Bristol Crown Court Sentencing Results

Daniel Booth was driving a Mercedes in Aust when his car veered into the path of an oncoming bicycle, causing fatal injuries to the victim on 29 June 2025. Booth was found to have 14 micrograms of cocaine and 800 micrograms of benzoylecgonine in his system, far exceeding the legal limits. Dashcam footage showed him hitting kerbs and verges in the minutes before the collision and yawning.

Fiona Hodge was driving into Bristol with two friends when her car mounted the pavement on a flyover and struck a 53-year-old woman who was walking to a concert with friends. The victim was knocked from the bridge and died in hospital the following day. Hodge was convicted by a jury and later sentenced at Bristol Crown Court.

Joseph Pike was arrested after his details were found on a phone seized as part of a separate investigation into human trafficking. Messages showed he agreed to pick up women from the airport and drive them to a brothel in Bedminster, then to other brothels across the country including Sheffield, Hemel Hempstead and Kings Lynn. Police arrested him at his home address where they also found two sex workers in possession of a phone containing evidence linking him to the brothel.

Michael Ronner was driving a scaffolding lorry with two passengers along the A4174 in Mangotsfield on 5 December 2023 at around 5.30pm. The lorry collided with the central reservation and overturned. Passenger the victim, aged 20, suffered a fatal head injury and multiple broken limbs and died at the scene. Ronner was arrested at the scene and later charged. An investigation found that the collision resulted from his lack of concentration and failure to ensure passenger safety. He pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.

David Clarke, an 82-year-old former religious education teacher at Newlands Preparatory School in Seaford, sexually abused 14 boys between 1978 and 1989. Many of the offences took place in a darkroom he used for the photography club he ran. The victims were pupils at Newlands Preparatory School and the senior school known as The Manor. Clarke was arrested and charged with 39 counts of indecent assault, five counts of indecent assault of a child, one count of buggery of a boy under 16, and one count of making an indecent photograph of a child. A month-long trial at Brighton Crown Court ended in guilty verdicts on all but one count of attempted buggery.

Morris resided at a property near Yate, South Gloucestershire, with a woman known to him. On 16 March, the victim challenged him about a separate matter. Morris attacked her by striking her, biting her finger, gouging at her eyes, strangling her, punching her, and pulling her hair. He then smashed nine windows in the house and damaged two cars. In February, prior to this, he had assaulted the victim and smashed household items after she asked him to leave. The victim sustained facial swelling, black eyes, bite wounds, and ongoing knee pain, and received hospital treatment.

Martin Brunt committed multiple sexual offences against children between 1992 and 2024. An investigation led by specialist detectives began in February 2024 after police received a report that he had committed a sexual act in front of a young child. Brunt was arrested the same day and detectives received other allegations of similar offences. He was charged and convicted of: sexual activity with a child; two counts of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity; sexual assault of a child under 13; indecency with a child; engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child; three counts of exposure. Brunt was trusted by his victims, who were children at the time, and took advantage of their vulnerabilities.

James Randall, of St Philips, was speeding and using his mobile phone when he struck 76-year-old victim with his van on Ilminster Avenue on 18 January 2024. The victim was taken to hospital with serious injuries and died five weeks later. Randall fled the scene; his van was found parked at a lock-up on Narroway Road. CCTV traced the van, leading to seizure and arrest.

Peter Rowell, a 67-year-old registered sex offender from Wickwar in South Gloucestershire, breached his notification requirements by travelling 30 miles to Pontypridd in South Wales to stay at an address for more than 12 hours without informing the police, where a child under 18 was present. He also failed to notify police of another address where he stayed for seven days or longer between November 2025 and March 2026.

Joshua Milkins stole items worth more than £40,000 from sport shops, leisure retailers and chemists across Bristol and South Gloucestershire in December and January. He was arrested as part of police investigations and admitted each offence.

Stephen Blofield, 61, was intoxicated on a flight from Krakow to Bristol Airport on Tuesday 11 November. He caused the initial landing to be aborted and continued to be verbally abusive towards cabin crew. He was met by officers at Bristol Airport once the flight had safely landed.

Brian Grady, a 39-year-old inmate at HMP Guys Marsh with no fixed abode, arranged for contraband items including drugs, mobile phones, and SIM cards to be smuggled into the prison between January and September 2023. He received the items smuggled by prison officer Matthew Langdown using protein powder tubs to bypass security and distributed them to other prisoners for financial gain, creating an illegal market within the prison.

Kady Griffin, 34, of Goulston Walk in Bristol, assisted in the smuggling operation by providing prohibited items to prison officer Matthew Langdown on multiple occasions between January and August 2023 and collecting payments from inmate associates, with over £60,000 deposited into her bank account from sources linked to HMP Guys Marsh inmates.

Paul O'Shea, 43, of Wick Road in Bristol, assisted in a criminal enterprise by providing prohibited items such as drugs, mobile phones, and SIM cards to prison officer Matthew Langdown on nine occasions between January and August 2023 in locations in Dorset and Wiltshire. He also collected payments from associates of inmates, receiving over £60,000 in total, and made payments to Langdown via Western Union.

Matthew Langdown, 36, a prison officer at HMP Guys Marsh from Severn Road, Ferndown, Dorset, abused his position to smuggle contraband including drugs like Pregabalin and cocaine, mobile phones, SIM cards, and other items into the prison using protein powder tubs between January and September 2023. He received items and payments from Paul O'Shea and Kady Griffin on nine occasions and was involved in supplying cocaine outside the prison.

Shazad Ali, 21, from the Newport area of Gwent, supported the terrorist organisation ISIS, including two counts of encouragement of terrorism and possession of documents likely to be useful to a terrorist under the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006. Arrested in January 2025, officers recovered digital devices from his home containing a library of terrorist publications. He had publicly shared several extreme Islamist videos online.

In August 2024, Jamie Nicholls crashed his van at high speed into a car queueing on an M32 slip road after taking his attention off the road to look for a cigarette. The collision killed the driver of the queueing car, a father of two, and caused further collisions involving several other vehicles. A work colleague travelling as a passenger in the victim's car suffered significant physical injuries, including a head injury and seven broken ribs. Nicholls and another driver required hospital treatment.

Ellie May Maddocks, partner of Dominic Smith and five months pregnant at the time, allowed two killers, Kodi Wescott and a younger teen, to stay at their flat in Westbury-on-Trym on the night after the murders of the victims in Knowle West in January 2024, then drove the pair to Weston-super-Mare as the police net closed in.

Ajay Edwards admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent following a savage Boxing Day stabbing in Bristol that left a man fighting for his life. The judge said Edwards did not carry or use a knife. He was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court to six years imprisonment and designated a dangerous offender.