This is the violent mum who stabbed a woman in the face with a stiletto heel outside a Liverpool club.

Jody Louise Modeste, 27, was jailed for 18 weeks at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on Monday after admitting attacking the woman in a case of mistaken identity.

Modeste, from Huddersfield, was staying over in Liverpool with friends when she got into an argument with another group of women inside Camel Club, Wood Street.

David Maxwell, prosecuting, said victim Latisha Carter and friends were stood outside the club smoking when they noticed a group of around 15-20 women staring at them.

A statement from mum-of-one Miss Carter, read by Mr Maxwell, said: “They started coming towards me and shouting, but I can’t remember what they were saying because there were so many shouting across the group.

“One female in particular was shouting ‘I am going to kill you’. At that point I said I didn’t want to fight and I didn’t want to get involved in anything.”

The Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court

The court heard two men who witnessed the incident tried to shield the victim, but Modeste got around them.

Miss Carter said: “I saw she was holding a stiletto shoe with a thin heel, around six inches long. She stabbed it into my left cheek and I felt an instant throbbing pain and burning, and I saw blood.”

The court heard Modeste shouted: “Don’t f****** smile at me,” before leaving the area.

Matthew O’Neill, defending Modeste, said her client had mistaken Miss Carter for one of the woman she had argued with inside the club.

Despite her pain, the victim called police and followed her attacker from a distance.

She saw the group attempting to get into another bar on Wood Street and managed to alert two mounted police officers, who arrested the defendant.

Modeste answered no comment in interview, but later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

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Miss Carter was treated for a large cut which went through her cheek, leaving a scar, and cuts inside her gums.

The court heard Modeste, of Curzon Street, has previous convictions for robbery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, battery and witness intimidation, although she had not been in trouble since 2008.

In a victim impact statement, read to the court, Miss Carter said: “My scar is a constant reminder that me or my four-year-old daughter could be randomly attacked.”

Mr O’Neill said Modeste “would never have committed the offence sober” and described his client as a “good mother”.

District Judge Wendy Lloyd, passing sentence, said: “The victim was just having a cigarette and this was an act of random street violence.”

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

A KIRKBY man has admitted taking part in a £70,000 robbery at a house near Widnes said to have left a woman traumatised.

The woman was home alone in Cronton when three men burst into the isolated property at around 4.40pm on November 30 last year.

The masked intruders stole “a large amount of cash, expensive jewellery and high value watches” worth approximately £70,000 in total.

Police and paramedics attended the scene after the victim, described as being “traumatised” by the incident, ran to a neighbour’s property.

Kevin Burke, 29, and Liam McCabe, 24, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court this morning charged with robbery.

Burke, of Rhosesmor Terrace in Southdene, appeared via video link from HMP Liverpool.

He pleaded guilty to the charge of robbery.

McCabe, of Roughdale Avenue in Kirkby did not enter a plea.

Joanne Maxwell, prosecuting, said McCabe would next appear at the court for a further hearing on March 24.

Judge David Aubrey, QC, said a provisional trial had been set for the week commencing June 13.

He said Burke would be sentenced at the end of the trial and remanded him in custody.

The judge remanded McCabe on conditional bail.

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A MAN alleged to have raped a teenage girl at a Widnes nightclub last year has gone on trial.

Matthew Smith, 26, of The Glen in Palacefields, Runcorn, appeared at Warrington Crown Court, inset, accused of one count of rape, which he denies.

Opening the trial on Monday, Simon Mills, prosecuting, told the court that the alleged incident occurred in July last year in the early hours of the morning of Sunday, July 19, at the Pulse Bar where the defendant was working as the manager.

Mr Mills told the court that the alleged victim, now 18, and her friends had initially gone to The Chambers in Runcorn but were not let in as they had no identification, and headed to Widnes.

The prosecution said that after the group entered the Pulse Bar the defendant offered them free shots, as well as a VIP booth, and a bottle of vodka and mixer drinks for £45.

He said the victim later had a cigarette outside the club with one of her friends and that when she came back to the table, she noticed her mobile phone was ‘missing’, which made her ‘upset and distressed’.

She later went with a friend to the manager’s office where the defendant was after asking at the bar if the phone had been handed in.

Mr Mills said that Smith told the alleged victim she would have to ‘prove’ she owned the phone in the manager’s office and that he later said only one person was allowed in the room at a time.

During the incident the defendant ‘bent’ the complainant over and ‘pulled her dress up’, the court heard.

He added that she ‘describes events as all being a bit of a blur’ and told the jury that the ‘overall issue is consent’.

The prosecution said that the defendant’s case is that intercourse with the alleged victim was with her consent and at her ‘instigation’.

Mr Mills added that CCTV footage was also to be played to the jury during the trial which ‘seems’ to show the complainant ‘hugging’ the defendant.

An interview conducted by police with the complainant was also played to the jury on Monday.

She told the officer: “He didn’t ask me ‘can we have sex?’

“It was so painful.

“I did not know what to do to be honest.

“All this happened so quickly.

“All I can remember is being bent over.

“I just remember being in a lot of pain and saying ‘no, I don’t want to.’

“I did not want to do it but I didn’t go crazy or fight back because I was scared.”

The complainant also told the officer that she remembered the defendant ‘locking the door’.

She added that prior to this her and three friends had shared the bottle of vodka they were given, but did not drink all of it.

The trial is estimated to last for four days.

Proceeding.

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A St Helens man was jailed for the horrific two-hour “systematic torture” of an elderly man partly filmed on a mobile phone.

Richard Finch, 25, was locked up for nine years alongside his accomplice Jaye Corcoran, 24.

The pair trussed up their 64-year-old victim, before subjecting him to the prolonged and brutal knife attack.

He was left with serious injuries to his face and chest, as well as numerous puncture wounds to his shins, and spent a number of days in intensive care.

Finch, of no fixed address but formerly from St Helens, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent and false imprisonment.

Corcoran, of no fixed address but from Dublin, was convicted by a jury of the same charges.

The violence took place in the early hours of March 17, 2015, after police were called to a hostel in Westminster, central London, where the 64-year-old victim and the attackers lived.

DC Andy Kidd of the Westminster Serious Crime Unit said the motive for the attack remained unclear.

He said: “Richard Finch and Jaye Corcoran for reasons only known to themselves, subjected the elderly and vulnerable victim, who they had only just met, to a prolonged, sustained and brutal attack the like of which was akin to systematic torture.

“Their actions were totally inexcusable. Today they have been sentenced to a substantial period of imprisonment.”

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A Toxteth man who battered a woman while high on drink and drugs was jailed for eight years this afternoon.

Aden Omer’s victim had been among guests at a party at his flat in Bentley Road last summer but after the others left Omer suddenly attacked her.

She was repeatedly assaulted and her ordeal only ended after a woman neighbour heard shouting, banging and her screams for help at about 7.30 am.

When she went round she could hear the woman begging to be released and when Omer opened the door he had blood on his face and head.

When asked what he had done he closed the door but a few seconds later it re-opened and his victim “came flying out and fell on the floor,” said Gerald Baxter, prosecuting.

“She told the neighbour, ‘he has beat me all night’. The defendant said, ‘leave her, she is nothing’.”

The neighbour said she was phoning the police and Omer followed her but she managed to close her door and rang them. The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had blood all over her arms and face, which was swollen, and her clothing was torn.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that she fled bare foot before the police arrived but they found her at a shop in Lodge Lane where she said, ‘he’s battered me’ and alleged he he’d had sex with her.

When questioned by officers the next day she told how he had claimed she fancied him and tried unsuccessfully to pull her pants down. He grabbed her by her the throat, sat on her pinning her on the couch and repeatedly punched her in the face.

She told them: “I thought I was going to die and he just carried on punching me and choking me and punching me in the face.”

The 28-year-old said that earlier she had been getting along fine with Omer, who had given her a line of cocaine, but things turned sour after the others left.

When examined at hospital she was found to have cuts and bruises all over her face and body and had bite marks to her abdomen. Her blood was found on Omer’s clothing.

He was convicted by a jury of wounding with intent but cleared on the judge’s directions of attempted rape.”

Jailing him Judge Andrew Hatton said: “You gave her a merciless beating. You were fuelled by drink and drugs.

Omer, 33, who has previous convictions including drug dealing, admitted punching her but denied intending to cause the injuries.

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

A drunken woman who slashed an innocent victim with a stiletto heel leaving her scarred for life was spared jail.

Abbie Van Hien, 25, launched the unprovoked attack on Christine Mohamed, 30, in the early hours of New Year’s Day last year.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how Ms Mohamed saw Van Hien sitting down in Bold Street at around 5.15am and simply asked if she was okay.

Michael Jones, prosecuting, said the defendant replied “you’re with them” before picking up her shoe and hitting her in the head.

Ms Mohamed was taken to hospital, where she received stitches for a three centimetre cut to her forehead.

Judge Norman Wright said: “She will carry a scar for the rest of her life.”

Van Hien, of Whatcroft Close, Runcorn, accepted responsibility for the attack when arrested and interviewed by police.

However, she told officers she could not remember hitting the victim with her heel.

Paul Wood, defending, said: “We know she had been drinking too much on the night in question. This wasn’t her trying to be obstructive.”

Mr Wood accepted it was a “deeply unpleasant injury in a very obvious place” and caused by a single blow.

The defendant, with long brown hair and wearing a black top in court, admitted unlawful wounding. She has no previous convictions.

Mr Wood said his “emotionally vulnerable” client was of good character and had shown genuine remorse.

He said: “Your honour knows where this lady was at in her life when this incident happened – the loss she had suffered and distress she had been caused, through events that were clearly not her fault.”

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Judge Wright said Van Hien had drunk “a considerable amount of alcohol” and the attack was made worse because the scar was in a prominent position on the victim’s face.

He said: “The shoe was held in such a way that the heel was in effect a weapon. It may well be that style of shoe, a stiletto, has taken its name from a stiletto dagger.

“This is now the third case in the last few months that has come before me where a female defendant has assaulted a victim using a stiletto as a weapon.

“You must understand that while these shoes aren’t pointed like a knife, they are capable of inflicting serious and nasty injuries.

“This victim will have for the rest of her life as a memento of this incident a scar on her forehead.

“There will ultimately be a white mark there. If not heavily camouflaged with make-up it will be something that is readily noticed by all that speak to her.”

Judge Wright handed Van Hien 16 months in prison, suspended for two years, and 250 hours of unpaid work.

He said: “I am satisfied this was an isolated incident, a drunken episode isolated in nature, and maybe in part attributable to matters in your personal background, which I am not going to ventilate in open court.

“It seems to me there are particular items in your background, which might be why you consumed too much alcohol and acted wholly out of character.”

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

This is the face of a jealous Southport woman who left her love rival with permanent blurred vision after smashing a stiletto heel into her eye.

Julie Green, 46, battered defenceless Amy Urquhart as she cowered on the floor before striking her with the shoe in Lord Street, Southport.

Green, of Meadow Lane, was jailed for two-and-a-half years at Liverpool Crown Court while her friend and co-accused Carly Rendell, 26, of Ervington in Skelmersdale, was locked up for 18 months.

Green pleaded guilty to wounding without intent and common assault, while Rendell admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault.

Lee Bonner, prosecuting, told the court the incident began when Miss Urquhart and her partner Stephen McLoughlin were verbally abused at the Fox and Goose pub, in Cable Street, on March 8 last year.

He said: “The two complainants were in a relationship. The defendant Julie Green was Mr McLoughlin’s ex-partner, having split around two weeks before the incident, after being together three years.”

The court heard Green approached and accused Mr McLoughlin of owing her money, before telling Miss Urquhart: “You don’t know him, I was with him for three years you stupid f****** b****.”

The groups were separated by bouncers but met up again outside.

Mr Bonner said Miss Urquhart had removed her stilletos to avoid falling over when Green first launched her attack.

He told the court: “Mrs Urquhart looked up to see Green holding one of her stilettos in her hand. Green then struck her in the face with the heel of the shoe, striking her a number of times.

“On one occasion the heel of the shoe connected with Miss Urquhart in the eye, causing it to close up so she could not open it.”

The attack eventually stopped after Rendell pulled Green away, shouting: “Come on that’s enough, there’s cameras.”

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

A police officer told a proceeds of crime hearing that he suspected a leading Liverpool property developer of being a ‘launderer of drugs’ money’.

Detective Constable Duncan Watson made the assertion on the third day of a proceeds of crime hearing into the criminal fortune of the Clarke family.

Feared brothers Stephen and Peter Clarke headed up a sprawling organised crime group, which stretched from Manchester to Northern Ireland.

The brothers were jailed for a combined 26 and-a-half-years in November 2013.

Prosecutors are now targeting the assets of Stephen and Peter, and their respective wives Rachel and Maria Clarke.

Today at Preston Crown court defence barrister Nigel Power QC asked DC Watson why he had chosen, on Tuesday, to link property developer Peter McInnes to heroin dealer Anthony Quigley.

He asked had he done so to persuade the court that Mr McInnes was someone who ‘launders drug money’.

DC Watson said: “I believe he possibly does, yes.”

Mr Power said ‘possibly’ and DC Watson said ‘yes’.

DC Watson said that he did not know where Mr McInnes’ money comes from.

Mr McInnes and his wife, who was also referred to in a the court hearing on Tuesday, have not been charged with any criminal offence.

It’s not known what involvement Liverpool City Council had in any of these schemes and it may not extend to anything beyond granting planning permission.

Mr Power put it to DC Watson that Mr McInnes was in fact regenerating large parts of Liverpool city centre .

He said that Mr McInnes appeared to have the full backing of Liverpool city council.

Mr Power said: “Liverpool city council think quite a lot him don’t they?’

Mr Power asked DC Watson why he had provided press cuttings of some of the projects Mr McInnes was associated with in Liverpool , such as Pall Mall and Islington.

DC Watson said he provided the cuttings because he did not know how someone such as Mr McInnes, ‘who had high court judgements against him, and was now short of £2m, could be taken on by a council’.

Mr Power asked DC Watson if he thought that Mr McInnes had ‘conned’ Liverpool city council in some way.

DC Watson said: “He fronts companies, runs them until accounts are due and then scraps them and then moves on.”

DC Watson said that Mr McInnes had never declared any income in this country. The court heard that he has a home in Dubai.

He pointed out that some of the figures mentioned in relation to Mr McInnes were wrong, and that many of the payments were from Mr McInnes and not property company Peckers Hill.

Mr Power also questioned Mr Watson about Fortis and Stealth, two security companies linked to the Clarkes.

He pointed out that many of the companies the firms dealt with, such as McDonalds, were highly reputable.

Mr Power said that in relation to a Northern Ireland cannabis operation, Stephen Clarke became involved only after the arrest of drugs’ courier Mark Higgins, and that Higgins reported to Peter Clarke, not Stephen.

The court also heard that Mr McInnes had attended Copy Lane police station voluntarily but chose to make no comment at the meeting.

DC Watson told Nick Johnson QC, prosecuting, that Mr McInnes had also requested a second ‘meeting’.

After liaising with his superiors, DC Watson agreed to meet Mr McInnes at the Tickled Trout near Preston.

DC Watson said that at the meeting Mr McInnes said that he had problems with some people in Merseyside and was a player in a ‘dangerous world.’

He had said that Stephen Clarke helped provide security at some sites in Liverpool, including a student development in the city centre. He said that he had known Mr Clarke for some time.

Mr Power offered a slightly less dramatic version of this meeting, when Mr McInnes made no reference to any ‘danger’.

(Proceeding)

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

A defendant has appeared in court charged with assault and aiding and abetting someone driving dangerously outside a Runcorn pub.

Luke Anthony Hammond, 26, St Mary’s Road, Garston, was at Halton Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

He is charged with ABH and GBH over an alleged assault at the Red Admiral pub on Boston Avenue on May 24 and two counts of aiding and abetting someone driving dangerously in a Mitsubishi Shogun on Birch Road near the same venue on the same day.

Hammond was given unconditional bail and told to attend Halton Magistrates Court again on February 17.

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

DEFENDANTS convicted over a cocaine supply conspiracy in Widnes and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment between them have been told to cough up more than £11,000 worth of their ill-gotten gains.

Michael Bennett, 35, of Sandstone Drive in Prescot, and Terry Cowan, 25, of McKeagney Gardens in Widnes, had a Proceeds Of Crime Act hearing on Monday, January 11, at Warrington Crown Court.

A court spokesman told the Weekly News that an order was made against Bennett for £11,436, while an order was made for a ‘nominal amount’ of £1 against Cowan but is not to be collected.

Bennett and Cowan were caged for 16 and 14 years respectively in October 2014 for conspiring to possess class A drugs with intent to supply cocaine, two offences of possession of a prohibited weapon and one of possession of ammunition without a certificate.

Terry Cowan, 25, of McKeagney Gardens in Widnes, had an order made against him to pay a nominal amount of £1 which was not to be collected at a Proceeds Of Crime Act hearing held at Warrington Crown Court. He was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for one count of conspiring to possess class A drugs with intent to supply cocaine, two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon and a count of possession of ammunition without a certificate.

At Monday’s hearing, the court spokesman added that prosecutors discontinued their interest against Rebecca Shepard, 25, also of McKeagney Gardens in Ditton.

She had originally been sentenced to four years imprisonment for being concerned with the supply of class A drugs after she drove Cowan to Southern England to either deliver drugs or collect money.

But Shepard’s sentence was later cut to three years in June 2015 by three senior judges at London’s Criminal Appeal Court.

Upon sentencing in 2014, Cheshire police said that the defendants were arrested following Operation Caiman, an investigation into the supply of class A drugs in Widnes and Southern England.

Officers said that raids at two homes in Widnes and one in Liverpool in 2014 recovered ‘significant’ amounts of class A drugs, as well as a firearm, silencer and ammunition and that the defendants had conspired to supply more than £370,000 worth of drugs.

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

Three men have been found guilty of what is the believed to be the biggest robbery in British history, the £14 milllion Hatton Garden raid.

The gang of thieves carried out the "sophisticated" and meticulously planned break-in over the Easter weekend last year.

They ransacked 73 boxes at Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Ltd after using a drill to bore a hole into the vault wall.

Valuables worth up to £14 million, including gold, diamonds and sapphires, were taken.

Two thirds of them remain unrecovered.

Carl Wood, 58, of Elderbeck Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire; and William Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green, east London, were convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property.

Jon Harbinson, 42, of Beresford Gardens, Benfleet, Essex, was cleared of the two offences.

Plumber Hugh Doyle, 48, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, north London, was found guilty of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between January 1 and May 19 this year.

None of the men showed any reaction as they were convicted.

Another thief, known only as "Basil", let his co-conspirators into the building by opening the fire escape from inside. He has not been identified.

All of the men are due to be sentenced by Judge Christopher Kinch QC on March 7.

Ringleaders John "Kenny" Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 60, Terry Perkins, 67, and the group’s oldest member Brian Reader, 76, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary last September.

It can now also be reported that Perkins’s daughter Terri Robinson, 35, of Sterling Road, Enfield, faces being jailed alongside him after she pleaded guilty to concealing, converting or transferring criminal property.

Her brother-in-law Brenn Walters, 43, who is also known as Ben Perkins, also admitted the same offence.

The tunnel leading into the vault at the Hatton Garden

Doyle was readmitted to bail, with Judge Kinch saying: "He has been convicted, albeit of the slightest of counts on the indictment of any defendant in this case.

"Nonetheless, his conviction (is) in relation to involvement in an extremely significant matter, and one which is likely to carry or result in a custodial sentence.

"That said, I take the view that he has acted responsibly since being granted bail."

The group of thieves who broke into the vault included participants of some of the most notorious heists of the last century – Reader had been involved in the £26 million gold bullion Brinks Mat robbery, and Perkins was a player in the £6 million Security Express raid.

But despite their experience in acquisitive crime, it took the bungling "Bad Grandpas" two nights to breach the vault, and they were caught after covert recording devices planted in their cars captured them boasting of their endeavours.

Jones bragged about the raid in one recording, saying: "The biggest cash robbery in history at the time and now the biggest Tom in the f****** world, that’s what they are saying … and what a book you could write, f****** hell’."

Perkins was caught saying the gold from the raid was going to be his pension.

"I’m going to melt my good gold down. The Indian, the 18, that could be my pension if I could get half an idea of what’s there, you know what I mean," he said.

Prosecutor Philip Evans told the jury "a very substantial quantity of gold, jewellery, precious stones, cash and other items were stolen from the vault in the basement of a building at 88-90 Hatton Garden".

Referring to the men who pleaded guilty, he said: "These four ringleaders and organisers of this conspiracy, although senior in years, brought with them a great deal of experience in planning and executing sophisticated and serious acquisitive crime not dissimilar to this.

"This offence was to be the largest burglary in English legal history."

After the men were arrested, police raided their homes and discovered a number of stolen goods, including gold, and precious gems. A book called Forensics For Dummies was found at Jones’s house. There was no forensic trace left at the vault.

Searches of Reader’s home revealed a book on the diamond underworld, a diamond tester, a diamond gauge, diamond magazines, and a distinctive scarf seen on CCTV at Hatton Garden on the night of April 2.

Although present on the first night of the burglary, he did not return for the second.

Saying that only one third of the estimated £14 million had been recovered, Mr Evans added: "This leaves, somewhere in the world, a great deal of criminal property from Hatton Garden, which has been concealed, converted or transferred."

The men would often meet a short distance from London’s diamond district, making plans at The Castle pub on Pentonville Road in Islington, and Scotti’s, a nearby cafe.

Some also took part in reconnaissance.

Reader – recognisable by his striped socks and brown shoes – Jones, Perkins, Collins, allegedly Wood, and the man known as "Basil" entered Hatton Garden Safe Deposit at around 9.20pm on April 2.

CCTV footage shows them arriving in a white van and unloading tools, bags, metal joists and wheelie bins.

The men used walkie-talkies to communicate and their mobile phones were in "radio silence".

However, after they were unable to gain access to the vault on the first night, the gang returned on April 4.

Once inside, the men used the lift shaft to access the basement, disabled the alarm and drilled into the vault wall using a drill they had taken with them.

They were eventually seen emerging from the building with holdalls and wheelie bins laden with stolen goods.

The gang stashed the jewellery, gold and cash behind skirting boards, at various houses and Jones even buried several bags of jewellery under memorial stones at a cemetery.

On May 19 Collins, Perkins and Jones met at the Old Wheatsheaf pub in Enfield – next to Doyle’s workshop – where the goods were transferred into Collins’s car.

From here it was to be amassed in one place, Perkins’s daughter Terri Robinson’s address, in Sterling Road, Enfield.

However, soon after they arrived at the property with the bags of jewellery, police swooped on them.

Detectives also dug up two bags of jewellery stashed under the memorial stone of the grandfather of Jones’s children, in Edmonton Cemetery.

When Jones took officers to the same graveyard at a later date he showed them to a different plot where they unearthed a smaller bag of stolen gold and jewels, but he did not tell them about the bigger stash.

Collins, of Bletsoe Walk, Islington; Jones, of Park Avenue, Enfield; Perkins, of Heene Road, Enfield, and Reader, of Dartford Road, Dartford, have been in custody since their arrests.

Paul Keleher, defending Doyle, said that his client would be appealing against the conviction.

The Met’s Flying Squad detectives have also renewed their appeal for information about mystery raider "Basil" and offered a £20,000 reward.

Basil was instrumental in the gang gaining access to the vault at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit.

The red-haired character is seen on CCTV, obscuring his face from the camera, walking through Hatton Garden on both nights of the raid.

Thought to be the alarm and key man, he let the thieves into the building and clambered through the hole that had been drilled in the concrete and into the vault.

Detective Superintendent Craig Turner said: "The investigation will be still ongoing. We will seek to identify the individual known as Basil. I refresh our appeal and offer a £20,000 reward.

"We don’t know anything about Basil, that is why we are putting out the appeal."

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

A children’s play centre in Southport was linked to the flow of alleged drugs money into the bank account of a feared gangster’s wife.

The fourth day of a hearing on the alleged £2m criminal fortune of the notorious Clarke family heard PlayTown, in Ocean Plaza, received money from a Liverpool property developer linked to drugs trafficking and money laundering.

Brothers Stephen Clarke, 48 and former army corporal Peter Clarke, 37, headed up a sprawling organised crime group which stretched from Manchester to Northern Ireland and were jailed for a combined 26 and-a-half-years in November 2013.

Now the brothers are locked in a battle with prosecutors who say their alleged £2m fortune was amassed through drugs trafficking and is “squirrelled away in murky web of hidden assets.”

The Crown Prosecution Service is also targeting the assets of Stephen’s wife Rachel Clarke and Peter’s wife Maria Clarke.

Today Preston Crown Court heard that Rachel Clarke was a 50% shareholder in PlayTown alongside Gillian Ashcroft, who ran the business.

Detective Constable Duncan Watson, giving evidence, said £90,000 was paid to the company by the now United Arab Emirates based developer, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

He suggested that the money was related to the supply of drugs and was intended for Rachel Clarke.

The court heard the company, which has since been sold, also paid a small wage to Maria Clarke despite no evidence of her playing any role in the legitimate activities of the business.

Alex Wright, representing Rachel Clarke, claimed there was no evidence the payment was intended for his client and said the money was a loan.

He said: “The only benefit in relation to (the developer), of £90,000, was made to the company and not Mrs Clarke personally. She was a 50% shareholder with another woman, Gillian Ashcroft.”

Earlier this week Nigel Power, QC, defending Stephen Clarke, claimed the family’s money came from legitimate scaffolding and security companies, which did business with McDonald’s, Holiday Inn, Redrow Houses and even Warrington Borough Council.

Referring to one scaffolding company linked to Clarke, named CNL, he said: “One can see legitimately transferred payments going in, and cash being withdrawn. This is the opposite of money laundering.”

Stephen Clarke, left, and brother Peter

But prosecution counsel Nick Johnson, QC, claimed payments to companies linked to Clarke were made by a business run by the same developer, and to other businesses linked to various associates of the Clarke family.

PlayTown was raided by police from Titan, the North West Regional Organised Crime unit, in 2012 as part of an investigation in money laundering, drugs trafficking and firearms offences.

No illegal drugs or weapons were found on the premises.

At the time Ms Ashcroft said: “There’s a lot of suspicion drugs and firearms were found here – why would anyone bring those to a children’s centre?

“I haven’t been charged with anything, I’m not involved in any criminal activity – they just looked at financial documents and they went and that’s all they came for.”

The complex Proceeds of Crime Act hearing is set to last several weeks.

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

A Southport dad has denied sending nuisance messages to the mum of the driver of a car in a horror crash which killed his son.

Frazer McCarthy, 21, was in the passenger seat of a red Ford Focus driven by 24-year-old James Walmsley when it collided with a Nissan Qashqai on Formby bypass in May 2012.

Frazer died and Mr Walmsley was left with severe brain damage and deemed unable to face prosecution for causing death by dangerous driving.

A fact-finding hearing concluded that Mr Walmsley had driven dangerously in the run-up to the collision.

Frazer’s dad, 57-year-old James McCarthy, has been charged with persistently making use of public communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety to Mr Walmsley’s mum Kim Walmsley, on December 5 last year.

McCarthy, of Vale Crescent in Southport, pleaded not guilty to the charge at South Sefton Magistrates’ Court in Bootle yesterday and will stand trial on March 11.

He was released on bail.

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

A Toxteth drug dealer who went on the run after he was caught cutting and bagging up cocaine was captured by police in Kent.

Fugitive Liam Ditchfield, 25, was sentenced to seven years in jail at Liverpool Crown Court in November.

He had failed to attend a trial which led to him being found guilty in his absence of possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

Ditchfield, whose last address was in Sheerness, Kent, appeared in court today via video link from a Canterbury police station.

The defendant admitted failing to attend court and breaching his bail conditions.

Simon Becker, defending, told Judge Anil Murray: “The best mitigation when a person has absconded is always an apology.

“He understands it was a discourtesy to the court and to yourself in particular.

“He is sorry for the fact he was unable to attend and the trial was heard in his absence.

“The only explanation that can be given, and I quote Mr Ditchfield in his own words, is he had ‘cold feet’. He panicked and he apologises.”

Ditchfield was originally arrested after police raided a property in Kaber Court, Horsfall Street, Toxteth on June 30, 2014.

Officers discovered 26 wraps of cocaine, with a street value of around £800.

The cutting agent Benzocaine and electronic scales were also seized, plus £1,600 in cash.

His co-accused Faye Kavanagh, 26, of Tithebarn Road, Knowsley, had also denied possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

Faye Kavanagh, 26, of Tithebarn Road, Knowsley, jailed for two and a half years for possession with intent to supply cocaine from a Toxteth flat

Traces of the DNA of both defendants was found on drug packaging, which cocaine-user Kavanagh claimed was because she separated her stash into different amounts ready for personal use.

But a jury found the couple guilty of the charge and also convicted Ditchfield of possession of criminal property, namely the cash, in his absence. He previously admitted possession of cannabis.

Judge Murray said Ditchfield had “imposed himself” on Kavanagh so he could deal cocaine from her home and reap the profits. He jailed her for two-and-a-half years.

Ditchfield had three previous convictions for dealing heroin, crack cocaine and mephedrone in 2006 and 2007, when he was aged just 15 and 16.

Mr Becker said: “He has a son aged four. He is going to be away from his son for a long time. He wants to get on with his life upon release.”

Judge Murray said he would take the fact Ditchfield was now serving seven years into consideration when sentencing him for the breach of bail.

He said: “I have to give you a consecutive sentence. You caused extreme inconvenience.”

The judge handed Ditchfield a further 28 days in prison.

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

The parents of a six-year-old girl who choked to death on a grape drove 100 miles to confront an ambulance chief executive.

Rob and Kathy Lapsley from Anfield took action because they said they were met with a ‘wall of silence’ from NHS bosses following the tragedy while on holiday in north Wales.

They wanted answers to why the ambulance took 25 minutes to reach the unconscious youngster – 17 minutes over the government-approved target time for top-grade emergencies.

On Tuesday Jasmine’s inquest verdict was recorded as an accident and the Welsh Ambulance Service has apologised and said it was studying recommendations from the inquest.

Jasmine Lapsley, 6, who died after choking on a grape in Morfa Nefyn , North Wales

Now the couple have revealed how they were repeatedly hampered in their quest for answers about the ambulance service response on the night Jasmine died in August 2014.

Ex-cabbie Rob, 42, claimed: “We found the ambulance service very defensive, concerned with their own position rather than how it affected us.

“In November 2014, three months after we lost Jasmine in August, was when they first made contact with us.”

He said he was forced to submit a Freedom of Information request to the Welsh Ambulance Service with his questions – and when that went unanswered he complained to the Information Commissioner.

Jasmine Lapsley with her mum Kathy.

Rob added: “Finally, in June, last year, we drove to St Asaph, in north Wales, where the Welsh Ambulance Service’s board meeting was taking place.

“We were getting incredibly frustrated.

“We decided to go and meet them unannounced to put some uncomfortable questions to them.

“When we got there we were taken into a side room with the chairman and chief executive, Tracy Myhill.

“We did actually come away from that conversation feeling more positive, that we were being finally listened to.

“All we wanted to know was everything that happened to our daughter that day.”

Rob and Kathy also hit back over criticism of them on social media, questioning if they acted correctly when Jasmine started turning blue after eating the grape.

Jasmine Lapsley, who died while on holiday.

Mum Kathy, 39, who works for Liverpool council , said: “We’d both done first aid courses before this happened – I’ve done a paediatric course – but nothing was getting that grape out.

“You’re worried about hurting your child, as the back blows and abdominal thrusts were powerful.

“Strong men were doing it, and the grape wouldn’t come back up.

“Because of its shape, it acted like a plug.

“The odds of it happening are shorter than winning the lottery.

“It’s scary how quickly it all happens.”

But despite everything the couple are not considering any further action against the Welsh Ambulance Service and described Tuesday’s accidental verdict as ‘the end of the line.’

Rob added: ““We feel Jasmine was let down.

“An ambulance to take 25 minutes for a small girl choking is far too long. And for 13 minutes to go by before calling the RAF is unacceptable.

“But, we want to draw a line under it now.”

In a statement, Tracy Myhill, Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: “We know that there are things we could have done differently, both during and after the event, and for that we are genuinely sorry.

“Whilst we have already made many improvements since Jasmine’s tragic death – like the method we use to treat a child whose airway is compromised – we know that there is still work to do.”

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

A RUNCORN man has been acquitted by a jury of raping a teenage girl.

Matthew Smith, 26, of The Glen in Palacefields, has been found not guilty of rape by a jury at Warrington Crown Court, a court spokesman told the Weekly News.

The trial started on Monday, January 11, was being presided over by Judge Nicholas Woodward and the verdict was returned today by a jury of six men and six women.

The incident was alleged to have taken place in the early hours of the morning of Sunday, July 19, at the Pulse Bar in Widnes, where Smith was working as the manager.

The prosecution had alleged during the trial that Smith had raped a 17-year-old girl – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – in an office at the nightclub.

Prosecutor Simon Mills had said on Monday that the defendant’s case was that he and the teenager did have sexual intercourse at the venue on Victoria Street, but that it was with her consent and at her ‘instigation’ after he had given her back her mobile phone, which she had earlier lost in the club.

The defendant had denied the charge.

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

A former pub landlord who lost his licence for selling counterfeit booze has admitted harassing his estranged wife.

Robert Christopher Hannah, 54, sent victim Janine Hannah more than 900 text messages after their marriage broke down, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard today.

The court heard he phoned his wife’s mother and his own children asking them to put their mother on the phone, during a seven month harassment campaign.

Angie Rowan, prosecuting, said: “On May 9 the complainant walked out of the family home and has not returned since. The defendant has sent over 900 text messages, not about child contact as they are supposed to be, but attempting to get back together and declaring his love for the complainant.

“Mrs Hannah said when the defendant was drunk or when she ignored him the messages would get abusive and intimidating.”

The court heard Hannah, of Kingfield Road, Walton, was arrested in January and admitted the messages “looked bad”.

A victim impact statement from Mrs Hannah said: “I feel emotionally drained over the whole situation. The constant contact from Robert upsets me, my children and family members(…)

“When Robert walked past my house my mum had to stay over so I felt safe.”

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Paul Williams, defending, said his client had struggled to cope with the death of his father and the breakdown of his marriage.

He told the court Hannah’s construction business had folded, but he was in the process of building up a new business.

Magistrates adjourned the case until February 4 for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

Hannah was stripped of his alcohol licence by Liverpool City Council in June 2013, after inspectors found 84 bottles of illegal vodka and 27 litres of illegal sambuca at the Old Campfield Pub in Heyworth Street, Everton.

Bottles of counterfeit vodka were found stashed away in a locked cupboard and in a dishwasher when trading standards officers executed a warrant at the pub.

Jenny Davies, enforcement officer for the Liverpool alcohol and tobacco unit, had told the council’s licensing and gambling sub-committee that tests carried out elsewhere in the UK had found the fake vodka was adulterated with some of the same ingredients found in producing antifreeze, which could lead to blindness when drunk.

Sgt Michael Hearty, of the police’s licensing unit, said there were “serious concerns” about the management of the pub and the possible risks to public safety if it was allowed to carry on trading.

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

The country’s most senior judge has slammed Merseyside police for their “unacceptable” investigation into jury tampering during a rape trial.

The Lord Chief Justice also suggested that attempts to nobble jurors in Liverpool and the surrounding area were “well known”.

The investigation centred around an approach by the nephew of a defendant at Liverpool Crown Court to a woman who was on his uncle’s jury.

The man Facebook friended the female juror, who was said to be “tall and attractive”, and when caught claimed he had just been surfing the net looking for attractive women – an excuse described as “fanciful” by Judge Hatton.

But his attentions left her “manifestly too frightened” and asking to be excused being on the panel.

In an extremely rare move, Judge Andrew Hatton, who was presiding over the trial in November 2014, allowed the hearing to continue without the jury after agreeing the social media approach was deliberate jury tampering.

Sitting in the appeal court today the nation’s top judge attacked Merseyside Police for handing the subsequent probe to junior detectives, instead of more senior officers.

Pic Andrew Teebay. Stock pic. Judge Andrew Hatton at Liverpool Crown Court.

Lord Thomas said: “The investigation carried out by the police was of an unacceptably low standard.

“The Merseyside Constabulary should never have entrusted such a serious matter to such junior policemen, given the well-known problems in relation to attempts to interfere with juries in Liverpool”.

“Police should give the highest priority and urgency to jury tampering investigations.

“Such inquiries should be carried out by senior officers under the close supervision of trial judges.

“We were told that the police did not examine the man’s phone or Facebook account.

“An inspector who reviewed the case made that decision without any reference to the Crown Prosecution Service.

“Given the gravity of the allegation and its significance to the administration of justice, this lack of proper attention to what had happened and why was undeniably unacceptable.”

The Lord Chief Justice and two other Court of Appeal judges ordered a copy of their written ruling – which sets out the duties of police when such allegations are made – should be sent to every chief constable.

The sign outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, central London. Photo: Nick Ansell/PA Wire

The defendant at the trial was accused of raping a woman who believed her drink had been spiked. He claimed that what happened between them was consensual.

He had been in the witness box for about an hour before the jury complained to Judge Hatton.

As well as being contacted directly through Facebook the terrified juror also warned a court usher that ‘men in the public gallery appeared to be fiddling with their mobile telephones’.

The man, who said the defendant was his uncle, claimed he had ‘made a terrible mistake’ when surfing for attractive women on the internet.

When he realised he had mistakenly contacted a member of the jury, he swiftly ‘unfriended’ her, he said.

And he denied having made any attempt to intimidate the woman or tamper with the jury.

Judge Hatton said it would be an ‘affront to common sense’ to assume that the defendant was not in some way involved in the attempt to affect the juror’s decision.

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

He added that the man’s motive was either to intimidate the juror or to develop a relationship with her so that he could influence the jury’s verdict.

Lord Thomas said Judge Hatton’s decision to continue the trial without a jury was ‘correct.’

A Merseyside Police spokeswoman said: “We note the judgement of the Court of Appeal that has been handed down today and when it is received we will go through it in detail.

“Once we have considered the written ruling the force will be in a position to comment further.”

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

A Toxteth man was found guilty of sexually abusing two boys in the 1990s.

Patrick Hampson, 56, faced seven separate allegations of indecent assault in a trial at Liverpool Crown Court .

He was alleged to have abused two boys, one when he was aged 11, and the second when he was aged between eight and 10.

Hampson, formerly of Corinto Street, Toxteth, but now of Lord Nelson Street, Liverpool city centre , denied the offences.

The jury were directed to acquit him of one of the charges by the judge Recorder David Turner, QC.

But this afternoon jurors returned guilty verdicts on the remaining six counts against Hampson.

Prosecutors said Hampson showed the boys his stash of adult pornography and even tried to hypnotise one of them before carrying out the abuse.

Lee Bonner, prosecuting, said the defendant was around 32 when he began molesting Child A.

He said Hampson made inappropriate comments towards the boy about them touching each other and showed him pornography.

Mr Bonner said Child A recalled feeling “intimidated” by Hampson and was warned not to speak out.

He said Hampson played with himself and asked Child A to join in, later performing a sex act on the boy.

Mr Bonner said: “He was more ashamed than afraid and after that incident he says that he managed to stand up to him and that it never happened again.

“He however didn’t tell anybody about what had been happening until years later when in 2006, at age of about 25, he told his parents and first spoke to the police.”

The lawyer said Child B became aware of the allegations, but only felt able to speak to police in 2014.

He then alleged that he too had been abused by Hampson from the age of eight and 10.

Mr Bonner said Hampson would have been aged between 34 and 37 at the time.

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

Child B also said he saw pornographic magazines and that Hampson performed sexual acts on him.

Mr Bonner said: “He didn’t tell anybody about what was happening to him at the time and didn’t know that he wasn’t the only one.”

When interviewed by police, Hampson accepted that he had pornographic magazines and videos, but said these were hidden away and he did not show them to the boys.

He claimed he had only shown them cartoons and children’s films on a TV with a video player in his bedroom and that they must have found the porn without his knowledge.

Hampson said both of the alleged victims must be lying – an assertion he repeated in court, when he insisted “nothing at all happened”.

Recorder Turner said the paedophile would be sentenced on February 12 and remanded him on bail.

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

Three men have been found guilty of what is the believed to be the biggest robbery in British history, the £14 milllion Hatton Garden raid.

The gang of thieves carried out the "sophisticated" and meticulously planned break-in over the Easter weekend last year.

They ransacked 73 boxes at Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Ltd after using a drill to bore a hole into the vault wall.

Valuables worth up to £14 million, including gold, diamonds and sapphires, were taken.

Two thirds of them remain unrecovered.

Carl Wood, 58, of Elderbeck Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire; and William Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green, east London, were convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property.

Jon Harbinson, 42, of Beresford Gardens, Benfleet, Essex, was cleared of the two offences.

Plumber Hugh Doyle, 48, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, north London, was found guilty of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between January 1 and May 19 this year.

None of the men showed any reaction as they were convicted.

Another thief, known only as "Basil", let his co-conspirators into the building by opening the fire escape from inside. He has not been identified.

All of the men are due to be sentenced by Judge Christopher Kinch QC on March 7.

Ringleaders John "Kenny" Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 60, Terry Perkins, 67, and the group’s oldest member Brian Reader, 76, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary last September.

It can now also be reported that Perkins’s daughter Terri Robinson, 35, of Sterling Road, Enfield, faces being jailed alongside him after she pleaded guilty to concealing, converting or transferring criminal property.

Her brother-in-law Brenn Walters, 43, who is also known as Ben Perkins, also admitted the same offence.

The tunnel leading into the vault at the Hatton Garden

Doyle was readmitted to bail, with Judge Kinch saying: "He has been convicted, albeit of the slightest of counts on the indictment of any defendant in this case.

"Nonetheless, his conviction (is) in relation to involvement in an extremely significant matter, and one which is likely to carry or result in a custodial sentence.

"That said, I take the view that he has acted responsibly since being granted bail."

The group of thieves who broke into the vault included participants of some of the most notorious heists of the last century – Reader had been involved in the £26 million gold bullion Brinks Mat robbery, and Perkins was a player in the £6 million Security Express raid.

But despite their experience in acquisitive crime, it took the bungling "Bad Grandpas" two nights to breach the vault, and they were caught after covert recording devices planted in their cars captured them boasting of their endeavours.

Jones bragged about the raid in one recording, saying: "The biggest cash robbery in history at the time and now the biggest Tom in the f****** world, that’s what they are saying … and what a book you could write, f****** hell’."

Perkins was caught saying the gold from the raid was going to be his pension.

"I’m going to melt my good gold down. The Indian, the 18, that could be my pension if I could get half an idea of what’s there, you know what I mean," he said.

Prosecutor Philip Evans told the jury "a very substantial quantity of gold, jewellery, precious stones, cash and other items were stolen from the vault in the basement of a building at 88-90 Hatton Garden".

Referring to the men who pleaded guilty, he said: "These four ringleaders and organisers of this conspiracy, although senior in years, brought with them a great deal of experience in planning and executing sophisticated and serious acquisitive crime not dissimilar to this.

"This offence was to be the largest burglary in English legal history."

After the men were arrested, police raided their homes and discovered a number of stolen goods, including gold, and precious gems. A book called Forensics For Dummies was found at Jones’s house. There was no forensic trace left at the vault.

Searches of Reader’s home revealed a book on the diamond underworld, a diamond tester, a diamond gauge, diamond magazines, and a distinctive scarf seen on CCTV at Hatton Garden on the night of April 2.

Although present on the first night of the burglary, he did not return for the second.

Saying that only one third of the estimated £14 million had been recovered, Mr Evans added: "This leaves, somewhere in the world, a great deal of criminal property from Hatton Garden, which has been concealed, converted or transferred."

The men would often meet a short distance from London’s diamond district, making plans at The Castle pub on Pentonville Road in Islington, and Scotti’s, a nearby cafe.

Some also took part in reconnaissance.

Reader – recognisable by his striped socks and brown shoes – Jones, Perkins, Collins, allegedly Wood, and the man known as "Basil" entered Hatton Garden Safe Deposit at around 9.20pm on April 2.

CCTV footage shows them arriving in a white van and unloading tools, bags, metal joists and wheelie bins.

The men used walkie-talkies to communicate and their mobile phones were in "radio silence".

However, after they were unable to gain access to the vault on the first night, the gang returned on April 4.

Once inside, the men used the lift shaft to access the basement, disabled the alarm and drilled into the vault wall using a drill they had taken with them.

They were eventually seen emerging from the building with holdalls and wheelie bins laden with stolen goods.

The gang stashed the jewellery, gold and cash behind skirting boards, at various houses and Jones even buried several bags of jewellery under memorial stones at a cemetery.

On May 19 Collins, Perkins and Jones met at the Old Wheatsheaf pub in Enfield – next to Doyle’s workshop – where the goods were transferred into Collins’s car.

From here it was to be amassed in one place, Perkins’s daughter Terri Robinson’s address, in Sterling Road, Enfield.

However, soon after they arrived at the property with the bags of jewellery, police swooped on them.

Detectives also dug up two bags of jewellery stashed under the memorial stone of the grandfather of Jones’s children, in Edmonton Cemetery.

When Jones took officers to the same graveyard at a later date he showed them to a different plot where they unearthed a smaller bag of stolen gold and jewels, but he did not tell them about the bigger stash.

Collins, of Bletsoe Walk, Islington; Jones, of Park Avenue, Enfield; Perkins, of Heene Road, Enfield, and Reader, of Dartford Road, Dartford, have been in custody since their arrests.

Paul Keleher, defending Doyle, said that his client would be appealing against the conviction.

The Met’s Flying Squad detectives have also renewed their appeal for information about mystery raider "Basil" and offered a £20,000 reward.

Basil was instrumental in the gang gaining access to the vault at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit.

The red-haired character is seen on CCTV, obscuring his face from the camera, walking through Hatton Garden on both nights of the raid.

Thought to be the alarm and key man, he let the thieves into the building and clambered through the hole that had been drilled in the concrete and into the vault.

Detective Superintendent Craig Turner said: "The investigation will be still ongoing. We will seek to identify the individual known as Basil. I refresh our appeal and offer a £20,000 reward.

"We don’t know anything about Basil, that is why we are putting out the appeal."

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