Bristol Crown Court Sentencing Results

Tom Pleass engaged in repeated illegal waste activities, including fly-tipping and breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order issued in October 2023. He was observed multiple times with waste on his vehicle, including incidents in November 2023 and January 2024, where he was stopped by police and gave false details. He continued these activities, taking scrap metal to a dealer without proper licences, and estimates suggest he committed around 200 offences during the pandemic period.

John Colmer, a 25-year-old custody officer employed by Serco, abused his position by contacting a rape victim during an ongoing trial at Plymouth Crown Court between August 3 and 7, 2024. He accused her of lying about the rape and threatened to reveal her identity publicly, using information he obtained while on duty. This misconduct occurred amid national violent disorders following the murder of three young girls in Stockport.

Between November 2017 and September 2019, Zhaoqian Yu controlled women working as prostitutes at a brothel in Birmingham and trafficked a vulnerable sex worker from London to Birmingham, fully aware of her exploitation. Between August 2018 and June 2019, he transferred £347,000 in proceeds of crime to a Chinese restaurant in Gloucester via an underground banking operation. Between December 2018 and October 2021, he conspired with others to import 34 kilos of cannabis into the UK for onward distribution.

Joshua Kelly, 23, from Staple Hill, subjected seven women to a reign of terror by initially using love bombing to befriend them before becoming aggressive and controlling. He moved into their homes, accused them of being unfaithful, limited their social time, and manipulated them across overlapping relationships between 2020 and 2025. His actions caused significant trauma, leading victims to report difficulties in trusting others.

Josh Kelly subjected seven women to a pattern of abuse, including controlling and coercive behaviour, physical assaults, and threats over several years. He attacked his ex-girlfriend at the graveside of their baby daughter, who died in November 2022, kicking her with steel toe cap boots and dragging her around. This incident occurred around the six-month anniversary of the daughter's death. Kelly also monitored her movements, restricted her social interactions, threatened self-harm and violence, and engaged in jealous and manipulative behaviour, often while maintaining multiple relationships simultaneously.

Between 2020 and 2024, Cody Smith-Alwood engaged in controlling and coercive behaviour towards his former partner, including staying in her home uninvited, controlling her phone, constant calls, threats to reveal confidential information, and physical assault on November 4, 2024, where he threw her over his shoulder, causing injury. He also breached a restraining order against another woman and made threats to stab her brother and friend.

Peter Lazarides committed multiple sexual offences against four children over a three-year period from 2017 to 2020. The offences involved causing children to watch sexual acts, engaging in sexual activity in their presence, inciting children to engage in sexual activity, sexually assaulting them, and exposure. The crimes were initially reported in January 2022, with further victims coming forward in 2024 and 2025, leading to his conviction.

Matthew Jones stabbed his on-off girlfriend, the victim, approximately 15 times with a knife, inflicting severe injuries to her neck, head, face, and hands during a brutal and frenzied attack in Bath, Somerset, on February 26, 2024. The incident occurred after she told him she did not want to continue the relationship. Witnesses described him as 'a man possessed', and it took five men to pull him away; he also attempted to strangle her. She suffered life-threatening injuries, including punctured lungs, and required hospitalisation.

Taylor Stacey, 20, lost control of his BMW and struck a crowd at a car meet in Avonmouth, Bristol on 18 November 2023, seriously injuring a 20-year-old woman with internal injuries, multiple fractures including a fractured skull. He had placed the car in ‘sports plus’ mode, which reduced its traction control.

Jack Woodman committed a string of assaults on his partner, the victim, over a five-year period between 2017 and 2022, often in front of their two young children. The assaults escalated from verbal and physical abuse to hair pulling, punching, and in November 2018, breaking her jaw in two places, requiring surgery, after which he left her in pain and went out with friends. On 19 June 2022, after losing money at a casino, he hit her face while holding a phone and glasses case, hoped he had broken her jaw again, verbally abused her, and poured a drink over her. The victim then fled with their children and reported the abuse to police.

Thomas Hardyman was driving a Range Rover on the B3116 Burnett Hill near Keynsham when his car crossed into the opposite carriageway and collided head-on with a Peugeot van. The van driver died at the scene. Dashcam footage showed Hardyman's vehicle clipping the kerb and straying into the opposite carriageway before the collision. He was taken to Southmead Hospital and found to be almost three times over the legal drink-drive limit.

Sam Hill, a probationary police officer with Devon and Cornwall Police, accessed confidential police logs between January and November 2021 and shared sensitive information with her family, friends, and a WhatsApp group. This included details about the Keyham shootings, where five people were killed, such as funeral arrangements and victim details, as well as the identity of Cody Ackland, who was later convicted of murdering the victim, before it was public. She also shared video clips of interviews and body-worn camera footage, and disclosed information about other investigations, risking the integrity of ongoing cases and potentially distressing victims' families.

Samantha Hill, a former Devon and Cornwall police officer, accessed and shared sensitive police material, including highly sensitive briefings, images and recordings, with friends and family. An investigation began in November 2021 after information about a high-profile murder inquiry appeared on social media. Her phone revealed she had accessed material she did not need to see on multiple occasions, involving cases including shootings, suicides and a murder investigation.

Leighton Gent, 28, from Bristol, pleaded guilty to online child sexual offences including attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, making and distributing indecent images of children, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, and possession of extreme pornographic images and prohibited images of a child. He was arrested in July 2024 after officers received information that he had uploaded indecent images of children to the internet and engaged in sexual communication with children under 15. A forensic examination of his devices found he had used online platforms to sexually communicate with dozens of children from across the world despite knowing they were underage, and he possessed more than 5000 indecent images or videos.

James Doherty, 18, purchased a BMW with under-inflated rear tyres and drove it too fast around a corner in the Lawrence Weston area of Bristol at about 2pm on November 17, 2024. He lost control, crashing into a bus stop where a four-year-old boy was waiting with his father and stepmother, causing serious injuries including collapsed lungs, fractured pelvis, fractured ribs, and a spinal fracture to the boy, and injuries to the stepmother's leg. Doherty had traces of cannabis in his system, fled the scene with his pregnant wife, and later handed himself in at a police station.

Tom Kember, 27, caused grievous bodily harm with intent to an eight-week-old baby at a property in Taunton, Somerset, in January 2020. The baby, born prematurely, sustained catastrophic head injuries, including traumatic brain injury, leading to profound disabilities such as being non-verbal, registered blind, suffering multiple daily seizures, and having a reduced life expectancy. Injuries were likened to the force of a car crash or a fall from a two-storey building. Kember searched online for terms related to baby injuries before and after the incident and delayed seeking help for about 80 minutes.

Adam Pugh, 42, from Southmead, Bristol, committed 15 online child sex offences between August and October 2025. These included engaging in and attempting sexual communication with children, causing or inciting children to engage in sexual activity, making and distributing indecent photographs of children, publishing an obscene article, attempting to arrange sexual activity with a child, and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. The offences were identified in October 2025 by another agency, leading to his arrest by Avon and Somerset Police's Internet Child Abuse Team. A search of his home uncovered multiple mobile phones used in breach of the order, containing further indecent communications and images.

Jamie Ivers was involved in the importation of 24 kilos of cannabis from the United States between May and November 2025, with a street value of £200,000. He was also investigated for dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice. Warrants were executed at three addresses connected to him, where more than 2.5 kilos of cannabis ready for supply, £16,000 in cash, and a zombie-style machete were found. During the execution, he assaulted an emergency worker.

Leigh Brean, of Wrington, drove a Volkswagen Tiguan with two passengers along the A38 near Bristol Airport on October 28, 2023, after drinking 10 pints in a five-hour period. He overtook two articulated buses on a stretch where overtaking was not permitted, struck one bus, and collided with a Fiat 500 travelling in the opposite direction, causing serious injuries including amputation to one victim's arm, brain and leg injuries, and internal bleeding to the other.