Locked up in January: Guns, burglary, fighting, drugs and much more
The first month of 2025 has seen a number of really serious cases come through our courtrooms. From a nine-strong burglary gang that targeted large homes across the region and beyond to two teenagers who shot at a man and then tried to flee to Spain. Here, reporter Martin Naylor sums up some of the hearings he has covered.
The nine-strong burglary gang
A burglary gang which broke into properties in Nottinghamshire and beyond to steal £300,000 of high-value cars was jailed for a combined total of more than 35 years.
The group mainly targeted larger detached homes across the region mostly in the middle of the night when the occupants were asleep. Over 24 burglaries, in just four months, they took brands such as BMW, Mercedes, Audi and sometimes other cars which would be used in further offending.
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Nottingham Crown Court heard how one victim was 38 weeks pregnant at the time her home was targeted and was in with her husband and two other children when the burglars struck. And the areas which were hit included Nottingham city centre, Mapperley, Woodthorpe, Ruddington, Bingham, Radcliffe-on-Trent and Cotgrave.
Sentencing the nine-strong group, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: "This was about money. This was about stealing expensive cars from large houses.
“You had knives, you had masks, you had all the equipment to snap locks to get in. It was also about helping yourselves to other people's property.
“The value of what you took was just under £300,001. £29,000 of (other) property was also taken, including jewellery which belonged to family members.
“What you stole and can't be replaced most of all is those people feeling safe in their houses again. Just imagine if someone broke into your home while your children or parents were asleep upstairs. You would be the first in the queue to complain."
The two-day sentencing hearing was told how the gang used what prosecutor Gareth Gimson called a “snap lock” technique utilising tools to break front or patio door handles and get inside the properties before finding keys and stealing the vehicles. Mr Gimson said the conspiracy ran between 2020 and 2021 and spawned two dedicated Nottinghamshire police investigations called Operation Terrestrial and Operation Pavlolva.
He said the group's offending began in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, before heading more locally, in streets including Clumber Drive, Radcliffe; Ebenezer Street, Ilkeston; Wood View, Cotgrave and Wychwood Road, Bingham. Mr Gimson said in one night on November 26, 2020, addresses in Covert Crescent and Cliff Way, Radcliffe, as well as an address in Brookside Road, Ruddington. The defendants all pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to commit burglary, attempted burglary and theft.
They were:
Cameron Mickle, 27, of Hoe View Road, Cropwell Bishop. He was jailed for two years and eight months.
Jamie Bentley, 34, of HMP Nottingham. The judge handed him a six years and four month sentence.
Declan Russell, 25, of HMP Five Wells. He was sent to prison for six years and two months.
Aynsley Rayner, 31, of Hoe View Road, Cropwell Bishop. The judge handed her a two-year term, suspended for two years. She admitted assisting an offender.
Cory Heald, 21, of Oxclose Lane, Arnold. He was jailed for four years and 10 months.
Jordan Chaplin, 23, of Nottingham Road, Nottingham.The judge handed him a three years and five months term.
Dylan Stone, 22, of Manor Road, Eastwood. He was handed a prison term of five years and 10 months.
Reece Stephens, 23, of Norwell Place, Top Valley. The judge jailed him for two years and eight months.
Benjamin Wild, 25, of HMP Five Wells, who was also sentenced for charges of being concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis, possession of cocaine and cannabis and possession of criminal property which post-date the burglary conspiracy. He was handed a sentence of six years and two months.
The teenage gunmen
Teenage gunmen Romarni Spencer and Pharrell McLennon sent terrified witnesses fleeing from a shop as they shot at a man in The Meadows before being arrested as they tried to board a flight to Spain. The then-17-year-olds booked the Jet2 tickets from East Midlands airport to Alicante the day after they fired their weapons towards their intended target at Bridgway Centre.
Dramatic footage showed the masked duo aim their revolvers at the man and fire twice as shoppers fled back into a store in blind panic. Sentencing the pair, Judge James Sampson said: “In broad daylight, in the middle of the day, at a busy shopping centre, you tried to shoot your intended target, both firing in quick succession. You missed your intended target.
“Emerging from this store, as events were unfolding, was a family who quickly retreated to take cover, no doubt terrified about what was unfolding. As the Lord Chief Justice said in a case in 2009, 'the gravity of gun crime cannot be exaggerated. Guns kill, maim, terrorise and intimidate'."
The incident took place on the afternoon of May 5, last year, and Spencer, of Marlborough Road, Beeston and McLennon, of Maypole, Clifton, both pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. Romarni was handed a 10-and-a-half-year sentence which was made up of seven-and-a-half-year custodial sentences plus a three-year extension.
McLennan was handed a 13-year term made up of 10 years custody and a three-year extension. Both teens will not be allowed to apply for parole until two thirds of the way through the custodial element.
Old Market Square knife gang
Three men were jailed for the parts they played after armed gangs staged a running battle through Nottingham city centre. Dureece Smith, Chris Gerald and Tionne Loftman were each part of groups, some of whom wielded knives, during the violence which began after they left the Fusion nightclub in St James’s and spilled out into Old Market Square.
Footage played in court showed weapons brandished and punches thrown as the rivals ran amok in front of other early morning revellers. The CCTV shows 27-year-old Smith flee from a pursuing gang down Exchange Walk, where his friend Gerald “blindsides” one of the other men with a savage punch, leaving him hospitalised with fractures to his face.
Jailing the heavily-convicted St Ann’s 29-year-old, who was once sent to prison for six years for possessing guns and ammunition, for 33 months, Recorder Mark McKone said: “This was a large-scale disturbance in Nottingham city centre in the early hours of June 22. A number of men were fighting and many of them had knives which the police recovered.
“Your case is that you were holding a lighter in your hand when you blindsided the victim. I regard it as unlikely it was lighter seeing as the others used knives and you have a history of carrying knives. But (with no other evidence) I sentence you on the basis you were holding a lighter.
“You approached him from behind and struck him, leaving him with serious injuries - a fractured eye socket, fractured by his nose and a 2cm injury to his left eye socket but thankfully they were not life-changing.”
Gerald, of Hungerhill Road, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and to an unrelated charge of possession with intent to supply cannabis from October 15, 2021, when he was caught carrying the drug while riding an e-scooter in Lincoln Street in the city centre.
Smith was cleared of affray but found guilty of possession of a bladed article at a trial and was jailed for 18 months. Loftman, 23, of no fixed address, denied any involvement in the disturbance and also took his case to trial where he was found guilty of affray and possession of a bladed article.
He was sent to prison for 27 months.
Rolex drug dealer Mohammad Malik
Police found deal bags stored in a Rolex box, designer handbags, watches and more than £9,000 in cash when they raided Mohammed Malik’s Nottingham home. Evidence on phone also seized showed the 31-year-old had been supplying a 16-year-old boy who was distributing heroin and crack cocaine on the streets.
The defendant turned to selling class A substances after “the temptation of the lifestyle got the better of him” when he lost his job in security. Now he has time to think about his offending after being sent to jail for five years and three months.
Judge James Sampson said: “Class A drugs blight lives and they destroy communities. They cause crime and they kill and you were peddling this misery in Nottinghamshire on a lucrative and busy basis. This was a relatively successful business as revealed by the various paraphernalia that was found by the police.”
Malik, of Violet Road, Carlton, pleaded guilty to charges including possession with intent to supply heroin and cocaine, being concerned in the supply of both drugs and possession of criminal property - namely the money. A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, which could see the defendant stripped of cash and assets, will take place later this year.
Bulwell's Brooklyn Anthony
Nottingham criminal Brooklyn Anthony, who has 26 court appearances to his name at the age of just 24, blew his chance of avoiding custody. In November, a judge told Brooklyn Anthony he might consider suspending the 14-month prison term he was thinking of passing depending on the outcome of his probation interview for his pre-sentence report.
But two months later, and when fresh offences came to light, the officer who spoke to the Bulwell criminal concluded it could not work with him in the community. As such, Judge James Sampson told him “the public would be outraged” if he did not impose an immediate custodial term and he even gave him an extra two months for the new crimes.
Jailing Anthony for 16 months, he said: “The report makes very sad reading in your case. It is unable to recommend a noncustodial option and, in addition, the public would be outraged if I suspended your sentence in this case.”
The defendant’s raft of offences included him mounting a pavement and almost hitting a pedestrian during a police chase in Hucknall, threatening a man with a metal bar in public and smashing a window at a recycling centre during his catalogue of crime this year. He also told officers he would headbutt them when they found him hiding in a bedroom at his home as they went to arrest him.
Anthony pleaded guilty to charges including dangerous driving, resisting arrest, criminal damage, possession of an offensive weapon and driving without a licence and insurance.
Last May, he was jailed for a failed attempt to burgle a casino in Main Street, Hucknall, when he was found drunk and curled up in a cupboard.
Beeston drug dealer Luke Bryant
Drug dealer Luke Bryant hid cocaine behind the plastic trim on his dashboard in a vain attempt to stop the police from finding it. The 27-year-old father, of Beeston, was also advertising the drug for sale through text messages during his spate of selling to pay off a debt he’d amassed using cocaine and cannabis himself.
The defendant was snared when an undercover police officer spotted an exchange happening in the city centre and alerted a mobile patrol to stop the car he was driving. And also in the centre console of the Nissan was a Stanley knife.
Jailing him for two years and 11 months, Judge Julie Warburton said: “I have heard everything that has been said on your behalf and I accept this is two years old and there has been no further offending since. I know you have had a difficult time in the past and you have a job but I'm afraid only immediate custody is appropriate.”
The police stop took place in North Sherwood Street, Nottingham city centre, on March 23, 2023, and Bryant, of Manton Crescent, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine and possession of a bladed article - namely the Stanley knife.
A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, which could see the defendant stripped of any cash and assets, will take place later this year.
Ilkeston stalker David Brudenell
Stalker David Brudenell harassed seven different women and followed and threatened to rape one of them. The 40-year-old, of Ilkeston, messaged one of the victims for several months, sending her sexually explicit messages in which he had superimposed her face onto images as well as voice messages.
In July 2024, the defendant sent the woman a picture he had taken of her showing the clothing she had been wearing that day after following her as she walked through Ilkeston. After he was arrested, his phone was seized and group messages he sent to six other women were found. The messages were all sexually explicit, with some containing pornographic images.
Detective Sergeant Jack Gibbs, who oversaw the investigation, said: “Brudenell led a campaign of abuse against seven different victims.
“He attempted to disguise his offending through the creation and use of fake social media profiles and subjected the victims to messages of a threatening and sexual nature.
“His behaviour escalated when he physically followed one of the victims, photographed her from behind and sent her the images. When police were made aware of the incident, further victims were identified and helped to support the investigation.”
The defendant, of Flamstead Road, pleaded guilty to stalking involving serious alarm or distress, harassment and sending an electronic communication that conveyed a message which was indecent or grossly offensive and was jailed for four years and four months. He was also handed restraining orders preventing him from having any contact with any of the victims.
Detective Staff Investigator Emilia Sterland, the officer in the case, said: “I would like to thank all of the victims for their bravery in coming forward and supporting the investigation.
“Stalking is a deeply invasive crime that can have devastating emotional and psychological effects on victims. This case serves as a powerful reminder that such behaviour will not be tolerated, and offenders will be held accountable.”
Worksop GBH
Drunk Worksop painter and decorator Andrew Woodward left his cousin’s life “changed forever” when he suffered a "catastrophic" brain injury from being punched. CCTV showed the 35-year-old father run over to his victim and punch him unconscious before the man fell and hit the back of his head on the ground outside a bar.
In the clip, the defendant then went straight to help his relative but sadly he had suffered a fractured skull. And in a victim impact statement, the victim told how he “struggles to get to grips that my own cousin did this to me”.
Jailing the defendant for 21 months, Judge Steven Coupland said: “It is not clear to me what happened or why it is that you and your cousin, who you got on well with, fell out and you did what you did. It is clear that both of you had been drinking and you lost control, you more than him, and you were out of control in that (initial) scuffle.
“You then left the scene and that should have been the end of it. Your cousin then made some unpleasant threats and you should have gone but you ran back and hit him twice and hard enough that he was unconscious before his head hit the floor. The injuries caused have been catastrophic, a fractured skull and a severe brain injury which has affected many aspects of his life since.”
The attack happened outside the former Lockside Bar in Victoria Square, Worksop, on the evening of November 3, 2023, and Woodward, of Royds Crescent, Rhodesia, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning grievous bodily harm. As well as the jail term, the judge handed the defendant a five-year restraining order.