her drug dealing boyfriend’s spoils was told to pay back the last of the ill-gotten gains.

Courtney Randles, 26, was jailed for three years and four months in July after admitting money laundering for convicted murderer Christopher Kenny.

Kenny, 26, is serving a life sentence with a minimum of 30 years behind bars for the stabbing of rival dealer Anthony Duffy in Aintree in May last year.

When police raided the luxury flat the couple shared at the Unity Building in Rumford Place in Liverpool city centre, they discovered nearly £62,000 hidden in a cavity behind a bathroom mirror.

Cash found in Courtney Randles’ bathroom

Randles, of Nickleby Close, Toxteth, was also carrying nearly £7,000 in cash in her handbag when she was arrested by officers.

The former model, who earned £18,000 a year from her council job, blew thousands of pounds during “lavish shopping sprees” with Kenny’s drug money.

She posed for selfies on first and business class transatlantic flights and took pictures of bags bursting with designer items from Juicy Couture in New York.

Today Liverpool Crown Court heard the authorities had already banked £68,766 of her total benefit of £77,944, which was forfeited when she was arrested.

Henry Riding, prosecuting, said her remaining assets – jewellery, an iPad and iPhone – amounted to £5,460, which he asked to be confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Courtney Randles has been jailed for three years and four months for laundering drug money, Here are some designer bags

Rachel Cooper, defending Randles, asked for 28 days for her client to pay the sum.

Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, ordered the money to be confiscated and warned that if it was not paid, Randles would face another four months behind bars.

Randles did not speak during the brief hearing.

Kenny conspired to murder Duffy, 33, with Shaun Walmsley, 26, after they found out he was plotting to burgle their £60,000 cannabis farm.

Prosecutors said Randles knew Kenny was a major international drug dealer.

When police raided their apartment, accounts and tick lists showed he kept a daily running balance of around £475,000.

Kenny and Walmsley were arrested at Manchester Airport, while trying to flee the country on flights booked on Randles’ laptop.

Police arrested her at work, where she was attempting to arrange “emergency leave”.

A ‘to-do’ list in her handbag included “money in bank for flights” and “get mirror”.

Courtney Randles who has been jailed for three years and four months for laundering drug money. Here is Courtney in business class onboard a plane

In August 2013 she sent a text to a woman who won £2m on EuroMillions.

She asked if she took her £100,000 to £200,000 in cash, would she make a payment back to them, because Kenny “could not get rid of it”.

She also asked the lottery winner if “our Ant” could give her £15,000 in cash, so she could transfer the money back for him to buy a Mercedes-Benz.

Randles secretly looked at council tax records of a man called Brian Thomas, who was minding Kenny and Walmsley’s cannabis farm.

She pleaded guilty to money laundering, disclosing personal data without consent and possession of the Class C designer drug TFMPP.

When sentencing Randles, Judge Goldstone said: “I do not consider for one moment that you were coerced, intimidated or exploited – you were greedy.”

Kenny, of Tilston Road; Walmsley, of Wallace Street; plus their informant John Hore, 54, of Caldy Road; all Walton; and weapon supplier Kirk Mello, 31, of Manor Grove, Kirkby, were found guilty of murder.

Kenny and Walmsley were jailed for life with a minimum of 30 years, Hore to life with a minimum of 21 years and Mello to life with a minimum of 22 years.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

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The girlfriend of a murdering drug dealer who lived a lavish lifestyle while laundering his dirty cash was jailed for three years and four months.

Christopher Kenny, 26, was given a life sentence for the brutal stabbing of Anthony Duffy in Aintree in May last year.

He conspired to murder the 33-year-old drug dealer with Shaun Walmsley, 26, after they found out Duffy was plotting to burgle their £60,000 cannabis farm.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that council worker Courtney Randles, 26, was “living in style” with Kenny in a luxury apartment in the Unity Building in Rumford Place.

The Unity Buildings in Liverpool on the corner of Rumford Place and Chapel Street. Photo by Ian Cooper

Henry Riding, prosecuting, said she earned £18,000 a year but enjoyed expensive holidays abroad, flying first or business class to go on “lavish shopping sprees”.

Randles, of Nickleby Close, Toxteth, posed for selfies on transatlantic flights and took pictures of bags bursting with designer items from Juicy Couture in New York.

Courtney Randles, who was jailed for three years and four months for laundering drug money, flying to America in business class

Mr Riding said: “She could never have believed in a month of Sundays that Kenny’s income had been provided for by his employment as a secondhand car sales person.

“She knew they were major drug dealers, working as far afield as Dover and Aberdeen.

“Kenny was proud of the fact he was such a major drug dealer.

“When police searched their apartment, accounts and tick lists showed a running balance of approximately £475,000 on a day-to-day basis.

“Some £61,970 in cash was hidden in a cavity behind a mirror in their bathroom.”

Courtney Randles took this photograph of her shopping spree in Juicy Couture in New York

Kenny and Walmsley were arrested at Manchester Airport, while trying to flee the country on flights booked on Randles’ laptop.

Police arrested her at work, where she was attempting to arrange “emergency leave”.

Mr Riding said: “It was an attempt by her to join them abroad. In her handbag was £6,796 in cash, which she intended to take out to them.”

A ‘to-do’ list in her handwriting included “money in bank for flights” and “get mirror”.

Text messages revealed Randles attempted to launder hundreds of thousands of pounds for Kenny in 2013.

In August she sent a text to a woman who won £2m on EuroMillions.

She asked if she took her £100,000 to £200,000 in cash, would she make a payment back to them, because Kenny “could not get rid of it”.

Mr Riding said one text referred to “problems Curtis had with money laundering”.

Courtney Randles at Liverpool Crown Court

Randles also messaged a bank clerk, asking how much cash could be deposited without raising suspicion.

She asked the lottery winner if “our Ant” could give her £15,000 in cash, so she could transfer the money back for him to buy a Mercedes-Benz.

Randles secretly looked at council tax records of a man called Brian Thomas, who was minding Kenny and Walmsley’s cannabis farm.

The defendant, wearing blue jeans and a black and white cardigan, cried as she entered court.

She initially claimed she did not know where Kenny’s money was from, but later admitted she knew it was drug money.

Randles pleaded guilty to money laundering, disclosing personal data without consent and possession of the Class C designer drug TFMPP.

Christopher Kenny, 26, of Rumford Place, Liverpool, was jailed for life with a minimum of 30 years in prison

Mark Ford, defending, said Kenny was a “manipulative and controlling individual” whose “malign influence” ruined Randles’ life.

He said: “When the defendant met Kenny she was 23. She was of good character, she had a degree and a decent job.

“She was living a perfectly ordinary life for a happy-go-lucky girl in Liverpool.

“Now she has lost her good character, spent four months in Styal prison and is on the verge of losing her liberty.”

He said when Randles realised he was a drug dealer, she had already fallen in love with him.

Mr Ford said: “He used the emotional ties between them in order to exploit her.

“She had a modest income and the lifestyle he offered must have appeared seductive.

“Had she never met Kenny she would never have appeared before these courts, so his role in her demise is a very significant one.”

Courtney Randles who has been jailed for three years and four months for laundering drug money.

The lawyer said Randles was suffering from depression, had lost two stones in weight and was undergoing counselling.

Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, rejected the argument Randles was “exploited” by Kenny.

Judge Goldstone said: “You were trusted by him and you were steeped in his criminality – not least because you were quite happy to benefit from his ill-gotten gains and enjoyed the lifestyle.

“Although I accept that you that you became involved at his request, you are a well-educated young woman and I am quite satisfied that you went into this with your eyes wide open.”

He said it was significant that Randles continued “trying to line their nest” after the killing.

Judge Goldstone said: “You were quite willing to continue your association with a man who was not simply to your knowledge a successful drug dealer but a murderer.

“I do not consider for one moment that you were coerced, intimidated or exploited – you were greedy.”

Anthony Duffy, 33, from Liverpool, who was stabbed in Aintree and later died in hospital

Kenny, of Tilston Road; Walmsley, of Wallace Street; plus their informant John Hore, 54, of Caldy Road; all Walton; and weapon supplier Kirk Mello, 31, of Manor Grove, Kirkby, were found guilty of murder after an eight-week trial.

Kenny and Walmsley were jailed for life with a minimum of 30 years, Hore to life with a minimum of 21 years and Mello to life with a minimum of 22 years.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

A Liverpool prisoner accused of walking out of HMP Kirkham jail appeared in court today.

Stephen William Coulson, 26, faced a charge of escaping from lawful custody when he faced Liverpool Magistrates’ Court.

Coulson, of no fixed address but from the north Liverpool area, was convicted of class B drugs offences and sentenced to two and half years in prison earlier this year.

Lynn Clark, prosecuting, told the court he had absconded from the open prison, near Preston, on Wednesday before handing himself in yesterday. The case was committed to Liverpool Crown Court where Coulson will next appear on December 18.

HMP Kirkham is a Category D prison accepting all suitably allocated prisoners, but not sex offenders, who can reasonably be trusted to serve their sentence in open conditions.

It has a capacity of 630.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

Two Wirral men caught with a bag of cannabis worth about £26,000 after a police chase through Wallasey and Birkenhead have both been locked up.

Former promising football player Jack Beach and Kieran Salkeld were caught after police officers following their Ford Fiesta in Wallasey signalled them to stop on September 5 last year.

However the car sped off along Gorsey Lane to Dock Road and through red traffic lights onto Duke Street at twice the speed limit.

Chris Taylor, prosecuting said the mile long chase ended in Birkenhead when the car slowed down and Beach got out and ran off with a large bag.

He was detained after a chase by Birkenhead Park and as the officer approached he could smell cannabis and could see some through a tear in the bag. The driver, Salkeld drove off but was identiifed from CCTV footage and arrested on February 2 this year.

The bag had been found to contain 1.3 kilos of flowering female heads of cannabis and on Beach’s mobile phone a drug dealers tick list was discovered.

Beach, 24, of Roughly Place, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, pleaded guilty to possessing the cannabis with intent to supply and Salkeld, 21, of St Oswald’s Avenue, Prenton, admitted being concerned in supplying drugs and dangerous driving.

Beach, who has no previous convictions, was jailed for 16 months and Salkeld, who has 15 previous convictions including drug offences, was sentenced to 14 months and banned from driving for 22 months.

Salkeld pleaded guilty on the basis that Beach had asked him to drive him to an address in Liverpool to pick up some “weed” which he presumed was for his own use.

When Beach collected the bag he realised that the situation had changed but reluctantly agreed to drive Beach home.

The court heard he would have received some of the cannabis as payment.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Beach had been with football academies but nothing had come of that and he lost an apprenticeship after the business he was was taken on by folded and he “drifted into drugs.”

Jeremy Hawthorne, defending, said that his arrest had been “a gigantic wake up call and he has altered his lifestyle and priorities. He has done his own rehabilitation mentally.”

Charles Lander, defending Salkeld, said that he was “courteous and polite” and has changed for the better since the birth of his two-year-old daughter.

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/

Fake penis sex attacker Gayle Newland is appealing her eight-year jail term, the ECHO can reveal.

The ex-private schoolgirl was jailed after pretending she was a man to trick her unwitting partner into having sex.

Earlier this week, the ECHO detailed how the 25-year-old was appealing her sexual assault conviction, during which she kept her true female gender secret.

Now, the marketing manager has lodged another court bid, to try and reduce her eight years behind bars.

Newland adopted an alter-ego of ‘Kye Fortune’, and hid her identity by flattening her breasts with tape, wearing a swimsuit to smooth her curves and deepening her voice.

She coaxed the woman to put on a blindfold when together, and had sex up ten times, before the victim, also 25, ripped off her mask to see Newland standing over her, wearing a prosthetic penis.

Newland, from Willaston, near Neston, has lodged the appeal against her sentence with Chester Crown Court, where her trial and jailing took place.

It will be then registered with the High Court in London.

Newland, who told her lover that ‘Kye’ was insecure about ‘his’ looks following supposed life-saving brain surgery, was visibly shaken by her eight year sentence.

She cried in the courtroom as she was led from the dock to the cells.

Gayle Newland

Newland will have her case considered by a single judge at London’s Court of Appeal.

If that finds favour, it will be sent to another hearing in front of three senior judges, who will assess her eight year sentence.

They could decrease or increase it, or keep the punishment the same.

However, those proceedings could become redundant if Newland’s appeal against conviction is successful.

Newland, who first met the victim in internet chat rooms, even kept her mask on when they kissed on the bed and watched films together.

The victim, in a statement, described her ordeal as having “poisoned her life” and taken her “youth and vitality”.

She added: “Socially I feel trapped – still living in this invisible prison Gayle has made.”

Gayle Newland jailed for 8 years

Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/