The summary of the cases to be heard in court this week is in the gallery below:
Cowardly drunk driver Jason Ward ran off after hitting a 59-year-old woman with his van in Elland Road – leaving her to die.Pedestrian Vanessa Barnes had just left the Planet Ice rink after watching her son play for Leeds Knights on December 10 last year. As she walked along the pavement at about 7.30pm, she was struck by a Ford Transit van driven by Jason Ward.Ward had spent three hours in a Morley pub with his girlfriend, drinking six pints of lager before getting behind the wheel. During his sentencing hearing this week, Leeds Crown Court heard that he was drunk, and his intoxication would have impacted his driving.Ward, of Throstle Road, Middleton, was jailed for eight years and four months and must serve two thirds of his sentence in prison. His disqualification from driving was extended for 66 months. (Photo: West Yorkshire Police)
Qasim Ahmed was caught with cocaine and heroin between his buttocks after being stopped outside a fish and chip shop - and then denied it was his.Ahmed was taken to the police station for a full search, and officers found 50 wraps of cocaine and 40 wraps of heroin concealed between his buttocks worth an estimated £900.He pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and sent to prison for three years. (Photo: West Yorkshire Police)
Cocaine-fuelled Jack Duree from Wakefield strangled his girlfriend and called her vile names during a campaign of coercive behaviour.Duree constantly accused his now-ex partner of cheating. The 26-year-old gaslighted and belittled her, pulled clumps out of her hair and drained her money to buy crack cocaine.Duree was jailed for two years and handed a 10-year restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim. (Photo: WYP)
Leeds man Jack Beale, 26, threatened to rape and kill the mum of his late child after the pair lost their baby.The victim believed that Beale would go ahead with the vile threats when he turned up at her home in the middle of the night and smashed her window.Judge Rodney Jameson KC handed Beale a two year prison sentence, which he suspended for two years. At the request of the defendant, he also issued a restraining order preventing Beale from contacting the victim or going to her home. (Photo: Adobe Stock/David Silverman/Getty Images)
Bradley Pickles appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week to be sentenced for breaching a non-molestation order and a restraining order. The 28-year-old turned up at his ex-partner’s home the day after the restraining order was made, following his conviction for harassing her earlier this year.The defendant began sighing and muttering under his breath as the judge, Recorder Tony Watkin, considered his sentence. When Judge Watkin told him he should be aware that muttering would not help him, Pickles said: “I’m aware, mate."To which the judge replied: “I’m not your mate, I’m your honour.”Pickles was locked up for two years and his restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim was extended until April 2028.
Tahir Nazir, 40, of West Park Street, Dewsbury was sentenced to a total of 21 years and nine months for starting a fire which took the life of a man and seriously injured five others.He was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Monday for manslaughter for starting the fire at a multi-occupancy residential property on Queen Street, Dewsbury on Sunday, April 10 2022.The fire took the life of Nicolae Alin Gavrila (35) who was inside the property at the time. Mr Gavrila's mother said in court: “As a result of Nicolae’s death, I feel like I have categorically lost a part of me. I feel like there will always be a part of me missing, and my life will never be the same.”
A teenage inmate joined in an attack in Wetherby Young Offender Institute which left the victim “covered in blood”.Mckenzie Meeson, along with three co-defendants, rained punches on a fellow inmate who had recently moved into their unit in the Leeds juvenile prison.Meeson, who was 17 at the time but is now 18, was sentenced to eight months at Leeds Crown Court this week. His three co-accused, who cannot be named due to their age, have already been sentenced to eight months in custody by the youth courts. (Photo: National World)
A Wakefield paedophile who “showed no remorse” over his horrific child sex offences “deserves to be behind bars”.Ben Cooper, 33, was sentenced to eight years at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday after he was convicted of the offences, which occurred against a young girl at an address in Castleford in April 2022.Cooper, of Ken Churchill Drive in Horbury, was arrested following a disclosure by a family member and later charged with two counts of penetration and one count of sexual touching. (Photo: West Yorkshire Police)
Campaigners pushing for knife crime education to be part of the National Curriculum have said the current position of allowing schools to decide is ‘not acceptable'.
A school bus driver who died when it overturned on a motorway has been named as 40-year-old Stephen Shrimpton. Barbara Flynn-Southern, a director at The Port Grocery CIC - a charity that Mr Shrimpton worked for, told Sky News he was "an all round good guy who will be sorely missed by a lot of people". Having volunteered as a driver for the company during the first COVID lockdown, Mr Shrimpton worked "endlessly" and briefly became a full time employee, delivering food and supporting vulnerable people within the local community.
A man who knocked over four passers-by after being bottled in a pub fight has been jailed for 20 years. Choudry Razaq, 26, got behind the wheel in a "rage" after the fight in Hounslow, west London, and drove into the innocent men - leaving two with life-threatening injuries. Gabriel Sjnevicius, Hanad Duhaut, Harris Koneswaran and Abdi Moallim had witnessed the altercation outside the White Bear pub but were not involved.
In July 1995, 84-year-old Szymon Serafinowicz shuffled into the spotlight after 40 years of suburban anonymity in the Surrey commuter belt town of Banstead. To the astonishment of neighbours, who had taken him to be an unassuming pensioner, he was the first person to be prosecuted for murder under the 1991 War Crimes Act, accused of Holocaust atrocities more than half a century old.
A dangerous driver has been named by West Midlands Police after he reached speeds of over 100mph in Birmingham and was spotted with street racers on Heartlands Parkway
Years of family handouts are finally starting to weigh on the Bank of Mum and Dad, as couples grapple with the reality that their retirement plans won’t be as cushy as they had hoped.
