Canterbury Crown Court Sentencing Results

Liam Jones attacked the victim at a house party in Cornwall Gardens, Canterbury, on May 29, 2025, during a dispute over money. He picked up two knives and stabbed the victim four times in the arm and leg, and also punched him multiple times in the head. The victim managed to escape, sought help at a nearby shop, and was taken to hospital for treatment of multiple head injuries and stab wounds.

Feruz Kadirov, a 43-year-old lorry driver, hid 35kg of cocaine worth nearly £3 million in his truck among a legitimate cargo of Lego while travelling from Belgium to Dover. He was caught by Border Force officers during a search on July 15, 2025. Kadirov claimed he was coerced into transporting the packages due to threats against his family and believed they contained tobacco instead of drugs.

Colby Hammond was driving his Seat Ibiza at high speeds, exceeding 75mph in a 30mph residential area in Broadstairs on October 1, 2023, while under the influence of alcohol. He lost control, crashing into a tree and causing the death of the victim, who was in the passenger seat. The incident occurred after a night out involving drinking, and data from a telematic device confirmed frequent speeding. Despite warnings from passengers, Hammond continued driving recklessly.

William Brazil punched a man in his 60s on St Peter’s Street in Canterbury on March 29, 2025, causing him to fall and fracture his skull. The victim was socialising with his partner and friends when the unprovoked attack occurred. Brazil fled the scene but was identified through CCTV and arrested in Surrey on April 4, 2025.

Donna Green and Leigh Moxam threatened to kill the victim over £400. They followed him to a cash machine on December 13, where Green stabbed the victim multiple times, and Moxam also assaulted him by stabbing and stamping, resulting in multiple stab wounds, injuries to the face, and a dislocated shoulder. The victim collapsed in a store and was taken to a London hospital.

Patrick Howlett, 58, sent £56,000 to the Philippines to pay for livestreams of children being sexually abused. He was in regular contact with facilitators, including a woman who abused her own children at his direction in exchange for payments. He received and shared images and videos of the abuse, with one victim abused from age eight to 14, generating 1,277 images. Between 2014 and 2021, he made 796 transactions totaling £55,918 to facilitators for abusing children, resulting in 19 children being identified and safeguarded in the Philippines.

Between 2015 and 2021, Patrick Lee Howlett, 58, of Canterbury, sent over £55,000 from himself and others to paedophiles in the Philippines to encourage and facilitate the sexual abuse of young children, including family members, and to obtain images of the abuse for his own gratification. He was in possession of over 14,000 indecent images and videos of children, including nearly 1,000 category A images. His activity was uncovered during a Danish investigation into a convicted paedophile. Devices seized after his 2021 arrest contained graphic conversations and financial records showing payments to abusers. He initially claimed the material was unsolicited and that payments were to stop abuse, but evidence disproved this. Children involved have been safeguarded.

Andrew Griggs murdered his pregnant wife the victim in 1999, wrapped her body in a duvet, and buried it under a shed. Years later, while serving a life sentence, he attempted to pervert justice by instructing a family member to dig up her remains, remove a strand of hair, and send it abroad with a fabricated letter to falsely prove she was alive. This led to his additional sentencing.

Gary Rothon and Lee Mandell travelled in a hired lorry to France via the Eurotunnel at Folkestone on 10 January 2020. They took the midnight train to France, then travelled from Calais to Boulogne where they picked up eight Vietnamese nationals, including three children. They expected to earn £4,000 for the trip. On their return, they were stopped by border control at Coquelles and claimed they were on a fishing trip to check out a lake near Brimeux and planned to get drunk, hoping to make it back for the West Ham game. The rear compartment of the van was opened, revealing the migrants sitting on top of tools and plasterboard without documentation. The men denied knowledge of the migrants. They were arrested and charged in May 2025.

Gary Rothon and Lee Mandell travelled in a hired lorry to France via the Eurotunnel at Folkestone on 10 January 2020. They took the midnight train to France, then travelled from Calais to Boulogne where they picked up eight Vietnamese nationals, including three children. They expected to earn £4,000 for the trip. On their return, they were stopped by border control at Coquelles and claimed they were on a fishing trip to check out a lake near Brimeux and planned to get drunk, hoping to make it back for the West Ham game. The rear compartment of the van was opened, revealing the migrants sitting on top of tools and plasterboard without documentation. The men denied knowledge of the migrants. They were arrested and charged in May 2025.

Matthew Downing, 25, from Dover, breached his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (issued January 2022 following conviction for making indecent images of children) by using unauthorised devices without notifying Kent Police: smartphone, laptop, two virtual computers, anonymous web browser, online storage device, social media app with disappearing messages, and dark web to make indecent images of children. He also failed to register dating app usernames. After going missing, he was found sleeping in a newly-purchased car in Gomshall, Surrey.

In 2022 Paul Redford, 64, from Ramsgate, joined a social media application where he used the platform to download and share thousands of indecent images of children with other users. On 1 March 2024, officers from Kent Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team visited Redford’s home address following information received that indecent images of children were being accessed from the property. Upon arrival and when officers told him why they were there, he admitted he was responsible and after his phone was downloaded, officers found 730 of the most serious category A images and videos, 642 category B and 944 category C. They also found he had distributed 40 images and videos through the social media application. Redford was later charged with making and distributing indecent images of children and possessing extreme pornography and prohibited items.

Jack Colin Cracknell, 22, of Faversham, Kent, was driving with four other passengers in his car in the early hours of the morning on 3 December 2022. He reached speeds of 117mph along the New Dover Road in Canterbury, a road with a 40mph speed limit. As he approached a roundabout near the New Gate Inn pub, he hit a kerb, causing the car to go into the air and roll over, before colliding with the pub building. One passenger, the victim, 18, died at the scene despite efforts by emergency workers. Another passenger suffered fractures to two bones and underwent an operation on the day of the collision to insert a metal plate and screws into their arm.

Jack Cracknell, 22, was driving with four passengers in the early hours of 3 December 2022 along New Dover Road in Canterbury when he reached speeds of 117mph in a 40mph limit. As he approached a roundabout near the New Gate Inn pub, he hit a kerb, causing the car to go into the air and roll over before colliding with the pub building. One passenger died at the scene despite the efforts of emergency workers, and another passenger suffered fractures to two bones and required surgery to insert a metal plate and screws into their arm.

Bryan Gregory, 76, from Minster-on-Sea, breached the terms of an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order imposed in 2014 after pleading guilty at Maidstone Crown Court to making and possessing indecent images of children. The order restricted his use of digital storage devices, mobile phones, and internet access, requiring devices to be available for police inspection. During a police visit in January 2024, officers seized a mobile phone suspected of inappropriate use. Further searches recovered additional digital storage devices. He was charged on 14 September 2024.

Paul Giglia, 64, of Cheriton, Kent, was part of an organised crime group led by Freddy Lawrence that conspired to smuggle immigrants across the English Channel from France to the UK. In August 2018, the group attempted to use a boat called the Sorel Light to pick up migrants, but efforts were thwarted by mechanical issues. On 30 August 2018, co-conspirators were arrested in France with 12 Vietnamese migrants. Giglia was arrested by the National Crime Agency in the UK.