Baby-faced thug, jealous boyfriend and drug dealer among seven criminals jailed this week

A baby-faced thug who looted a Liverpool city centre shop, a jealous boyfriend who threatened to break the necks of both his girlfriend and their dachshund puppy, and a disgraced Southport rioter were among those locked up in Liverpool this week.

Also jailed was a dad who lost his temper in a drunken row and elbowed and punched his girlfriend's sister, and a 22-year-old man who viciously attacked another man on a night out in Warrington.

Meanwhile, Chester Crown Court saw a class A drug dealer jailed after police traced his phone with help from the Department for Work and Pensions. Here are the faces of seven people locked up this week.

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Jack Laffey

Jack Laffey threatened to "snap the necks" of both the dog and his girlfriend under the belief that she would begin seeing other men if he was sent to prison. The paranoid 19-year-old "believed [his girlfriend] would sleep with other people while he was in jail", and he "did not want her to have the dog any more".

This led to him pursuing her around the streets in a car, jumping onto the bonnet of her vehicle and booting the windscreen. Laffey admitted criminal damage, a malicious communications offence, driving while disqualified, driving without insurance and breaching a suspended sentence order. Appearing in court via video link on Monday, September 17, he was sentenced one year in a young offenders' institute.

Joshua Cropper

Cropper hurled bricks, a slab of concrete and a wheelie bin at police officers in Southport after a riot broke out. An angry mob gathered on St Luke's Road on the evening of July 30 and threw missiles at a mosque following the fatal stabbings of six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice Da Silva Aguiar.

Cropper, 31, of Pitt Street, was caught on camera taking off his T-shirt and using it as a makeshift mask before attempting to smash the window of a police van while one PC was still trapped inside. He used a concrete slab to smash the window of a carrier vehicle before hurling the concrete at nearby police officers, and was also said to have launched a wheelie bin towards emergency service workers.

He appeared in court on Monday, September 17, where he pleaded guilty to violent disorder. Appearing suited in the dock, he nodded as he was jailed for 30 months.

Joshua Saxton

Saxton, 22, repeatedly punched another man in the face during a night out, leaving him permanently blind in one eye. The "nasty and cowardly" assault occurred outside the Block 1 nightclub on Bold Street, Warrington, at around 2am on November 19 last year.

The victim, Dominic Robinson, had been attempting to break up an argument when he was attacked. He suffered serious injuries and needed emergency surgery to save his eye. In a victim statement read out in court on Tuesday, September 18, he said: "Things like getting a shave, which would once be a simple task, I now struggle with. Even putting my trousers on can be a task. Even sending a text can be difficult.

"I still have this big, dark cloud hanging over me. The injury affected not just me but my whole family, and it's something I will have to live with for the rest of my life."

Saxton, of Marron Avenue in Longford, Warrington, admitted a single count of affray, and was sentenced to 10 month in prison. His supporters were heard crying "no" and "oh God" in the public gallery as he was led to the cells.

Benjamin Cross

A dad "lost his temper" during a drunken row with his girlfriend and elbowed her sister in the face. Benjamin Cross, 41, of Cecil Road in Liscard, lashed out at Michelle Grugel as she tried to break up an argument between him and her sister. He then punched her several times, leaving her with two black eyes and a broken nose dripping with blood.

He appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday, September 18, after pleading guilty to assault causing grievous bodily harm. He was sentenced to 29 weeks in prison. However, it was heard the dad had already served the equivalent of 34 weeks in custody as he waited for his case to come to court, and so he would be promptly released.

Zach Parry

Drug dealer Parry was caught after Cheshire Police officers became aware of a mobile phone number that was being used to sell crack cocaine in the Northwich area between June and July 2023. Detectives were able to identify Parry as the owner of the phone due to previous police incidents, and records from the DWP also showed the 26-year-old was using the phone at the time it was being used to sell drugs.

Parry, 26, Northwich, appeared at Chester Crown Court on Wednesday, September 18, after pleading guilty to two counts of dealing class A drugs. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

Jackson Hegarty

Hegarty accepted he had "ruined his whole life because of one day" after he participated in a city centre riot. The teenager went into Liverpool city centre to meet friends on August 3, but ended up joining a violent mob that engaged in serious disorder by damaging vehicles and local businesses and attacking police officers.

The violent disorder followed the deaths of Bebe King, Alice Da Silva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe, who were fatally stabbed at a Taylor Swift dance party on July 29. Hegarty, of Ryefield Lane, in Litherland, was caught on camera kicking the shutters of a shop and waving the mob inside as they looted more than £100,000 of stock. He engaged in further disorder on the Strand, throwing empty drink cans at police and setting off a smoke bomb.

The 18-year-old appeared in court on Thursday, September 19, where he pleaded guilty to burglary and violent disorder. He was sentenced to 20 months in a young offenders institution.

Liam Elms

Elms, 41, threw his vulnerable uncle around his flat “like a rag doll” before he dragged him out “like rubbish” and left him dying in the street. Elms, of Whiston Lane, Huyton, had denied killing his uncle, but was convicted of manslaughter by a jury following a trial. He appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, September 20, where he was sentenced to 14 years in prison and an additional four years on licence.

Detective Inspector Daniel McWhinnie said: "Paul Lavery was a vulnerable man in poor health, who was in the care of his nephew Liam Elms. However, in January, Elms inflicted appalling injuries on his uncle, and then left him outside in a critically injured state. Immediately after Paul Lavery was found, officers arrested Elms and found him to be in a highly aggressive and threatening state."