Cambridge Crown Court Sentencing Results

Cieren Brownsword, 35, of Trelowen Way, Hempsted, Peterborough, was tailgating other drivers on the A15 in Hampton in his black Land Rover Discovery when officers spotted him at about 2.35am on 21 December. When illuminated with blue lights, he failed to stop and led a seven-minute pursuit through Hampton along Clayburn Road, breaking speed limits including nearly 60mph in a 30mph zone, driving on the wrong side of the road, ignoring red lights, mounting pavements, going the wrong side of a keep left bollard and nearly colliding with oncoming traffic. The pursuit ended in Southwold Drive, Hampton, when he reached concrete bollards. He blew 68ugs, nearly twice the drink drive limit.

Linden Chirico, 38, of Close Road, Pavenham, near Bedford, sexually abused a teenage girl over a seven-month period, touching her and getting her to touch him inappropriately multiple times between January and July 2022. All offences happened in East Cambridgeshire.

John Watson, 28, of Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, encouraged Ethan Towers to rape a baby on five separate occasions last summer. He exchanged explicit images with another child aged under 16 and was contacted via social media by a child whose victim statement was read in court.

Ramazan Koksal was arrested during an immigration operation at a takeaway in High Street, Brandon, on February 13, 2026, as part of a crackdown on cash-intensive businesses suspected of modern slavery. Officers saw a man in dark clothing leave via the back and followed him. Koksal entered a car, and when an immigration officer opened the door and indicated for him to stop, he revved the engine and reversed the vehicle while the officer held on. A taser was used, and Koksal was arrested. The officer was uninjured. He possessed fake identity documents.

On 3 March 2025, Raul Maretic-Ramos threatened a man with a knife in the busy Cathedral Square, Peterborough. Enforcement officers from Peterborough City Council intervened, police arrested him, and he was found carrying cannabis.

Kyle Harris was at the Wheatsheaf Inn in Wisbech on December 23 when he and a woman were involved in an altercation with another man in the outside area. The victim was punched multiple times and stamped on while unconscious, suffering cuts to his face and head. Harris was located nearby later that day and arrested.

Mindaugas Borisas was driving a Mercedes lorry on the southbound carriageway between Stibbington and Water Newton on July 30 2025 when he collided with the back of a Skoda Octavia that had stopped in queuing traffic. The collision caused a domino effect involving another lorry, a blue Kia Cee'd estate and a Mercedes van. The driver of the Skoda was pronounced dead at the scene. Borisas remained at the scene and was arrested.

Patryk Malinowski, of Akeman Street, Cambridge, entered a gated courtyard near student accommodation at St Catharine’s College at about 11pm on 25 January 2025. A college porter confronted him and asked him several times to leave but Malinowski swore at him and replied that he “wasn’t going anywhere”. Sitting in his wheelchair, Malinowski took a beer bottle from his coat and smashed it on the ground as the porter walked away, before throwing a full wine bottle towards him. Malinowski then left the enclosed courtyard but remained by the railings. He reached through and set fire to a laundry basket inside the area. The porter was able to extinguish the fire. But Malinowski then wheeled himself into the car park and set fire to a rubbish bin before opening the fuel cap of a car. He attempted to start a fire underneath it and punched the offside wing mirror, causing two dents. He shoved a handful of twigs and grass into the fuel tank and tried to light them, but his lighter failed. Malinowski caused about £800 of damage and was arrested shortly afterwards.

Rebecca Pinckard, a former prison officer, was caught on her own body-worn video camera performing a sex act on an inmate in a store cupboard at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk on 5 July 2024. She had previously sent a card to the inmate. She was jailed for 32 weeks.

Whitney-Marie Walker, 23, from West Walton, was arrested at her home on Mill Road on June 19, 2024, alongside her partner Fred Cook. Officers found almost 80 designer goods items valued at over £63,000 and £5,500 in cash under her bed. Another property on Osborne Road in Wisbech was also raided. Financial investigations revealed discrepancies in her earnings and substantial transfers to Cook's account, linking her to his drug-dealing enterprise.

Maruf Riaz, 25, of no fixed address, along with Shellem Miah, stabbed a 54-year-old man twice to the chest in Nicholson Way, Cambridge, just before midday on 2 October 2024, in a brutal drug-related attack. The pair fled the scene in a black Kia Sportage with fake plates to Newmarket, Suffolk. Riaz was involved in perverting the course of justice following the incident. They were arrested the next day in the Morrisons car park in Cambourne by armed police. The victim suffered a stab wound to the heart and sternum, called 999 stating he could not breathe and was 'going to die', and was aided by members of the public before being hospitalized.

Shellem Miah, 25, of Kingsway, Cambridge, along with Maruf Riaz, stabbed a 54-year-old man twice to the chest in Nicholson Way, Cambridge, just before midday on 2 October 2024, in a brutal drug-related attack. Miah was running the 'Biggie' county line and had exchanged threatening messages with the victim minutes before the incident, including 'on my life keep talking **** come see me now'. After the attack, Miah messaged a relative expressing confusion and later discussed needing a new number for the line and evading police, claiming the case was 'unsolvable'. The pair fled in a black Kia Sportage with fake plates to Newmarket, Suffolk. A blood-covered wooden cosh was found at the scene. Miah was also involved in possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

On the morning of the collision at about 7.10am, Adam Bates, 23, of Juniper Drive, Chatteris, was driving his Jaguar XF on the A10 near Stretham when it veered head-on into a road-sweeper vehicle due to his persistent and deliberate dangerous driving. The victim, 53, from Littleport, was driving behind Bates in a Mini Cooper, with his wife reporting Bates' driving to police at the time. The road-sweeper lost control and crashed into the victims' vehicle as a result. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and his wife sustained serious injuries from which she has not fully recovered. Bates was not seriously injured.

Owen Coppins, of no fixed address, entered a casino in King Street, Thetford, and threw a broken paving slab at a member of staff, who narrowly escaped injury after ducking, heavily damaging the wall. Shortly after 12.34am on January 9, 2025, he approached an unknown woman walking home from work from behind and hit her over the head with the same broken paving slab, causing a deep cut to her head. She was taken to hospital. Coppins fled the scene and was arrested two hours later in Bridge Street.

Shahzad Nawaz, 47, of Broadway, Peterborough, crashed his BMW into trees, road signs, and a wall on Park Road, Peterborough, at about 7pm on March 16, 2025, while driving too fast and over the legal alcohol limit (more than double). A woman was hospitalized with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, and three children in the car had minor injuries. Nawaz was arrested at the scene.

Daniel Robinson, 41, of no fixed address, stole olive oil, alcohol, meat and laundry products from Sainsbury’s, Co-op, and Tesco stores between August and November 2025. He also took sunglasses and designer clothing worth thousands of pounds from David Clulow and Hugo Boss in Cambridge. His actions caused significant disruption and financial loss to businesses across the city.

Darren Wheeler, 39, of Deerleap, Bretton, turned up at his former partner's house in Eastfield, Peterborough, at around 9.15am on April 21, 2025, while she was collecting belongings. He was banned from the property under a restraining order imposed in December 2024 following his conviction for grievous bodily harm without intent on a man, for which he received a suspended sentence. Fearing his presence, the victim locked the doors, but Wheeler entered the back garden, smashed a fence, and used the wood to break the back door. He escaped through a window and drove off in a car before being arrested at a property in Bretton on May 2, 2025.

In February 2025, Adam Marchant, aged 32, from West End, Whittlesey, near Peterborough, became enraged while his partner drove home from a friend's house, accusing her of contacting her child's father about childcare. Sitting in the passenger seat, he grabbed the steering wheel, causing the car to crash into a metal flood gate. He then dragged her into the passenger seat, drove back home at speed, pulled her from the car, pinned her against another vehicle, and strangled her until she passed out. When she regained consciousness and tried to escape, he put her in a headlock, dragged her inside, took her phone, locked the door, stood in front of it with a knife, threatened to kill himself while self-harming, and prevented her from leaving. The victim eventually grabbed the keys, locked herself in her car, and called the police.

Between October 2023 and January 2024, Leanne Potter-Williamson created an account on the Adult Work website to provide services amid financial desperation and drug use, then used gathered information to blackmail 3 men by demanding money, with her husband sending further threats if unpaid. Victims reported distress, nervousness, and fear of harm or exposure.

Between October 2023 and January 2024, Daniel Williamson and his wife Leanne contacted 10 men via the Adult Work website, initially by Leanne, demanding money and sending threatening messages when unpaid. Messages included threats to visit homes, reveal activities to wives, and harm, such as 'I know where you live and they’d take care of it.' The couple used children's phones to contact victims and made money through extortion.

Martin Hogg committed 24 sex offences against nine young victims between August 31, 2024, and February 15, 2025. The offences included sexual communications with a child, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, causing or inciting a child to watch sexual activity, meeting a child after sexual grooming, and sexual activity with a child.

Philip Thurston, 34, of Laburnum Close, Cambridge, groomed a 13-year-old girl starting in June 2023 by contacting her on Instagram and asking for her Snapchat details. Despite knowing her age, he arranged to pick her up near her home, initially declined but later succeeded in driving her to Cambourne and McDonald's in Caxton, where he paid for food. Over two weeks, he sent sexualised messages, expressing desires if she were older. On June 28, 2023, at around 7.50pm, he picked her up after she lied to her parents about meeting a 17-year-old boy named Fabio. Her stepdad followed, took a photo of the car, and trailed them through Cambridge. Thurston admitted he was 32, became angry suspecting a setup, and returned her home. He was arrested by Cambridgeshire Police.

Shace Whittlesey, 45, of Swanspool, Ravensthorpe, Peterborough, subjected his girlfriend to a two-year campaign of coercive control and abuse. He regularly accused her of cheating, monitored her social media, went through her phone including personal health information and bank accounts, forced her to take pregnancy tests to prove fidelity, prevented her from seeing family and friends, and physically attacked her, leaving her face covered in bruises. The abuse came to light on January 12, 2025, when police responded to a reported fight in Wisbech and discovered the victim's injuries from an attack four days prior. Whittlesey was arrested shortly after, breached bail conditions by meeting the victim on January 18, 2025, and was subsequently convicted.

Jason O’Dell, who had just been released from a nine-year sentence for rape, turned up at a family member’s home in Longstanton at about 5.30pm on 17 February 2025. He asked for money, became enraged when refused, grabbed a six-inch knife, pinned the victim against the worktop, and threatened to 'end him'. The victim wrestled the knife away and called the police. O’Dell was arrested a few hours later in Cambridge and recalled to prison.

Jason O'Dell, a convicted rapist recently released from prison, turned up at a family member's home in Longstanton at around 5.30pm on February 17, 2025. He asked for money to 'get back on his feet' but was refused. O'Dell then grabbed a six-inch knife from a block, pinned the victim against the worktop, and threatened to 'end him' while pressing the knife into the victim's side. The victim wrestled the knife away and called for help, managing to get O'Dell out of the house. He was arrested a few hours later in Cambridge.

On 4 November 2023, police stopped a Ford Fiesta driven by Tonin Bushi in George IV Street, Cambridge, suspecting it was driven without insurance. Bushi, 25, of Heathfield Gardens, London, admitted to having only an Albanian driving licence and no insurance. A search revealed £1,374 in cash and eight wraps of cocaine hidden in his pants.

Joaquim Tavares, 49, of Limetree Avenue, Millfield, Peterborough, stalked his ex-girlfriend after their three-year relationship ended. He followed her around Peterborough in his car, loitered near her vehicle on multiple occasions, and was captured on CCTV and ANPR cameras. On November 5, 2024, he parked across from a café she visited. Two days later, he followed her to work, shouting, beeping, and flashing headlights. On November 13, 2024, he approached her while she walked to her car, prompting her to call 999. Officers arrested him nearby and found a knuckleduster in his car. He was also driving without a licence or insurance. In interview, he denied stalking and provided excuses for his presence.