A prisoner made hoax calls from his prison cell threatening to blow up Liverpool Lime Street station, claiming: “I’m from Liverpool ISIS”.

Daniel David Truelove, 20, made the calls from a phone installed in his cell as a perk for “good behaviour”, magistrates heard today.

Truelove claimed he was a member of the brutal Islamic terror group, responsible for numerous atrocities including the attacks in Paris last month which left 130 dead.

He made four calls warning of a bomb at Liverpool’s main station to the Samaritans and to Crimestoppers.

Hannah Griffiths, prosecuting, said: “In one call he told the operator he was part of Liverpool ISIS, carrying an Islamic State flag and wearing a tactical vest containing explosives.”

On another call, Truelove said he was by a pay-phone at the station and was under pressure to behead his family.

He was arrested after the calls were traced to his cell.

Liverpool Magistrates’ Court was told that Truelove, of no fixed address, had been sharing a cell with Clayton Williams (pictured below), 18, who was later charged with the murder of Merseyside Police officer PC David Phillips.

Clayton Williams, 18, from Wallasey,

He appeared via video-link from Altcourse and pleaded guilty to communicating a bomb hoax.

As a result of the calls British Transport Police increased searches of the station and deployed extra officers authorised to carry Tasers.

Ms Griffiths said the cell was shared between Truelove and Williams, and no-one else could have had access to the phone at the time the calls were made.

There is no suggestion that Williams was behind the calls.

She said: “The defendant admitted making the calls as a prank and said he thought they would be anonymous.”

Truelove, who was not represented in court, declined to make any comment to magistrates about the offence.

The bench committed the case to Liverpool Crown Court, where he is due to be sentenced on January 28.

Ms Griffiths said Truelove could face 12 months in prison.

Altcourse prison, which is privately run, was named the most dangerous in the country for staff in 2014, according to official figures.

There were 150 assaults on guards and other people working at the Fazakerley prison in 2014 – more than any other facility in England and Wales.

G4S has been contacted for comment.

News updates throughout the day here

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

A Huyton drunk driver was pulled over after police spotted him swerving around a McDonald’s drive-through, a court heard.

Daniel Roberts, 24, was banned from driving for 12 months after taking his girlfriend’s Peugeot 206 to the Liverpool Road McDonald’s in Huyton while she slept in the early hours of November 29.

Roberts, of Gemini Drive, pleaded guilty to drink driving, driving without a licence, driving without insurance and taking the car without consent at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court today.

Andrew Page, prosecuting, told the court: “Officers were in the McDonald’s drive through when they noticed the car in front, a Peugeot 206, swerving around. The driver also stopped too far away from the window making it impossible for him to talk to staff.

“He then proceeded to park across four parking lanes and officers went to speak to him.”

Mr Page said when Roberts stepped out of the car he was unsteady on his feet and smelled of alcohol.

He failed a road side breathalyser test and checks revealed he had no insurance to drive the vehicle.

Roberts admitted drinking and said he had taken his girlfriend’s car without her permission after a night out.

The court heard the defendant only had a provisional driving licence.

Roberts was taken to St Helen’s Custody Suite and tests revealed 48 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

Amy Butler, representing Roberts, said: “He had been on a night out and came back home where he and his girlfriend had an argument. He left the property in her car to defuse the situation, and his girlfriend is at the back of court today supporting him.”

The court heard Roberts, who works at Fedex in Warrington, had no previous convictions.

Magistrates fined him £585 and ordered him to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a £58.50 victim surcharge.

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

Meet the 99 Merseyside crooks locked up in 2015 for committing shocking crimes.

There are the mugshots of criminals jailed for serious offences ranging from terrorism to murder and to sickening cases of sexual abuse.

They include Stephen Duggan, 28, who was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 22 years after being convicted of the murder of good Samaritan Alison Wilson, who tried to break up a street row.

Duggan killed the 36-year-old mum-of-two, from Widnes, by thrusting a broken wine bottle into her neck when she tried to stop him attacking a woman holding a baby.

A terrorist who planned to copy the IRA bombing of Manchester Arndale Centre and kill fleeing survivors was also jailed.

Abid Naseer, 29, enrolled at Liverpool John Moores University to get his visa.

He was also suspected of plotting terror attacks in New York and Denmark and a jury heard that he may have examined Liverpool One shopping centre as a potential target. He was jailed for 40 years in America.

Jealous husband Andrew Munro, 51, was handed a life sentence for murdering his wife Clare Munro, whom he stabbed 51 times in Culceth, near Warrington. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 26 years for the brutal attack.

Stephen Duggan, 28, was sentenced to life imprisonment and must serve a minimum of 22 years after being convicted of the murder of good Samaritan Alison Wilson, who tried to break up a street row.Duggan killed the 36-year-old mum-of-two, from Widnes, by thrusting a broken wine bottle into her neck when she tried to stop him attacking a woman holding a baby. A Liverpool man who strangled his 17-year-old girlfriend after being taunted about his sexual prowess to death was jailed for life – for the second time. Callum Wilcocks throttled Kelsey, 17, the mum of their three-year-old daughter, in a row over cheating at a flat in Foundry Lane, Widnes, on April 29, 2011. Wilcocks was convicted over her murder at a re-trial after initially being convicted in 2011. That conviction was quashed by appeal judges after Wilcocks claimed a severe mental disorder meant that he was not in control of his actions. But a jury at Liverpool Crown Court rejected that defence, and Wilcocks must serve a minimum of 16 years for the brutal murder. Maghull paedophile Michael Roach, 62, who was jailed for more than 17 years for sexually abusing five young girls over three decades. Members of a cross-border drugs trafficking cartel headed by “Scouse Escobar” Christopher Welsh jnr were jailed for a total of 90 years. The gang, lead by Welsh jnr, his right hand man Neil Sutemire, and Scottish gangster John Reid, were sentenced for trafficking cocaine and heroin into Scotland at Liverpool Crown Court. A teenager repeatedly stabbed a Bootle dad-of-five before his older brother punched him as he lay dying. Andrew Blood, 17, of Bedford Road, Bootle was jailed for life with a minimum of 12-and-a-half years behind bars after admitting murder. Kenneth Blood, 33, who hid the knife used by his brother to murder Steven Tucker, 51, was jailed for four years. Marie McCarthy was jailed for three-and-a-half years for stealing the virginity of a 15-year-old boy after her original suspended sentence was quashed. The 62-year-old abused the boy, now a fully grown adult, over a five-week period when she was in her 30s. Honzah Olah, 17, of Goswell Street, Wavertree, was locked up for four years after stabbing a man in the leg for no reason – then telling police he felt nothing towards his victim and didn’t care if he died. A disabled paedophile who sexually abused a young girl over more than a decade was jailed for 10 years. Philip Bradley, 55, of Scarisbrick New Road, Southport, was found guilty after a trial of historic sexual offences in Runcorn and Southport, which began in the 1990s. Jacqueline Whittle, 50, of Hampton Road, Southport, was jailed for three years following “callous frauds” of men she conned money out of online by stealing the profile picture of a beautiful American woman and getting them to fall in love with her. A terrorist planned to copy the IRA bombing of Manchester Arndale Centre and kill fleeing survivors. Abid Naseer, 29, enrolled at Liverpool John Moores University to get his visa. He was also suspected of plotting terror attacks in New York and Denmark and a jury heard that he may have examined Liverpool One shopping centre as a potential target. He was jailed for 40 years in America. Allan Sutton, 32, of Carr Bridge Road, Woodchurch, smashed his way into the wrong house and attacked a stranger. He was jailed for five years for the terrifying assault. Jealous husband Andrew Munro, 51, was handed a life sentence for murdering his wife Clare Munro, whom he stabbed 51 times. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 26 years for the brutal attack. A Walton roof fugitive who carried out a brutal gang attack on a drug dealer was locked up for nearly 18 years. John Paul McCoy, 28, was captured after a rooftop stand-off in Walton. Two men were jailed for an attack that left a Woolton drug dealer wheelchair-bound and brain-damaged. Stephen McCoy, 23, and Lee Montague, 22, were jailed for 17 years and 16 years respectively. Stephen Bowden, 61, of Parbold Avenue, St Helens, was jailed for 15 years for historic sexual offences. Kwame Terry, 31, of Old Hall Street, was jailed for 25 years for being the leader of a criminal gang who used guns to enforce their drugs business. A Wirral dad caught with a vile child abuse stash was put behind bars for 28 months. Depraved Paul Foster, 58, from Wallasey, had clips of kids as young as eight being abused. A “morally bankrupt” Wirral teen filmed sex with a schoolgirl then sent the clip to friend who put it on Facebook. Luke Patten, 19, of Eastham, Wirral, was locked up for four and a half years after admitting sexual activity with a 15-year-old, distributing an indecent image and assault causing actual bodily harm against a 19-year-old man. A depraved Wirral paedophile who abused victims as young as two was locked up for more than 13 years. Karl Bromley, 37, from Wallasey left a trail of devastation over a 16-year period in which nine victims, both male and female, were assaulted. A former nurse was jailed for stealing £65,000 from her dementia-suffering mum, leaving her unable to pay care home fees. Gillian Hillier, 54, said spiralling mortgage and business debts led her to “borrow” the money from the 88-year-old. But Liverpool Crown Court heard she spent much of the money shopping and jetting between England and a home in Malaga, Spain. Hillier, of Hansby Drive, Hunts Cross, was jailed for 20 months. A thug with a record of violence against women was jailed for 10 years today after battering his partner around the head with an iron. Alan Sherlock, 26, of Lennox Way, Edge Hill, left the woman in a pool of blood after hitting her so many times a Good Samaritan who witnessed the attack “lost count”. A woman claimed to be related to Steven Gerrard to swindle a disabled man out of £3,000 by offering him bogus shares in Facebook and Liverpool FC tickets. Laura Mason, 29, of Lobelia Avenue, Walton, used the name Louise Gerrard to suggest she was a family member of the Anfield legend as part of a “wicked fraud”. She was jailed for eight months. A man who stabbed his mum in an alcohol and cocaine-fuelled attack at their Wirral home was jailed for 14 years. David Matthews, 32, of Adaston Avenue, Eastham, had already served a jail sentence for threatening to kill his devoted parents with a saw. Sadik Ali, 24, of Windsor Street, Toxteth, was jailed for four years nine months after pleading guilty to sexual assault by penetration. He attacked a 19 year old student who agreed to share a taxi home with him. Gary Whicker, 22, of Whitland Road, Anfield, was jailed for eight months for sending a “revenge porn” video of his ex girlfriend to her 10 year old brother. A disgraced music teacher and former Green Party press officer who sexually assaulted a schoolgirl was jailed for 14 months. Vincent Spencer, 51, from Birkenhead, persuaded his victim to get into bed before kissing her and touching her body over her underwear. Terri Bowker-Hughes was jailed for three years for running a brothel at her city centre flat. A £70,000 benefits cheat who said he couldn’t walk was secretly filmed pulling two suitcases through an airport before jetting away on a luxury holiday to Australia with his wife. Fraudster Kevin McEntee, 64, from Birkenhead, was jailed for two years. Jamie Roberts, 26, of Walmer Road, Waterloo, was jailed for 12 and a half years for robbery in Bootle in which a man was stabbed. A mum-of-three was jailed for three years after she threw a metal drain cover at her friend’s head causing a 5cm deep wound. Kayleigh North, 28, of Marsh Lane, Bootle. attacked the woman during a drunken row. JS71535625 Jack Quinton, 21, of no fixed address, was jailed for seven years and one month for an armed raid involving a gang wearing skull masks. A pair of burglars were jailed after stealing treasured jewellery from pensioners’ homes across Wirral.Drug addict Claire Molden, 19, of Bridge Street, Birkenhead and career criminal Jason Carson, 30, of Lansdowne Road, Birkenhead, ransacked the houses during a six-day spree. Two men who killed PC Neil Doyle during a Christmas night out in Liverpool were jailed. Andrew Taylor, from Huyton and Timmy Donovan, from Childwall, were locked up for seven years and six months and six years and 10 months respectively after both being convicted of manslaughter. Melvin Coy, 32, of Dooley Drive, Old Roan, was jailed after admitting handling stolen goods. Coy was previously jailed for helping the killer of Rhys Jones evade justice. Philip Wharton, 42, of Dale Street, Runcorn was sent down for six years after a householder disarmed him of his axe and pinned him down until police arrived. A computer geek from Liverpool was jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey for trying to buy deadly ricin poison from the Dark Web after being inspired by the hit US television series Breaking Bad. Software programmer Mohammed Ali, 31, of Prescot Road, Old Swan was found guilty of attempting to possess a chemical weapon. Drug addict Philip Taylor, 39, of Maybank Road, Birkenhead, threatened to stab a family with a screwdriver. Paul Griffiths, 43, plied a vulnerable schoolgirl with heroin before having sex with her at his house in Wilburn Street, Walton. He was jailed for seven years. Sex offender David Bennett, 31, who was armed with a knife, sexually assaulted a woman while she sat outside Skelmersdale police station waiting for her teenage son, who was being questioned. Bennett, of Willow Hey, Skelmersdale, was jailed for six years at Liverpool crown court. Martin Daiken, 28, of Boaler Street, Kensington, was given a life sentence for repeatedly stabbing and slashing 47-year-old Roy Heyes’ throat with a broken bottle and clubbing him over the head with a lamp stand. A “greedy” fraudster who used his dead brother and an old schoolmate’s identities to steal £200,000 in benefits was jailed for 28 months. Carl Jones, 79, of Grange Terrace, Wavertree, claimed housing and council tax benefits using the name of his younger brother Roy – who died in 1967. A married man who posted “revenge porn” of his ex-partner online in a “monstrous and devastating breach of trust” was also jailed for three months. David Jones, 53, of Mockbeggar Drive, Wallasey, was locked up at Liverpool magistrates’ court in what was the first conviction in Merseyside under new laws to target the sick practice. Craig Lister, 34, of Hale Road, Walton, nicknamed Bin Laden because of his violent crimes, was jailed for 22 years for a string of robberies. Two “cold-blooded assassins” from Liverpool were given life sentences for using combat knives and a hammer to try murder a member of a rival drug group. Jason “J” McLoughlin, 44, of Utting Avenue East, Norris Green, and Louis Paul Gantley, 29, of Cawthorne Avenue, Kirkby, were told they must serve at least 10 years and four months. Anthony Bath, 22, of Montague Road, Old Swan and Nathan McGrail, 26, of Whinchat Avenue, Newton-le-Willows, were jailed for more than five years in total after conspiring to move profits of cross-border drug dealing. Joseph Tonner, 54, of Aston Green, Runcorn, was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting two children. Abusive boyfriend Michael Quinn, 25, of Tinsley Avenue, Southport, was jailed for five years. He demanded his partner call him Dominus after the slavemaster in Spartacus. William Cowley, 17, stabbed a fellow teenager in an alleyway off Brows Lane, Formby, after a shooting at his house. Cowley, of Gardner Road, Formby, was locked up for five years with an extended three years on licence. Kenneth Simmons, 62, from Tuebrook, was jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of 16 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency dating back to the 70s. Courtney Randles, the 26-year-old girlfriend of murdering drug dealer Chris Kenny, was jailed for three years and four months after admitting money laundering. Randles, of Nickleby Close, Toxteth, enjoyed first class travel, expensive holidays and lavish shopping trips to New York using her boyfriend’s laundered money. Three thugs were locked up for life for the murder of St Helens teenager Jordan Campbell, 17. Ruben Hoather, 22, of Tickle Avenue and Daniel Wiltshire, 25, of Wargrave Road, Newton-le-Willows were jailed for a minimum of 19 years and 21 years. Anthony Wood, 32, of Elephant Lane, Thatto Heath, was jailed for 21 years. “Bi-curious” thug Frank Shannon, who beat a 73-year-old man from Formby unconscious, was jailed for eight years. Shannon, 30, of Ascot Drive, Kirkby attacked the man after meeting him on a dating website. Andrew Skelton, of Water Street, in the city centre, was jailed for eight years after being found guilty of leaking sensitive, personal data relating to almost 100,000 Morrisons supermarket staff. Simon Helstrip, 43, of Euston Grove, Prenton, was jailed for 14 months for sexually assaulting a woman. Peter Watson, 74, of Upland Road, Upton, jailed for 15 years for rape and sexual abuse of a young girl. St Helens mum Amanda O’Shaughnessy was sentenced to life in prison for murdering her partner David Butterworth by stabbing him in the back with a kitchen knife. She will serve a minimum of 14 years. David Vernon Parle, formerly of Trafalgar Road, Wallasey, was jailed for 11 months after sexually assaulting two nurses after taking magic mushrooms. A Toxteth man who groomed a 13-year-old girl on the internet before sexually assaulting her was jailed for more than four years. Alan Pendleton, 52, of Merlin Street, pleaded guilty to four counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child and one charge of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. Frail widow Barbara King was jailed for 12 years as her historical sex crimes caught up with her. King, 71, of Muspratt Road, Litherland, and her husband Tommy, abused young two girls from troubled backgrounds under the pretence of offering them a safe haven. Dingle mum Farieissia Martin, 22, was jailed for a minimum of 13 years for the murder of her childhood sweetheart. Dad-of-two Kyle Farrell was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife after a heated row at Martin’s home in Charlecote Street, Dingle. Christopher Kenny and Shaun Walmsley – both 26 John Hore, 54, and Kirk Mello, 31, were jailed for more than 100 years in total over the murder of Anthony Duffy, 33, in Aintree last year. He was “repeatedly and brutally stabbed” 28 times by rivals who learned that he had plotted to burgle their cannabis farm. Augustine Adu, 31, of Padbury Street, Toxteth, was jailed for nine years and 10 months after stabbing a man so hard with a kitchen knife that the blade snapped in his stomach. Michael Rollason, 39, from Great Sankey, near Warrington, was jailed for seven years for causing the death of cyclist Terry Brown through dangerous driving. He later claimed that he thought he had hit a wheelie-bin. Grandmother Lorraine Williams, 58, of Forthlin Road, Allerton, was jailed for two years for drink-driving after knocking down young dad David Lovelady on the way home from bingo. She downed double brandies to celebrate her birthday before getting behind the wheel. Benefits cheat David Williams, 34, formerly of Gresford Avenue, West Kirby, was jailed for two and a half years for falsely accusing an ex-lover of sexual assault and blackmail. Philip David Knowles from St Helens was jailed for 14 years for rape and branded “dangerous” by a judge. Terence Grant-Hanlon, 39, of Bloomfield Green, Sefton Park, was jailed for 11 years for historic sexual abuse. Pervert doctor Ram Manohar was jailed for six years for sexually assaulting two nurses at Wirral’s Arrowe Park Hospital. Manohar, of Dale End Road, Barnston, denied any wrongdoing but was found guilty of three out of four counts of sexual assault. Michael Haigh, 25, of Buttermere Crescent in Rainford, was jailed for life for the murder of dad-of-two Ryan Kennedy in a hit and run attack. John Cullinan, 35, of Hornby Boulevard, Seaforth, was jailed for four years after throwing two pint glasses in a man’s face at The Jollys pub in Bootle. Derek Medlicott, 42, of MacFarren Street, Old Swan, was jailed for life with a minimum of seven years after robbing a bank with his partner and her son and a “one-man crimewave” of other robberies. James Felix Anthony, 64, of Vyner Close, Prenton, was locked up for running a prostitution ring in Wirral. Ex-Merseyside police officer Gary McBride, 45, of Greenfield Road, Old Swan, groomed a vulnerable 12-year-old girl on Facebook then made her pose naked for photographs. He was jailed for seven years. David Hughes, 74, of Bowring Park Road, Broadgreen, was jailed for nine years for a campaign of sexual abuse against five children. Thug Martin Grant, 26, of Davidson Road, Old Swan, was jailed for 10 years after he slashed a man with a Stanley knife, leaving him scarred for life and needing 90 stitches. Predatory criminal Francis Dickinson, 49, who targeted more than 150 OAPs during his life of crime, was jailed for life after committing an offence a week after being released from prison. Racist thug John Kavanagh, 31, of Dial Street, Kensington, was jailed for 11 years after he slashed a woman’s face in a Liverpool street. Grandad Maurice McCullough, 75, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, was jailed for 10 years after a court heard he “stole the childhood” of a St Helens teenager he groomed and abused. John Dyer, 25, of St Albans Court, Vauxhall, was sentenced to life for the murder of Stephen Bennett in a cocaine-fuelled attack. Scout leader Gavin Owen, 38, of Heathfield Close, Formby, was jailed for four and a half years after abusing two teenage boys and being found with a grim haul of child porn. Matthew Connah, 37, of Barons Hey, Stockbridge Village, was jailed for eight years for the killing of popular West Derby grandad-of-ten and pub landlord Richie Williams. Sexual predator Barry Potts, 65, of Bridgemere Close, Fairfield, was locked up for seven years over a string of crimes dating back to the 1970s. Robert Nye, 56, of Vincent Road, Litherland, was jailed for 19 years for historical sex offences against children. One-eyed Ukranian knifeman Igor Rudamenko, from Tuebrook, was jailed for two years and eight months for assaults, burglary and homophobic threats to kill a female neighbour. Jamie Hughes, 33, of no fixed abode, was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years for the murder of Paul Tully in St Helens. Terence Vasey, 55, of Church Street, Southport, was jailed for three years for sexual assault on a 64-year-old woman. His life of crime spanned 40 years and included the killing of a schoolgirl by running her over while drunk at the wheel. Sean Philip Cottrell, 22, of Park Road South, Prenton, was locked up for 11 years for causing his baby son brain injuries by violently shaking him. Paedophile Stephen Woods, 50, of Kelby Close, Toxteth, sexually abused two girls and was jailed for 13 years.

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

It would be easy to believe there was an epidemic of youth crime on Merseyside, as elsewhere in the country.

The ECHO reported last week that a Liverpool schoolgirl was knifed by a 14-year-old boy after his friends accused him of being “too scared to stab a girl.”

However, police cautions for children by Merseyside Police have dropped compared to 10 years ago.

Earlier this year a study found that children as young as 10 had been cautioned for possessing a blade.

In response, Merseyside Police said it had been working hard with agencies such as youth offending services to tackle the reasons young people become involved in crime and to prevent re-offending.

There were 13 cautions for 10 and 11-year-old by Merseyside Police last year, with two given for criminal damage, one for possession of a blade and one for theft of a pedal cycle, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice.

Police also gave 117 cautions to 12 to 14-year-olds in 2014, including for rape of a boy aged under 13, sexual assault on a girl under 13 and a firearms offence.

There were 87 cautions given to 15-year-olds, including for possession of a firearm, assaulting a police officer and six shoplifting offences.

Here are just some of the crimes involving youths which we have reported on in 2015.

Tragedy after gang pelted home

Donald Campbell’s house in Adlam Road, Fazakerley

A retired prison officer died after confronting a gang of youths who pelted mud and apples at his home, an inquest heard.

A coroner ruled that it was “very likely” that 64-year-old Donald Campbell’s death from heart failure was brought on by the stress of the situation.

Mr Campbell collapsed and died just seconds after the group of children were chased off by a neighbour in Adlam Road, Fazakerley, on September 2.

Young yobs attack student house

A gang of hooligans, aged around 12, went on a rampage of anti-social behaviour – throwing a brick through a window, setting fire to three bins and posting fireworks through the letterbox of a student house in Kensington.

The yobs were caught on camera as they pelted the house with stones and other missiles.

Buses hit with bricks

Youths launched bricks and eggs at buses and people in Wirral on Mischief Night

A number of buses, carrying members of the public, were smashed in by bricks and other missiles thrown at them by yobs.

Youngsters were also reported to be causing havoc on streets in Leasowe where eyewitnesses said yobs were throwing eggs, bricks and even potatoes at oncoming traffic.

Shopkeeper’s car smashed up

A Garston shopkeeper was racially abused by a group of yobs before a 16-year-old boy smashed up his Mercedes car with a golf club.

The 16-year-old boy, also from the Garston area, had been due to stand trial for affray and racially aggravated criminal damage at Liverpool Youth Court, but entered a late guilty plea to both charges.

Teenager ‘did not care’ if stabbed man died

Stabbing ordeal: Wellington Road, Wavertree

A Wavertree teenager plunged a knife into a stranger’s leg for no reason – before telling police he “felt nothing” towards his victim and “did not care” if he died.

Alan Hassell, 50, was making his way home from a doctor’s appointment in October when 17-year-old Honza Olah approached him from behind and stabbed him in the thigh with a seven-inch blade.

The youth, from the Wavertree area, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and possession of a knife and was locked up for four years.

Burglary staged after £23k car crash

A panicking teenager staged a burglary to cover his tracks after crashing his dad’s £23,000 Volvo and leaving two people in hospital.

The 17-year-old, from Widnes, ran away from the scene of the crash at the junction of Druids Cross Road and Menlove Avenue, Mossley Hill, before getting a taxi home and staging a break-in to make it look like the car had been stolen.

He pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking causing injury by accident, perverting the course of justice and driving without insurance at Liverpool Youth Court.

Football hooligan glassed man

A teenage football hooligan smashed a glass into a man’s face as around 30 Everton fans clashed with Newcastle United and Hull FC fans outside a London pub.

The 16-year-old boy, from Maghull, and a 17-year-old boy, from Everton, were caught on CCTV cameras taking part in a mass brawl which saw bottles and glasses hurled across a busy street.

Liverpool Youth Court heard serious violence broke out outside Miller’s Pub in Caledonia Street, near King’s Cross Station in London, on May 16 after Everton had taken on West Ham United.

16-year-old left fighting for life after stabbing

(From left to right): Anthony Swainbank, 16; Scott Fergie, 18; Matthew McLeod, 18

Three teenagers were convicted over the stabbing of a schoolboy in Halewood.

The 16-year-victim was left fighting for his life after suffering serious stab wounds to his chest, abdomen and back on March 9 this year.

Scott Fergie, 18, Matthew McLeod, 18, and another 16-year-old boy all denied attempted murder and a jury found them not guilty of the charge after a two week trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted the wounding with intent of the victim and two of his friends.

Fergie, of Oxford Road, Huyton, and McLeod, of Bracknell Avenue, Kirkby, denied wounding with and without intent but the jury delivered a majority verdict of 11-1 finding them guilty of wounding with intent on three counts.

Stolen car driven at police

Teenage car thieves drove a stolen BMW at a police car at the end of a 90mph chase though busy streets.

The youths, aged 16, skidded away from the police vehicle at the last second causing a terrified officer to shout “they’re coming straight at us” over his radio.

The pair, from Anfield and Old Swan, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking with dangerous driving at Liverpool Youth Court in July.

The court heard they drove so dangerously that police were forced to temporarily abandon the chase in the interests of public safety.

Hydrant attack left homes without water

Pictures taken from CCTV footage of yobs setting off water hydrants on Brompton Avenue, Wallasey

Yobs sent water shooting 3ft into the air after vandalising hydrants on a Wallasey street.

Footage shot over two days showed youths – believed to be as young as 12 – using tools to set off the hydrants on Brompton Avenue over the summer.

It left residents without water for several hours, with firefighters being called in to deal with the problem and United Utilities having to send engineers out.

Narrow escape for street cleaners

Biffa street cleaners working in Birkenhead were shot at by children with ball bearing guns

Two Wirral street cleaners narrowly escaped being blinded after youths fired ball bearings at them as they started their shift.

The Biffa cleaners left their vehicle to start work on Bentinck Place, Birkenhead, when they were attacked by two youths firing ball bearing shots at them.

Two of the cleaning crew were hit on the head and neck by the children, who appeared to be aged between 10 and 13.

Graves damaged in cemetery rampage

Three youths, aged 11, 14 and 16, all from Birkenhead, were each charged with damaging gravestones, statues and graveyard fittings at Wirral’s Flaybrick memorial gardens on May 22 last year, causing £300,000 of damage.

Reports that more than 100 gravestones and memorials had been vandalised at the site, on Tollemache Road, Bidston, were first made to police the following day.

Teens held up shop with knife

A mum and daughter were confronted by knife-wielding thugs in a terrifying raid at a late-night Merseyside convenience store.

Two boys, believed to be aged about 16 and dressed in black, raided the Local Mini Mart shop in Seaforth in early January.

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

Meet the 99 Merseyside crooks locked up in 2015 for committing shocking crimes.

There are the mugshots of criminals jailed for serious offences ranging from terrorism to murder and to sickening cases of sexual abuse.

They include Stephen Duggan, 28, who was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 22 years after being convicted of the murder of good Samaritan Alison Wilson, who tried to break up a street row.

Duggan killed the 36-year-old mum-of-two, from Widnes, by thrusting a broken wine bottle into her neck when she tried to stop him attacking a woman holding a baby.

A terrorist who planned to copy the IRA bombing of Manchester Arndale Centre and kill fleeing survivors was also jailed.

Abid Naseer, 29, enrolled at Liverpool John Moores University to get his visa.

He was also suspected of plotting terror attacks in New York and Denmark and a jury heard that he may have examined Liverpool One shopping centre as a potential target. He was jailed for 40 years in America.

Jealous husband Andrew Munro, 51, was handed a life sentence for murdering his wife Clare Munro, whom he stabbed 51 times in Culceth, near Warrington. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 26 years for the brutal attack.

Stephen Duggan, 28, was sentenced to life imprisonment and must serve a minimum of 22 years after being convicted of the murder of good Samaritan Alison Wilson, who tried to break up a street row.Duggan killed the 36-year-old mum-of-two, from Widnes, by thrusting a broken wine bottle into her neck when she tried to stop him attacking a woman holding a baby. A Liverpool man who strangled his 17-year-old girlfriend after being taunted about his sexual prowess to death was jailed for life – for the second time. Callum Wilcocks throttled Kelsey, 17, the mum of their three-year-old daughter, in a row over cheating at a flat in Foundry Lane, Widnes, on April 29, 2011. Wilcocks was convicted over her murder at a re-trial after initially being convicted in 2011. That conviction was quashed by appeal judges after Wilcocks claimed a severe mental disorder meant that he was not in control of his actions. But a jury at Liverpool Crown Court rejected that defence, and Wilcocks must serve a minimum of 16 years for the brutal murder. Maghull paedophile Michael Roach, 62, who was jailed for more than 17 years for sexually abusing five young girls over three decades. Members of a cross-border drugs trafficking cartel headed by “Scouse Escobar” Christopher Welsh jnr were jailed for a total of 90 years. The gang, lead by Welsh jnr, his right hand man Neil Sutemire, and Scottish gangster John Reid, were sentenced for trafficking cocaine and heroin into Scotland at Liverpool Crown Court. A teenager repeatedly stabbed a Bootle dad-of-five before his older brother punched him as he lay dying. Andrew Blood, 17, of Bedford Road, Bootle was jailed for life with a minimum of 12-and-a-half years behind bars after admitting murder. Kenneth Blood, 33, who hid the knife used by his brother to murder Steven Tucker, 51, was jailed for four years. Marie McCarthy was jailed for three-and-a-half years for stealing the virginity of a 15-year-old boy after her original suspended sentence was quashed. The 62-year-old abused the boy, now a fully grown adult, over a five-week period when she was in her 30s. Honzah Olah, 17, of Goswell Street, Wavertree, was locked up for four years after stabbing a man in the leg for no reason – then telling police he felt nothing towards his victim and didn’t care if he died. A disabled paedophile who sexually abused a young girl over more than a decade was jailed for 10 years. Philip Bradley, 55, of Scarisbrick New Road, Southport, was found guilty after a trial of historic sexual offences in Runcorn and Southport, which began in the 1990s. Jacqueline Whittle, 50, of Hampton Road, Southport, was jailed for three years following “callous frauds” of men she conned money out of online by stealing the profile picture of a beautiful American woman and getting them to fall in love with her. A terrorist planned to copy the IRA bombing of Manchester Arndale Centre and kill fleeing survivors. Abid Naseer, 29, enrolled at Liverpool John Moores University to get his visa. He was also suspected of plotting terror attacks in New York and Denmark and a jury heard that he may have examined Liverpool One shopping centre as a potential target. He was jailed for 40 years in America. Allan Sutton, 32, of Carr Bridge Road, Woodchurch, smashed his way into the wrong house and attacked a stranger. He was jailed for five years for the terrifying assault. Jealous husband Andrew Munro, 51, was handed a life sentence for murdering his wife Clare Munro, whom he stabbed 51 times. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 26 years for the brutal attack. A Walton roof fugitive who carried out a brutal gang attack on a drug dealer was locked up for nearly 18 years. John Paul McCoy, 28, was captured after a rooftop stand-off in Walton. Two men were jailed for an attack that left a Woolton drug dealer wheelchair-bound and brain-damaged. Stephen McCoy, 23, and Lee Montague, 22, were jailed for 17 years and 16 years respectively. Stephen Bowden, 61, of Parbold Avenue, St Helens, was jailed for 15 years for historic sexual offences. Kwame Terry, 31, of Old Hall Street, was jailed for 25 years for being the leader of a criminal gang who used guns to enforce their drugs business. A Wirral dad caught with a vile child abuse stash was put behind bars for 28 months. Depraved Paul Foster, 58, from Wallasey, had clips of kids as young as eight being abused. A “morally bankrupt” Wirral teen filmed sex with a schoolgirl then sent the clip to friend who put it on Facebook. Luke Patten, 19, of Eastham, Wirral, was locked up for four and a half years after admitting sexual activity with a 15-year-old, distributing an indecent image and assault causing actual bodily harm against a 19-year-old man. A depraved Wirral paedophile who abused victims as young as two was locked up for more than 13 years. Karl Bromley, 37, from Wallasey left a trail of devastation over a 16-year period in which nine victims, both male and female, were assaulted. A former nurse was jailed for stealing £65,000 from her dementia-suffering mum, leaving her unable to pay care home fees. Gillian Hillier, 54, said spiralling mortgage and business debts led her to “borrow” the money from the 88-year-old. But Liverpool Crown Court heard she spent much of the money shopping and jetting between England and a home in Malaga, Spain. Hillier, of Hansby Drive, Hunts Cross, was jailed for 20 months. A thug with a record of violence against women was jailed for 10 years today after battering his partner around the head with an iron. Alan Sherlock, 26, of Lennox Way, Edge Hill, left the woman in a pool of blood after hitting her so many times a Good Samaritan who witnessed the attack “lost count”. A woman claimed to be related to Steven Gerrard to swindle a disabled man out of £3,000 by offering him bogus shares in Facebook and Liverpool FC tickets. Laura Mason, 29, of Lobelia Avenue, Walton, used the name Louise Gerrard to suggest she was a family member of the Anfield legend as part of a “wicked fraud”. She was jailed for eight months. A man who stabbed his mum in an alcohol and cocaine-fuelled attack at their Wirral home was jailed for 14 years. David Matthews, 32, of Adaston Avenue, Eastham, had already served a jail sentence for threatening to kill his devoted parents with a saw. Sadik Ali, 24, of Windsor Street, Toxteth, was jailed for four years nine months after pleading guilty to sexual assault by penetration. He attacked a 19 year old student who agreed to share a taxi home with him. Gary Whicker, 22, of Whitland Road, Anfield, was jailed for eight months for sending a “revenge porn” video of his ex girlfriend to her 10 year old brother. A disgraced music teacher and former Green Party press officer who sexually assaulted a schoolgirl was jailed for 14 months. Vincent Spencer, 51, from Birkenhead, persuaded his victim to get into bed before kissing her and touching her body over her underwear. Terri Bowker-Hughes was jailed for three years for running a brothel at her city centre flat. A £70,000 benefits cheat who said he couldn’t walk was secretly filmed pulling two suitcases through an airport before jetting away on a luxury holiday to Australia with his wife. Fraudster Kevin McEntee, 64, from Birkenhead, was jailed for two years. Jamie Roberts, 26, of Walmer Road, Waterloo, was jailed for 12 and a half years for robbery in Bootle in which a man was stabbed. A mum-of-three was jailed for three years after she threw a metal drain cover at her friend’s head causing a 5cm deep wound. Kayleigh North, 28, of Marsh Lane, Bootle. attacked the woman during a drunken row. JS71535625 Jack Quinton, 21, of no fixed address, was jailed for seven years and one month for an armed raid involving a gang wearing skull masks. A pair of burglars were jailed after stealing treasured jewellery from pensioners’ homes across Wirral.Drug addict Claire Molden, 19, of Bridge Street, Birkenhead and career criminal Jason Carson, 30, of Lansdowne Road, Birkenhead, ransacked the houses during a six-day spree. Two men who killed PC Neil Doyle during a Christmas night out in Liverpool were jailed. Andrew Taylor, from Huyton and Timmy Donovan, from Childwall, were locked up for seven years and six months and six years and 10 months respectively after both being convicted of manslaughter. Melvin Coy, 32, of Dooley Drive, Old Roan, was jailed after admitting handling stolen goods. Coy was previously jailed for helping the killer of Rhys Jones evade justice. Philip Wharton, 42, of Dale Street, Runcorn was sent down for six years after a householder disarmed him of his axe and pinned him down until police arrived. A computer geek from Liverpool was jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey for trying to buy deadly ricin poison from the Dark Web after being inspired by the hit US television series Breaking Bad. Software programmer Mohammed Ali, 31, of Prescot Road, Old Swan was found guilty of attempting to possess a chemical weapon. Drug addict Philip Taylor, 39, of Maybank Road, Birkenhead, threatened to stab a family with a screwdriver. Paul Griffiths, 43, plied a vulnerable schoolgirl with heroin before having sex with her at his house in Wilburn Street, Walton. He was jailed for seven years. Sex offender David Bennett, 31, who was armed with a knife, sexually assaulted a woman while she sat outside Skelmersdale police station waiting for her teenage son, who was being questioned. Bennett, of Willow Hey, Skelmersdale, was jailed for six years at Liverpool crown court. Martin Daiken, 28, of Boaler Street, Kensington, was given a life sentence for repeatedly stabbing and slashing 47-year-old Roy Heyes’ throat with a broken bottle and clubbing him over the head with a lamp stand. A “greedy” fraudster who used his dead brother and an old schoolmate’s identities to steal £200,000 in benefits was jailed for 28 months. Carl Jones, 79, of Grange Terrace, Wavertree, claimed housing and council tax benefits using the name of his younger brother Roy – who died in 1967. A married man who posted “revenge porn” of his ex-partner online in a “monstrous and devastating breach of trust” was also jailed for three months. David Jones, 53, of Mockbeggar Drive, Wallasey, was locked up at Liverpool magistrates’ court in what was the first conviction in Merseyside under new laws to target the sick practice. Craig Lister, 34, of Hale Road, Walton, nicknamed Bin Laden because of his violent crimes, was jailed for 22 years for a string of robberies. Two “cold-blooded assassins” from Liverpool were given life sentences for using combat knives and a hammer to try murder a member of a rival drug group. Jason “J” McLoughlin, 44, of Utting Avenue East, Norris Green, and Louis Paul Gantley, 29, of Cawthorne Avenue, Kirkby, were told they must serve at least 10 years and four months. Anthony Bath, 22, of Montague Road, Old Swan and Nathan McGrail, 26, of Whinchat Avenue, Newton-le-Willows, were jailed for more than five years in total after conspiring to move profits of cross-border drug dealing. Joseph Tonner, 54, of Aston Green, Runcorn, was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting two children. Abusive boyfriend Michael Quinn, 25, of Tinsley Avenue, Southport, was jailed for five years. He demanded his partner call him Dominus after the slavemaster in Spartacus. William Cowley, 17, stabbed a fellow teenager in an alleyway off Brows Lane, Formby, after a shooting at his house. Cowley, of Gardner Road, Formby, was locked up for five years with an extended three years on licence. Kenneth Simmons, 62, from Tuebrook, was jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of 16 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency dating back to the 70s. Courtney Randles, the 26-year-old girlfriend of murdering drug dealer Chris Kenny, was jailed for three years and four months after admitting money laundering. Randles, of Nickleby Close, Toxteth, enjoyed first class travel, expensive holidays and lavish shopping trips to New York using her boyfriend’s laundered money. Three thugs were locked up for life for the murder of St Helens teenager Jordan Campbell, 17. Ruben Hoather, 22, of Tickle Avenue and Daniel Wiltshire, 25, of Wargrave Road, Newton-le-Willows were jailed for a minimum of 19 years and 21 years. Anthony Wood, 32, of Elephant Lane, Thatto Heath, was jailed for 21 years. “Bi-curious” thug Frank Shannon, who beat a 73-year-old man from Formby unconscious, was jailed for eight years. Shannon, 30, of Ascot Drive, Kirkby attacked the man after meeting him on a dating website. Andrew Skelton, of Water Street, in the city centre, was jailed for eight years after being found guilty of leaking sensitive, personal data relating to almost 100,000 Morrisons supermarket staff. Simon Helstrip, 43, of Euston Grove, Prenton, was jailed for 14 months for sexually assaulting a woman. Peter Watson, 74, of Upland Road, Upton, jailed for 15 years for rape and sexual abuse of a young girl. St Helens mum Amanda O’Shaughnessy was sentenced to life in prison for murdering her partner David Butterworth by stabbing him in the back with a kitchen knife. She will serve a minimum of 14 years. David Vernon Parle, formerly of Trafalgar Road, Wallasey, was jailed for 11 months after sexually assaulting two nurses after taking magic mushrooms. A Toxteth man who groomed a 13-year-old girl on the internet before sexually assaulting her was jailed for more than four years. Alan Pendleton, 52, of Merlin Street, pleaded guilty to four counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child and one charge of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. Frail widow Barbara King was jailed for 12 years as her historical sex crimes caught up with her. King, 71, of Muspratt Road, Litherland, and her husband Tommy, abused young two girls from troubled backgrounds under the pretence of offering them a safe haven. Dingle mum Farieissia Martin, 22, was jailed for a minimum of 13 years for the murder of her childhood sweetheart. Dad-of-two Kyle Farrell was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife after a heated row at Martin’s home in Charlecote Street, Dingle. Christopher Kenny and Shaun Walmsley – both 26 John Hore, 54, and Kirk Mello, 31, were jailed for more than 100 years in total over the murder of Anthony Duffy, 33, in Aintree last year. He was “repeatedly and brutally stabbed” 28 times by rivals who learned that he had plotted to burgle their cannabis farm. Augustine Adu, 31, of Padbury Street, Toxteth, was jailed for nine years and 10 months after stabbing a man so hard with a kitchen knife that the blade snapped in his stomach. Michael Rollason, 39, from Great Sankey, near Warrington, was jailed for seven years for causing the death of cyclist Terry Brown through dangerous driving. He later claimed that he thought he had hit a wheelie-bin. Grandmother Lorraine Williams, 58, of Forthlin Road, Allerton, was jailed for two years for drink-driving after knocking down young dad David Lovelady on the way home from bingo. She downed double brandies to celebrate her birthday before getting behind the wheel. Benefits cheat David Williams, 34, formerly of Gresford Avenue, West Kirby, was jailed for two and a half years for falsely accusing an ex-lover of sexual assault and blackmail. Philip David Knowles from St Helens was jailed for 14 years for rape and branded “dangerous” by a judge. Terence Grant-Hanlon, 39, of Bloomfield Green, Sefton Park, was jailed for 11 years for historic sexual abuse. Pervert doctor Ram Manohar was jailed for six years for sexually assaulting two nurses at Wirral’s Arrowe Park Hospital. Manohar, of Dale End Road, Barnston, denied any wrongdoing but was found guilty of three out of four counts of sexual assault. Michael Haigh, 25, of Buttermere Crescent in Rainford, was jailed for life for the murder of dad-of-two Ryan Kennedy in a hit and run attack. John Cullinan, 35, of Hornby Boulevard, Seaforth, was jailed for four years after throwing two pint glasses in a man’s face at The Jollys pub in Bootle. Derek Medlicott, 42, of MacFarren Street, Old Swan, was jailed for life with a minimum of seven years after robbing a bank with his partner and her son and a “one-man crimewave” of other robberies. James Felix Anthony, 64, of Vyner Close, Prenton, was locked up for running a prostitution ring in Wirral. Ex-Merseyside police officer Gary McBride, 45, of Greenfield Road, Old Swan, groomed a vulnerable 12-year-old girl on Facebook then made her pose naked for photographs. He was jailed for seven years. David Hughes, 74, of Bowring Park Road, Broadgreen, was jailed for nine years for a campaign of sexual abuse against five children. Thug Martin Grant, 26, of Davidson Road, Old Swan, was jailed for 10 years after he slashed a man with a Stanley knife, leaving him scarred for life and needing 90 stitches. Predatory criminal Francis Dickinson, 49, who targeted more than 150 OAPs during his life of crime, was jailed for life after committing an offence a week after being released from prison. Racist thug John Kavanagh, 31, of Dial Street, Kensington, was jailed for 11 years after he slashed a woman’s face in a Liverpool street. Grandad Maurice McCullough, 75, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, was jailed for 10 years after a court heard he “stole the childhood” of a St Helens teenager he groomed and abused. John Dyer, 25, of St Albans Court, Vauxhall, was sentenced to life for the murder of Stephen Bennett in a cocaine-fuelled attack. Scout leader Gavin Owen, 38, of Heathfield Close, Formby, was jailed for four and a half years after abusing two teenage boys and being found with a grim haul of child porn. Matthew Connah, 37, of Barons Hey, Stockbridge Village, was jailed for eight years for the killing of popular West Derby grandad-of-ten and pub landlord Richie Williams. Sexual predator Barry Potts, 65, of Bridgemere Close, Fairfield, was locked up for seven years over a string of crimes dating back to the 1970s. Robert Nye, 56, of Vincent Road, Litherland, was jailed for 19 years for historical sex offences against children. One-eyed Ukranian knifeman Igor Rudamenko, from Tuebrook, was jailed for two years and eight months for assaults, burglary and homophobic threats to kill a female neighbour. Jamie Hughes, 33, of no fixed abode, was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years for the murder of Paul Tully in St Helens. Terence Vasey, 55, of Church Street, Southport, was jailed for three years for sexual assault on a 64-year-old woman. His life of crime spanned 40 years and included the killing of a schoolgirl by running her over while drunk at the wheel. Sean Philip Cottrell, 22, of Park Road South, Prenton, was locked up for 11 years for causing his baby son brain injuries by violently shaking him. Paedophile Stephen Woods, 50, of Kelby Close, Toxteth, sexually abused two girls and was jailed for 13 years.

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

Meet the 99 Merseyside crooks locked up in 2015 for committing shocking crimes.

There are the mugshots of criminals jailed for serious offences ranging from terrorism to murder and to sickening cases of sexual abuse.

They include Stephen Duggan, 28, who was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 22 years after being convicted of the murder of good Samaritan Alison Wilson, who tried to break up a street row.

Duggan killed the 36-year-old mum-of-two, from Widnes, by thrusting a broken wine bottle into her neck when she tried to stop him attacking a woman holding a baby.

A terrorist who planned to copy the IRA bombing of Manchester Arndale Centre and kill fleeing survivors was also jailed.

Abid Naseer, 29, enrolled at Liverpool John Moores University to get his visa.

He was also suspected of plotting terror attacks in New York and Denmark and a jury heard that he may have examined Liverpool One shopping centre as a potential target. He was jailed for 40 years in America.

Jealous husband Andrew Munro, 51, was handed a life sentence for murdering his wife Clare Munro, whom he stabbed 51 times in Culceth, near Warrington. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 26 years for the brutal attack.

Stephen Duggan, 28, was sentenced to life imprisonment and must serve a minimum of 22 years after being convicted of the murder of good Samaritan Alison Wilson, who tried to break up a street row.Duggan killed the 36-year-old mum-of-two, from Widnes, by thrusting a broken wine bottle into her neck when she tried to stop him attacking a woman holding a baby. A Liverpool man who strangled his 17-year-old girlfriend after being taunted about his sexual prowess to death was jailed for life – for the second time. Callum Wilcocks throttled Kelsey, 17, the mum of their three-year-old daughter, in a row over cheating at a flat in Foundry Lane, Widnes, on April 29, 2011. Wilcocks was convicted over her murder at a re-trial after initially being convicted in 2011. That conviction was quashed by appeal judges after Wilcocks claimed a severe mental disorder meant that he was not in control of his actions. But a jury at Liverpool Crown Court rejected that defence, and Wilcocks must serve a minimum of 16 years for the brutal murder. Maghull paedophile Michael Roach, 62, who was jailed for more than 17 years for sexually abusing five young girls over three decades. Members of a cross-border drugs trafficking cartel headed by “Scouse Escobar” Christopher Welsh jnr were jailed for a total of 90 years. The gang, lead by Welsh jnr, his right hand man Neil Sutemire, and Scottish gangster John Reid, were sentenced for trafficking cocaine and heroin into Scotland at Liverpool Crown Court. A teenager repeatedly stabbed a Bootle dad-of-five before his older brother punched him as he lay dying. Andrew Blood, 17, of Bedford Road, Bootle was jailed for life with a minimum of 12-and-a-half years behind bars after admitting murder. Kenneth Blood, 33, who hid the knife used by his brother to murder Steven Tucker, 51, was jailed for four years. Marie McCarthy was jailed for three-and-a-half years for stealing the virginity of a 15-year-old boy after her original suspended sentence was quashed. The 62-year-old abused the boy, now a fully grown adult, over a five-week period when she was in her 30s. Honzah Olah, 17, of Goswell Street, Wavertree, was locked up for four years after stabbing a man in the leg for no reason – then telling police he felt nothing towards his victim and didn’t care if he died. A disabled paedophile who sexually abused a young girl over more than a decade was jailed for 10 years. Philip Bradley, 55, of Scarisbrick New Road, Southport, was found guilty after a trial of historic sexual offences in Runcorn and Southport, which began in the 1990s. Jacqueline Whittle, 50, of Hampton Road, Southport, was jailed for three years following “callous frauds” of men she conned money out of online by stealing the profile picture of a beautiful American woman and getting them to fall in love with her. A terrorist planned to copy the IRA bombing of Manchester Arndale Centre and kill fleeing survivors. Abid Naseer, 29, enrolled at Liverpool John Moores University to get his visa. He was also suspected of plotting terror attacks in New York and Denmark and a jury heard that he may have examined Liverpool One shopping centre as a potential target. He was jailed for 40 years in America. Allan Sutton, 32, of Carr Bridge Road, Woodchurch, smashed his way into the wrong house and attacked a stranger. He was jailed for five years for the terrifying assault. Jealous husband Andrew Munro, 51, was handed a life sentence for murdering his wife Clare Munro, whom he stabbed 51 times. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 26 years for the brutal attack. A Walton roof fugitive who carried out a brutal gang attack on a drug dealer was locked up for nearly 18 years. John Paul McCoy, 28, was captured after a rooftop stand-off in Walton. Two men were jailed for an attack that left a Woolton drug dealer wheelchair-bound and brain-damaged. Stephen McCoy, 23, and Lee Montague, 22, were jailed for 17 years and 16 years respectively. Stephen Bowden, 61, of Parbold Avenue, St Helens, was jailed for 15 years for historic sexual offences. Kwame Terry, 31, of Old Hall Street, was jailed for 25 years for being the leader of a criminal gang who used guns to enforce their drugs business. A Wirral dad caught with a vile child abuse stash was put behind bars for 28 months. Depraved Paul Foster, 58, from Wallasey, had clips of kids as young as eight being abused. A “morally bankrupt” Wirral teen filmed sex with a schoolgirl then sent the clip to friend who put it on Facebook. Luke Patten, 19, of Eastham, Wirral, was locked up for four and a half years after admitting sexual activity with a 15-year-old, distributing an indecent image and assault causing actual bodily harm against a 19-year-old man. A depraved Wirral paedophile who abused victims as young as two was locked up for more than 13 years. Karl Bromley, 37, from Wallasey left a trail of devastation over a 16-year period in which nine victims, both male and female, were assaulted. A former nurse was jailed for stealing £65,000 from her dementia-suffering mum, leaving her unable to pay care home fees. Gillian Hillier, 54, said spiralling mortgage and business debts led her to “borrow” the money from the 88-year-old. But Liverpool Crown Court heard she spent much of the money shopping and jetting between England and a home in Malaga, Spain. Hillier, of Hansby Drive, Hunts Cross, was jailed for 20 months. A thug with a record of violence against women was jailed for 10 years today after battering his partner around the head with an iron. Alan Sherlock, 26, of Lennox Way, Edge Hill, left the woman in a pool of blood after hitting her so many times a Good Samaritan who witnessed the attack “lost count”. A woman claimed to be related to Steven Gerrard to swindle a disabled man out of £3,000 by offering him bogus shares in Facebook and Liverpool FC tickets. Laura Mason, 29, of Lobelia Avenue, Walton, used the name Louise Gerrard to suggest she was a family member of the Anfield legend as part of a “wicked fraud”. She was jailed for eight months. A man who stabbed his mum in an alcohol and cocaine-fuelled attack at their Wirral home was jailed for 14 years. David Matthews, 32, of Adaston Avenue, Eastham, had already served a jail sentence for threatening to kill his devoted parents with a saw. Sadik Ali, 24, of Windsor Street, Toxteth, was jailed for four years nine months after pleading guilty to sexual assault by penetration. He attacked a 19 year old student who agreed to share a taxi home with him. Gary Whicker, 22, of Whitland Road, Anfield, was jailed for eight months for sending a “revenge porn” video of his ex girlfriend to her 10 year old brother. A disgraced music teacher and former Green Party press officer who sexually assaulted a schoolgirl was jailed for 14 months. Vincent Spencer, 51, from Birkenhead, persuaded his victim to get into bed before kissing her and touching her body over her underwear. Terri Bowker-Hughes was jailed for three years for running a brothel at her city centre flat. A £70,000 benefits cheat who said he couldn’t walk was secretly filmed pulling two suitcases through an airport before jetting away on a luxury holiday to Australia with his wife. Fraudster Kevin McEntee, 64, from Birkenhead, was jailed for two years. Jamie Roberts, 26, of Walmer Road, Waterloo, was jailed for 12 and a half years for robbery in Bootle in which a man was stabbed. A mum-of-three was jailed for three years after she threw a metal drain cover at her friend’s head causing a 5cm deep wound. Kayleigh North, 28, of Marsh Lane, Bootle. attacked the woman during a drunken row. JS71535625 Jack Quinton, 21, of no fixed address, was jailed for seven years and one month for an armed raid involving a gang wearing skull masks. A pair of burglars were jailed after stealing treasured jewellery from pensioners’ homes across Wirral.Drug addict Claire Molden, 19, of Bridge Street, Birkenhead and career criminal Jason Carson, 30, of Lansdowne Road, Birkenhead, ransacked the houses during a six-day spree. Two men who killed PC Neil Doyle during a Christmas night out in Liverpool were jailed. Andrew Taylor, from Huyton and Timmy Donovan, from Childwall, were locked up for seven years and six months and six years and 10 months respectively after both being convicted of manslaughter. Melvin Coy, 32, of Dooley Drive, Old Roan, was jailed after admitting handling stolen goods. Coy was previously jailed for helping the killer of Rhys Jones evade justice. Philip Wharton, 42, of Dale Street, Runcorn was sent down for six years after a householder disarmed him of his axe and pinned him down until police arrived. A computer geek from Liverpool was jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey for trying to buy deadly ricin poison from the Dark Web after being inspired by the hit US television series Breaking Bad. Software programmer Mohammed Ali, 31, of Prescot Road, Old Swan was found guilty of attempting to possess a chemical weapon. Drug addict Philip Taylor, 39, of Maybank Road, Birkenhead, threatened to stab a family with a screwdriver. Paul Griffiths, 43, plied a vulnerable schoolgirl with heroin before having sex with her at his house in Wilburn Street, Walton. He was jailed for seven years. Sex offender David Bennett, 31, who was armed with a knife, sexually assaulted a woman while she sat outside Skelmersdale police station waiting for her teenage son, who was being questioned. Bennett, of Willow Hey, Skelmersdale, was jailed for six years at Liverpool crown court. Martin Daiken, 28, of Boaler Street, Kensington, was given a life sentence for repeatedly stabbing and slashing 47-year-old Roy Heyes’ throat with a broken bottle and clubbing him over the head with a lamp stand. A “greedy” fraudster who used his dead brother and an old schoolmate’s identities to steal £200,000 in benefits was jailed for 28 months. Carl Jones, 79, of Grange Terrace, Wavertree, claimed housing and council tax benefits using the name of his younger brother Roy – who died in 1967. A married man who posted “revenge porn” of his ex-partner online in a “monstrous and devastating breach of trust” was also jailed for three months. David Jones, 53, of Mockbeggar Drive, Wallasey, was locked up at Liverpool magistrates’ court in what was the first conviction in Merseyside under new laws to target the sick practice. Craig Lister, 34, of Hale Road, Walton, nicknamed Bin Laden because of his violent crimes, was jailed for 22 years for a string of robberies. Two “cold-blooded assassins” from Liverpool were given life sentences for using combat knives and a hammer to try murder a member of a rival drug group. Jason “J” McLoughlin, 44, of Utting Avenue East, Norris Green, and Louis Paul Gantley, 29, of Cawthorne Avenue, Kirkby, were told they must serve at least 10 years and four months. Anthony Bath, 22, of Montague Road, Old Swan and Nathan McGrail, 26, of Whinchat Avenue, Newton-le-Willows, were jailed for more than five years in total after conspiring to move profits of cross-border drug dealing. Joseph Tonner, 54, of Aston Green, Runcorn, was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting two children. Abusive boyfriend Michael Quinn, 25, of Tinsley Avenue, Southport, was jailed for five years. He demanded his partner call him Dominus after the slavemaster in Spartacus. William Cowley, 17, stabbed a fellow teenager in an alleyway off Brows Lane, Formby, after a shooting at his house. Cowley, of Gardner Road, Formby, was locked up for five years with an extended three years on licence. Kenneth Simmons, 62, from Tuebrook, was jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of 16 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency dating back to the 70s. Courtney Randles, the 26-year-old girlfriend of murdering drug dealer Chris Kenny, was jailed for three years and four months after admitting money laundering. Randles, of Nickleby Close, Toxteth, enjoyed first class travel, expensive holidays and lavish shopping trips to New York using her boyfriend’s laundered money. Three thugs were locked up for life for the murder of St Helens teenager Jordan Campbell, 17. Ruben Hoather, 22, of Tickle Avenue and Daniel Wiltshire, 25, of Wargrave Road, Newton-le-Willows were jailed for a minimum of 19 years and 21 years. Anthony Wood, 32, of Elephant Lane, Thatto Heath, was jailed for 21 years. “Bi-curious” thug Frank Shannon, who beat a 73-year-old man from Formby unconscious, was jailed for eight years. Shannon, 30, of Ascot Drive, Kirkby attacked the man after meeting him on a dating website. Andrew Skelton, of Water Street, in the city centre, was jailed for eight years after being found guilty of leaking sensitive, personal data relating to almost 100,000 Morrisons supermarket staff. Simon Helstrip, 43, of Euston Grove, Prenton, was jailed for 14 months for sexually assaulting a woman. Peter Watson, 74, of Upland Road, Upton, jailed for 15 years for rape and sexual abuse of a young girl. St Helens mum Amanda O’Shaughnessy was sentenced to life in prison for murdering her partner David Butterworth by stabbing him in the back with a kitchen knife. She will serve a minimum of 14 years. David Vernon Parle, formerly of Trafalgar Road, Wallasey, was jailed for 11 months after sexually assaulting two nurses after taking magic mushrooms. A Toxteth man who groomed a 13-year-old girl on the internet before sexually assaulting her was jailed for more than four years. Alan Pendleton, 52, of Merlin Street, pleaded guilty to four counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child and one charge of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. Frail widow Barbara King was jailed for 12 years as her historical sex crimes caught up with her. King, 71, of Muspratt Road, Litherland, and her husband Tommy, abused young two girls from troubled backgrounds under the pretence of offering them a safe haven. Dingle mum Farieissia Martin, 22, was jailed for a minimum of 13 years for the murder of her childhood sweetheart. Dad-of-two Kyle Farrell was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife after a heated row at Martin’s home in Charlecote Street, Dingle. Christopher Kenny and Shaun Walmsley – both 26 John Hore, 54, and Kirk Mello, 31, were jailed for more than 100 years in total over the murder of Anthony Duffy, 33, in Aintree last year. He was “repeatedly and brutally stabbed” 28 times by rivals who learned that he had plotted to burgle their cannabis farm. Augustine Adu, 31, of Padbury Street, Toxteth, was jailed for nine years and 10 months after stabbing a man so hard with a kitchen knife that the blade snapped in his stomach. Michael Rollason, 39, from Great Sankey, near Warrington, was jailed for seven years for causing the death of cyclist Terry Brown through dangerous driving. He later claimed that he thought he had hit a wheelie-bin. Grandmother Lorraine Williams, 58, of Forthlin Road, Allerton, was jailed for two years for drink-driving after knocking down young dad David Lovelady on the way home from bingo. She downed double brandies to celebrate her birthday before getting behind the wheel. Benefits cheat David Williams, 34, formerly of Gresford Avenue, West Kirby, was jailed for two and a half years for falsely accusing an ex-lover of sexual assault and blackmail. Philip David Knowles from St Helens was jailed for 14 years for rape and branded “dangerous” by a judge. Terence Grant-Hanlon, 39, of Bloomfield Green, Sefton Park, was jailed for 11 years for historic sexual abuse. Pervert doctor Ram Manohar was jailed for six years for sexually assaulting two nurses at Wirral’s Arrowe Park Hospital. Manohar, of Dale End Road, Barnston, denied any wrongdoing but was found guilty of three out of four counts of sexual assault. Michael Haigh, 25, of Buttermere Crescent in Rainford, was jailed for life for the murder of dad-of-two Ryan Kennedy in a hit and run attack. John Cullinan, 35, of Hornby Boulevard, Seaforth, was jailed for four years after throwing two pint glasses in a man’s face at The Jollys pub in Bootle. Derek Medlicott, 42, of MacFarren Street, Old Swan, was jailed for life with a minimum of seven years after robbing a bank with his partner and her son and a “one-man crimewave” of other robberies. James Felix Anthony, 64, of Vyner Close, Prenton, was locked up for running a prostitution ring in Wirral. Ex-Merseyside police officer Gary McBride, 45, of Greenfield Road, Old Swan, groomed a vulnerable 12-year-old girl on Facebook then made her pose naked for photographs. He was jailed for seven years. David Hughes, 74, of Bowring Park Road, Broadgreen, was jailed for nine years for a campaign of sexual abuse against five children. Thug Martin Grant, 26, of Davidson Road, Old Swan, was jailed for 10 years after he slashed a man with a Stanley knife, leaving him scarred for life and needing 90 stitches. Predatory criminal Francis Dickinson, 49, who targeted more than 150 OAPs during his life of crime, was jailed for life after committing an offence a week after being released from prison. Racist thug John Kavanagh, 31, of Dial Street, Kensington, was jailed for 11 years after he slashed a woman’s face in a Liverpool street. Grandad Maurice McCullough, 75, from Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester, was jailed for 10 years after a court heard he “stole the childhood” of a St Helens teenager he groomed and abused. John Dyer, 25, of St Albans Court, Vauxhall, was sentenced to life for the murder of Stephen Bennett in a cocaine-fuelled attack. Scout leader Gavin Owen, 38, of Heathfield Close, Formby, was jailed for four and a half years after abusing two teenage boys and being found with a grim haul of child porn. Matthew Connah, 37, of Barons Hey, Stockbridge Village, was jailed for eight years for the killing of popular West Derby grandad-of-ten and pub landlord Richie Williams. Sexual predator Barry Potts, 65, of Bridgemere Close, Fairfield, was locked up for seven years over a string of crimes dating back to the 1970s. Robert Nye, 56, of Vincent Road, Litherland, was jailed for 19 years for historical sex offences against children. One-eyed Ukranian knifeman Igor Rudamenko, from Tuebrook, was jailed for two years and eight months for assaults, burglary and homophobic threats to kill a female neighbour. Jamie Hughes, 33, of no fixed abode, was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years for the murder of Paul Tully in St Helens. Terence Vasey, 55, of Church Street, Southport, was jailed for three years for sexual assault on a 64-year-old woman. His life of crime spanned 40 years and included the killing of a schoolgirl by running her over while drunk at the wheel. Sean Philip Cottrell, 22, of Park Road South, Prenton, was locked up for 11 years for causing his baby son brain injuries by violently shaking him. Paedophile Stephen Woods, 50, of Kelby Close, Toxteth, sexually abused two girls and was jailed for 13 years.

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

A Merseyside detective who made repeated sexual advances to vulnerable victims of domestic abuse was told he faces a “significant” prison sentence.

Michael McMillan, 32, abused his position as a member of the force’s Family Crime Investigation Unit by contacting five women for his own “sexual purposes”.

The detective constable, of Victoria Road, Crosby , appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today where he admitted willful misconduct in a public office.

Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, said: “These women were each victims of domestic abuse.

“The Crown’s case it seems is based principally on the breach of trust between the officer, who was specially skilled and trained in dealing with matters of domestic abuse, and the vulnerability of the victims in question.”

McMillan pleaded guilty to five counts of neglecting to perform his pubic duty and misconducting himself.

According to the charges, he “willfully and without reasonable excuse or justification” misconducted himself “in a way which amounted to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder by persistently making contact with victims of crime for your own sexual purposes”.

McMillan, with short black hair and wearing a grey suit, white shirt and blue tie in the dock, spoke only to enter his pleas.

Andrew McInnes, prosecuting, said the Crown had agreed to accept not guilty pleas from McMillan in relation to two further complainants, who were witnesses to domestic abuse.

Judge Goldstone said: “It is a merciful approach if I may say so, because it is difficult to see how the activities the defendant undertook with the witnesses could have been other than misconduct.”

David Temkin, defending, asked for an adjournment for a psychiatric report, which he said may affect the length of sentence.

He said McMillan suffers from bipolar disorder and is under the care of a consultant psychiatrist, having previously been unfit for interview on a number of occasions.

Judge Goldstone adjourned sentencing until March 11.

He remanded McMillan on bail, with the condition that he does not contact any of his victims.

The judge said: “Mr Temkin is right to acknowledge the inevitability of a significant sentence of imprisonment.”

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

A trusted carer at a Wirral nursing home drained £2,500 from the account of a vulnerable young resident.

Sharon Mansell, a senior health care assistant at New Haven Nursing Home in Wallasey, made weekly visits to local cash machine with a bank card belonging to victim Lee Chaplain, 25.

The 53-year-old, of Greencroft, Wallasey , was spared jail at Liverpool Crown Court today.

Mansell pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position and was ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work.

The court heard that, in a desperate attempt to cover her tracks, she lied to her manager claiming the money had been returned and that the victim did not want the police involved.

Liverpool Crown Court

Rebecca Smith, prosecuting, said Mr Chaplain suffers from learning difficulties and requires 24-hour supervision, due to an inability to understand risk.

A victim impact statement from Mr Chaplain said: “I feel upset and disappointed by Sharon Mansell. I am shocked because she was so nice to me and stole my money.

“I do not want her to care for anyone again in case there’s a risk of someone else being targeted.”

He claimed he still trusted the care home staff and that they had helped him get the money refunded from the bank.

Mr Chaplain moved to the home in August 2014 after concerns he had been the target of an earlier attempt to steal money.

Ms Smith said: “On September 18 this year the complainant noticed withdrawals on his bank statement for £100 and £200.

“He became suspicious because he knew he himself had not withdrawn that money and had not authorised anyone else to.”

The court heard staff were notified and “everyone fell under suspicion”.

Mansell was on annual leave when the offences first came to light but claimed to her manager that she had spoked to Mr Chaplain and the money had been returned.

However she later confessed and said that she did not want other staff members to fall under suspicion.

"You exploited his vulnerability and your position of trust"

Ms Smith said: “His bank card had been left on a shelf with the PIN number accessible to all staff. He had been advised to keep it in his room but said this was not possible because he wanted it to be available in an emergency.”

Gerald Pachter, defending, said his client had been under financial difficulty and was “deeply remorseful” for the offence.

He said: “This was a one-off offence, over a period of time, and completely out of character.”

He told the court Mansell had no previous convictions.

Judge Rachel Smith, sentencing, said: “Over the course of three months you exploited his vulnerability and your position of trust to steal the money.”

Mansell was handed a 10 month jail term, suspended for 18 months.

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

A burglar has been jailed for two years after stealing comedian Bill Bailey’s tour bus from outside Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall.

Francis John Whittaker, 35, took the Mercedes Sprinter van from outside the Hope Street venue where Mr Bailey was due to perform as part of his Limboland tour on October 26,

He pleaded guilty to burglary and two counts of vehicle theft at Liverpool Crown Court today.

The court heard Whittaker, of The Lynxway in West Derby , had also stolen a Vauxhall Vivaro van belonging to Gerard McKeever on August 17, after walking into the Hilton hotel in Thomas Steers Way, Liverpool City Centre .

Liverpool Crown Court

Andrew Sinker, prosecuting, said a woman helping to set up Mr Bailey’s appearance at the Philharmonic Hall, noticed an Apple iMac laptop worth £1,400 and two sets of keys had been stolen from an office.

He said: “CCTV was looked at and a still was produced. The CCTV showed two males entering the building via an insecure fire door. Whittaker was shown walking through the loading bay and returning 10 to 15 minutes later with an item under his arm.”

The van, which had been hired from a company called Tiger Tours, contained Bill Bailey merchandise and personal items worth around £2,000.

It was recovered on a road in Tuebrook the following month, where it had been abandoned after a collision with a Renault Clio.

Police noted it had been fitted with false number plates.

The court heard a CCTV appeal was issued through the ECHO and Whittaker was arrested on December 3.

Comedian Bill Bailey

When the vehicle was recovered Mr Bailey posted on Twitter: “Tour bus found! Huge thanks to@MerseyPolice @LivEchonews UK press & good people of Liverpool . See you back @liverpoolphil next May.”

The second offence took place while Mr McKeever, a company director, was working at the hotel having been contracted to carry out flooring repairs.

Mr Sinker said the complainant noticed three men including the defendant enter the hotel, and shortly after walked out to his van.

Realising it had been stolen, he checked the hotel CCTV and recognised the same men walking into the bar area, taking his keys and leaving the building.

The court heard the van was worth around £17,000, and contained tools and equipment worth £10-12,000.

It also contained keys to his other car, an Audi, and papers containing his home address.

The court heard some days later Mr McKeever was in bed at his home address and awoke to find two men attempting to unlock the Audi. They left the scene after he shouted from a window.

Charlotte Pringle, representing Whittaker, said her client had struggled for some time with drug and alcohol addiction and was prepared to fight his demons while in custody.

Judge Elizabeth Nicholls, sentencing, said: “The facts of these offences are all too familiar. It’s easy to forget the inconvenience, pain and chaos that was inflicted on those who are the victims of such crime. ”

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

Police chiefs branded a detective’s behaviour “despicable” after he admitted making repeated sexual advances to domestic abuse victims.

Michael McMillan, 32, used his position in Merseyside Police’s Family Crime Investigation Unit to persistently contact five women for his own “sexual purposes”.

McMillan, of Victoria Road, Crosby , appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today, where he pleaded guilty to five counts of misconduct in a public office.

Deputy Chief Constable Andy Cooke said: “McMillan’s behaviour as an officer is beyond comprehension.

“He was in a position of trust in the Family Crime Investigation Unit and he abused that trust when dealing with vulnerable victims of crime.

“He manipulated women who looked to him for professional support for his own sexual gratification and his behaviour is despicable and unforgivable.

“It is vital that we as a police force maintain the public’s trust and confidence and ensure that officers and staff throughout the force realise the importance of maintaining standards and working with honesty and integrity.

“We cannot afford to have officers and staff working for us who do not uphold the highest levels of professionalism, honesty and integrity and will always be robust in dealing with officers, or staff, whose conduct is unacceptable.”

Chief Superintendent Andy Cooke

The charges relate to McMillan contacting the domestic abuse victims between June 2011 and June 2014.

Merseyside Police said they followed a “thorough and extensive investigation” by the force’s Anti Corruption Unit (ACU), managed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

McMillan was suspended from duty when he was arrested and will now face a misconduct hearing.

DCC Cooke said: “The majority of people who work for Merseyside Police do a really good job day in, day out, and joined the force to serve our communities with compassion and integrity.

“Sadly the actions of McMillan have the propensity to seriously undermine the good work of the majority.

“The public quite rightly have high expectations of police officers and Merseyside Police is committed to meeting those expectations by demanding high standards of professionalism, honesty and integrity.”

The court heard McMillan suffers from bipolar disorder and lawyers representing the detective requested a psychiatric report.

Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, agreed to adjourn sentencing until March 11, but warned McMillan of the “inevitability of a significant sentence of imprisonment”.

He remanded McMillan on bail, with the condition that he does not contact any of his victims.

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

The burglar who stole comedian Bill Bailey’s tour bus is also under investigation for an alleged theft from Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson.

Francis John Whittaker, 35, was jailed for two years at Liverpool Crown Court today after stealing a Mercedes Sprinter van from outside Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall where Mr Bailey was due to perform as part of his Limboland tour on October 26.

However drug addict Whittaker, of The Lynxway in West Derby , is also the subject of a probe by Merseyside Police into the alleged theft of Mr Tomlinson’s black Vauxhall Antata last September.

A police spokesperson said: “A 35 year-old man remains on police bail pending further enquiries into the theft of a motor vehicle from Duke Street, Liverpool city centre , on Friday 25 September 2015.”

Mr Tomlinson, best known for playing wise-cracking slob Jim Royle on the award-winning BBC series, says the vehicle contained photographs of his son Clifton, who died in 2004 aged 33.

The car was taken after keys were stolen from inside Mr Tomlinson’s bar the Green Room before making off.

Whittaker has not been charged in relation to the incident.

Speaking at the time of the theft Mr Tomlinson said: “The car was full of stuff because I was moving things out of my cottage. Most importantly there was a photo of my son. It’s one of only a few photos of him I’ve got .

“The car was absolutely full of bits and pieces and a lot of the things had sentimental value. It also contained my driving licence and house keys, so we’ve had to change all the locks.”

The actor watched today’s court hearing from the public gallery and was engaged in a brief exchange of expletives with Whittaker as he was taken down to begin his prison sentence.

Francis John Whittaker, 35, jailed for two years

Andrew Sinker, prosecuting told the court Whittaker had snatched car keys and a iMac laptop worth £1,400 from the Philharmonic after getting into the building through an insecure fire door.

The van, which had been hired from a company called Tiger Tours, contained Bill Bailey merchandise worth around £2,000.

It was recovered in Tuebrook the following month, where it was found abandoned and fitted with false number plates after a collision with a Renault Clio.

When the vehicle was recovered Mr Bailey posted on Twitter: “Tour bus found! Huge thanks to@MerseyPolice @LivEchonews UK press & good people of Liverpool. See you back @liverpoolphil next May.”

Whittaker, who had pleaded guilty to burglary and two counts of vehicle theft, was also sentenced for stealing a Vauxhall Vivaro van from Gerard McKeever, who had been working at the Hilton hotel in Thomas Steers Way on August 17 last year.

Judge Elizabeth Nicholls, sentencing, said: “The facts of these offences are all too familiar. It’s easy to forget the inconvenience, pain and chaos that was inflicted on those who are the victims of such crime.”

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

A care worker stole thousands of pounds from a man with a terminal illness at a Liverpool residential home.

Nicola Prior, 38, helped herself to nearly £7,500 belonging to Paul Wynne – who suffers from the neurodegenerative genetic disorder Huntington’s disease.

Liverpool Crown Court heard she was entrusted to look after the 46-year-old victim’s funds at Palmyra care home in Waterloo.

Simon Duncan, prosecuting, said Prior, of Clapham Road, Anfield, had worked at the home in Great Georges Road since 2008.

He said: “She was well aware of the seriousness of his condition and the effect on him.”

Mr Wynne became increasingly bed-ridden in October 2013 and Prior was granted control of his Post Office cash card.

As his principal carer she was tasked with withdrawing money on his behalf to pay for personal items including toiletries.

The home’s manager noticed Mr Wynne’s balance was £200 down and confronted Prior in October 2014.

She claimed she had the cash and receipts and would bring them in, but in December the Post Office sent a letter to the home, after Prior reported the card as stolen.

A check revealed the last time Prior had deposited any money at the home was in August 2014, despite the fact she had since made 18 cash withdrawals using his card.

The defendant was suspended pending an investigation and later fired by her employers.

When interviewed by police Prior tried to blame her co-workers, suggesting that other staff may have had access to the card.

The victim’s sister, Sonya Felmingham, told the court her brother had not been made aware of the theft to spare him the upset.

Mr Duncan said: “She was devastated about what had gone on.”

Prior admitted a single count of fraud. She has no previous convictions.

The defendant, with long blonde hair and wearing a black top, sat biting her nails in the dock, while her mum and sister cried in the public gallery.

Nicola Daley, defending, said Prior was ashamed and had “buried her head in the sand”.

Liverpool Crown Court

Ms Daley said: “She couldn’t bring herself to admit to others how she had behaved.”

She said her client, who suffers from Type 1 diabetes and depression, had always worked hard to earn money and to help others.

Ms Daley said unemployed Prior and her family did not have any savings and could not pay back the money, adding that her client had said: “If I could do anything to pay it back then I would do.”

Sentencing Prior to 15 months behind bars, Judge Steven Everett said: “It wasn’t just the money, it was the principle of what you did – somebody trusted as you were, taking terrible advantage of a really vulnerable person.

“If I were to suspend this sentence I would be sending out entirely the wrong message.“The public need to know that if they abuse the sort of trust that you had, then custody must follow.”

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

Two motorists have denied causing the death of a pedestrian by driving dangerously on a Merseyside road.

Paul Long and Kieran Platt, who both entered pleas at Liverpool crown court on Monday, were driving separate vehicles along Conway Street in Birkenhead last year when Aso Azizi was struck and suffered fatal injuries.

Long, 63, of Merlin Road in Birkenhead, pleaded not guilty to causing the death by driving a Ford Mondeo dangerously and Platt, 21, of Bramblewood Close in Prenton, denied driving a Renault Megane dangerously and causing death.

The incident happened on January 31 last year.

Both men were further remanded on bail by the Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Clement Goldstone QC, and will now face a trial that is set to start on June 6.

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

A teenage girl who nicknamed herself ‘The Ninja’ was jailed after looting 34 homes.

Katie Gilsenan, 18, from St Helens, joined up with three men to bust into properties across three counties, between September and December last year.

The spree, which netted them £320,000, targeted addresses in Cheshire, Wigan, Bolton and St Helens.

Christmas presents from under two separate families’ trees were stolen

The gang’s method involved breaking into homes to steal car keys, then driving away with the vehicles, before putting cloned or stolen registration plates on them.

Gilsenan, who on Facebook dubbed herself a “Ninja after hours of being a full time f****** legend”, pleaded guilty to burglary at Warrington Crown Court.

Her accomplices, Simon Bosworth, 27, of Wyredale Avenue, St Helens, Kevin Andrews, 29, and Kyle Andrews, 23, both of no fixed address, were locked up five years four months, six years and five years two months respectively.

(l to r) Kevin Andrews, Kyle Andrews and Simon Bosworth

Gilsenan, of Belvedere Avenue, was arrested in December, 2014, but it has taken just over a year for all four members to be sentenced.

Det Sgt Nigel Rigby, from Greater Manchester Police, said after the case: “This was a joint operation between us and Cheshire Police to put an end to the spate of burglaries being committed by this group.

“The levels of research attached to the locating and selection of suitable ‘cloned’ number plates displayed a high level of organised criminality.

“They showed no signs of stopping whatsoever and two families were devastated to discover that their wrapped Christmas presents had been stolen from beneath the Christmas tree.

“Their motive was purely financial and their desire to acquire items of high value, ultimately lead to their downfall when some of these items were recovered upon their arrest.”

News updates throughout the day in our live feed here

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

A drunken dad-of-two hit his girlfriend on the head with a metal pole after biting and punching her friend.

Gary Parry, 29, of Blakeacre Road, Halewood, attacked his partner Marnie Austin and her pal Kelly Howarth in a house full of children.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how Parry and the two women were drinking at Miss Howarth’s home in Tiverton Close, Huyton into the early hours of December 2 last year.

Michael Scholes, prosecuting, said Parry and Miss Austin had brought their two children, aged five and eight, with them.

An argument broke out and Miss Howarth, who was with her one-year-old baby, asked Parry to leave.

He went outside but started banging on the door and she let him back in.

Mr Scholes said Parry then picked up Miss Howarth’s baby and dropped the child onto her lap.

He grabbed hold of her and bit his victim on two of her fingers.

Mr Scholes said she bit Parry to get him off and he punched her in the face.

Her 15-year-old son, who was asleep upstairs, was woken by the noise and came down to see Parry drag Miss Austin into the garden.

He pulled her hair as she fell to the ground and when she fled back inside, he pursued her with a trampoline pole.

Parry hit her on the back of the head, causing a three to four centimetre gash, which later had to be glued shut.

Police were called to the scene and arrested Parry at around 7am. He admitted common assault and assault causing actual bodily harm.

He has a caution for battery against Miss Austin and the court heard police have been called to their home on a number of occasions.

Kenneth Heckle, defending, said his client had little memory of the incident but was “genuinely remorseful”.

He said: “Alcohol is the problem. The defendant was as shocked as the complainant that he was capable of doing this, but doesn’t shy away from it in any way and wants to do something about it.”

Mr Heckle urged the court to impose a suspended sentence so Parry could attend an alcohol treatment course, having previously completed one in 2011.

However, Judge David Aubrey, QC, said this was “totally unrealistic” given the couple’s “turbulent relationship” and his persistent alcohol problems.

The judge said: “She has hit the nail on the head by saying that when you’re not in drink you can be lovely, but when you’re in drink you are capable of anything and unpredictable.

“Weapons were used – teeth and a metal pole – and the victims were two women, both of whom were vulnerable.

“This was a sustained assault upon certainly one of the victims and furthermore it was in the presence of a number of children.”

Judge Aubrey jailed Parry 14 months and made an indefinite restraining order, preventing him from contacting Miss Austin.

News updates throughout the day in our live feed here

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

A WIDNES motorist has appeared in court accused of causing a cyclist’s death by careless driving.

Raymond Price, 40, of The Caravan Park on Tanhouse Lane, Widnes, made his first appearance at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, January 5.

Price is accused of causing the death of Mark Robinson by driving a Mazda carelessly on Robin Park Road in Wigan on May 14 last year.

The 34-year-old victim, who was engaged to be married, died later in hospital following the collision when he used a pedestrian crossing near Wigan police station.

Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, the Recorder Of Liverpool, was told by defence lawyer Martyn Walsh that Price would be denying the offence but this did not take place as a copy of the indictment was unavailable.

He was further remanded on bail until Monday, April 11, to enter his plea and a date for his three day trial was fixed to begin on Monday, June 13.

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

The family of a dad who was kicked to death after a night out in Southport have criticised the campaign to free his killer.

James Thompson was jailed for life and ordered to serve at least 10 years behind bars for murdering Antony Johnson, 47, in 2009.

His case is now being examined by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and has attracted support from the former Bishop of Liverpool, who has visited the 25-year-old in jail.

Antony Johnson, who was killed on a Christmas night out in Southport in 2009

The Right Reverend James Jones, who said he has studied Thompson’s murder files, believes the quantity surveyor’s conviction could be unsafe.

But Mr Johnson’s relatives have slammed the campaign to have him exonerated, pointing his guilty verdict was later followed up by a failed appeal at the High Court in London, where a judge described the Formby man’s actions as ‘gratuitous violence.’

Abbey Johnson, 23, Antony’s daughter, said Thompson’s guilt was ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt’.

She told the ECHO: “Thompson has shown no remorse for what he did to my dad. He was continually kicked on the floor, and left with shoe prints embedded in dad’s face.

“Thompson was dragged off my dad by an off-duty police officer. His {damaged} brain and throat was used as evidence in court.

“My dad simply went out, but never came home. As a family, we won’t get him back, but Thompson will still see his family."

Murder Scene on Lord Street in December 2009 after Antony Johnson was murdered by James Thompson while on a Christmas night out. Thompson was later jailed for life

Mr Johnson was on a Christmas night out when he was killed. Prosecutors said he had tried to help two upset teenage girls in Lord Street in Southport, before he was fatally attacked.

Ms Johnson also criticised the Rt Rev Jones for getting involved in the case, adding: “He doesn’t know any background to the case, unless he’s undergone forensic training.

“This is making us relive what happened to my dad.”

Rt. Hon. James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, pictured at Cardiff Bay.

The former Bishop of Liverpool has declined to comment again on the case, but a spokesman said he was ‘continuing to support James Thompson privately’, over ‘the injustice of his treatment’.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission has been actively scrutinising Thompson’s conviction for the past 16 months after it was first allocated to investigators in September 2014.

Bill Esterson, Sefton Central Labour MP, who is also supporting the Thompson family, has raised the case in Parliament, querying the CCRC’s delay in delivering a judgement.

The Thompson family say their son acted in self-defence, but that claim was rubbished by the Johnsons who say Antony suffered massive injuries.

The victim’s family added that he was only 5ft 8ins in height, a diabetic – who’d that night forgotten to take his medication – and had recently injured his right shoulder, leaving him unable to move properly.

“He was in no fit state to fight,’ they said.

Mr Johnson was walking to a taxi rank when he went to help two distressed teenage girls who were in a confrontation with the killer and his pals, the original trial heard.

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

A teenager was locked up after throwing glass bottles and kicking, biting and racially abusing police officers during a violent rampage in a Liverpool Tesco store.

Sayed Houssani, 19, also grappled with another customer at the Bold Street store which led to the pair colliding with a alcohol display, smashing bottles worth £339.

Houssani, of Hardman Street in Liverpool city centre , was jailed for a total of nine months at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court today.

The court heard he called one office a f****** p*** and kicked him four times in the back during the chaotic struggle on Sunday night

He pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting a PC, one of racially aggravated harassment and one of threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour.

Houssani also admitted breaching a suspended sentence of 80 days in prison, handed down for an assault on his former partner.

Andrew Page, prosecuting, told the court Houssani had been waiting in the queue at the Tesco “for a matter of seconds” before becoming agitated and abusive.

Mr Page said: “A staff member rang three bells calling for security to attend and an assistant manager came to the till area. The defendant was heard to say hurry up and serve me you f****** c***.

“Staff asked him to stop being abusive, to which Mr Houssani replied I’m not being abusive you c***.”

The court heard a man waiting in the queue, who remains unknown, challenged the defendant and told him “you are being abusive, mate.”

Mr Page said: “The defendant turned his attention to the male who was taken by surprise, and they fought. Both fell into a beer display causing it to smash and spill over the store. But the male was of a large build and overpowered Mr Houssani.”

However the man released Houssani, who threw a bottle towards the till area narrowly missing staff and customers.

Security guards at the store then restrained him until police arrived.

PC Vinay Ramnath, who was racially abused and kicked by the defendant, was forced to put him on the floor and call for back up as he continued to struggle and shout threats.

When he was eventually taken to St Anne’s Custody Suite he bit PC Kevin Jameson on the thumb before several officers forcibly removed his clothes and locked him in a cell.

He later answered no comment to all questions in an interview.

Christopher Mantle, representing Houssani, said his client had moved to the UK from Iran in 2012 after a “horrendous upbringing”.

Mr Mantle said his client escaped his native country and was granted a five year stay in the UK after being stabbed by his father.

Mr Mantle said: “He is the first to accept he has anger management issues.

The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court

“He has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which is said to be a result of his traumatic life.”

Since living in the UK Houssani enrolled on a college course in Gillingham, Kent, but moved to Liverpool after being twice convicted of assaulting his girlfriend for a “fresh start.”

He was working in a supermarket on Smithdown Road at the time of the latest offence.

Magistrates’ activated the 80 day suspended sentence and handed down 26 weeks in prison for the new offences, to run consecutively.

The chair of the bench said: “These are very serious offences which were committed while you were under a suspended sentence and a community order meant to keep you out of trouble.

“The location of the offences, in a public place, is an aggravating feature and members of the public must have been terrified. And then you assaulted public servants.”

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

A thug held a BB gun resembling a real pistol to a man’s head during a fight at a Merseyside social club.

Armed police descended on Haydock Catholic Club after Ian Robertson brandished the weapon on November 20 last year.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how the 31-year-old, of Beilby Road, Haydock, was recognised by staff.

Barman Paul Jones saw Robertson talking to a regular customer known as ‘Adam’, who was with five unidentified men.

Simon Duncan, prosecuting, said Mr Jones was alerted to the fight at around 8.25pm, when a glass was smashed and a table overturned.

Mr Duncan said: “He saw the defendant holding what appeared to be a gun to Adam’s head.

“Mr Jones immediately ran from behind the bar towards the defendant, Adam and his friends, who were holding onto the defendant in an effort to disarm him.”

The barman managed to push Robertson against a wall and grabbed hold of the weapon.

He restrained Robertson on the floor but one of Adam’s friends came over and glassed the defendant in the face, before the group fled.

Mr Jones tended to cuts to Robertson’s face, while the weapon was put behind the bar.

The defendant then asked for it back and revealed it was only a ball bearing gun.

Mr Duncan said: “He told Mr Jones he had put the gun to Adam’s head as Adam had been bullying another male. He kept saying he didn’t like bullies.”

When police arrived and arrested Robertson, he replied: “I agree with everything you have charged me with.”

He was searched and found to be carrying a small wrap of cocaine.

He later told an officer he had pointed the gun “at a gang of drug dealers”.

An armed policeman who retrieved the weapon said he initially thought it was a real self-loading pistol.

It was only when he checked the gun that he realised it was loaded with a ball bearing.

Robertson was serving a 16-week suspended prison sentence at the time for two offences of battery.

He attacked two women after they came to his home in July 2014 and accused him of cheating on his partner by sleeping with one of them.

Liverpool Crown Court

He replied “f*** it, I’m stabbing you both” before threatening them with a kitchen knife and grabbing them each by the throat.

Robertson admitted possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

He also admitted cocaine possession and breaching his suspended sentence.

Robert Haygarth, defending, said his client was in the club with his partner when he witnessed what he thought was bullying.

He said the group also insulted his girlfriend, for whom he is the registered carer.

Mr Haygarth said Robertson had gone home to get the gun, which he had recently bought to fire at cans in his garden for around £30.

He said Robertson denied knowing it was loaded or that the incident had anything to do with drugs.

Judge Brian Cummings, QC, praised Mr Jones for “very bravely” disarming the defendant.

He said the gun could still have inflicted injury if fired at close range.

Judge Cummings sentenced Robertson to 19 months behind bars.

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

This is the teenage thug who racially abused, kicked and bit police officers in a violent rampage at a Liverpool supermarket.

Sayed Houssani, 19, also grappled with another customer at the Bold Street Tesco Extra which led to the pair colliding with a alcohol display, smashing bottles worth £339.

Houssani, of Hardman Street in Liverpool city centre, was jailed for nine months at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

The court heard he racially abused an officer, kicking him four times in the back during the chaotic struggle on Sunday night.

Houssani, pleaded guilty to two charges of assaulting a PC, one of racially aggravated harassment and one of threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour.

He also admitted breaching a suspended sentence of 80 days in prison, handed down for an assault on his former partner.

Andrew Page, prosecuting, told the court Houssani had been waiting in the queue at the Tesco “for a matter of seconds” before becoming agitated and abusive.

Mr Page said: “A staff member rang three bells calling for security to attend and an assistant manager came to the till area. The defendant was heard to say hurry up and serve me you f****** c***.

“Staff asked him to stop being abusive, to which Mr Houssani replied I’m not being abusive you c***.”

The Tesco store on Bold Street. Picture from Google Street View.

The court heard a man waiting in the queue, who remains unknown, challenged the defendant and told him: “You are being abusive, mate.”

Mr Page said: “The defendant turned his attention to the male who was taken by surprise, and they fought. Both fell into a beer display causing it to smash and spill over the store. But the male was of a large build and overpowered Mr Houssani.”

However the man released Houssani, who threw a bottle towards the till area narrowly missing staff and customers.

Security guards at the store then restrained him until police arrived.

More stories from the courts

PC Vinay Ramnath, who was racially abused and kicked by the defendant, was forced to put him on the floor and call for back up as he continued to struggle and shout threats.

When he was eventually taken into custody he bit PC Kevin Jameson on the thumb before several officers forcibly removed his clothes and locked him in a cell.

He later answered no comment to all questions in an interview.

Christopher Mantle, representing Houssani, said his client had moved to the UK from Iran in 2012 after a “horrendous upbringing”.

Mr Mantle said his client escaped his native country and was granted a five year stay in the UK after being stabbed by his father.

Mr Mantle said: “He is the first to accept he has anger management issues.

“He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder which is said to be a result of his traumatic life.”

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