Canterbury Crown Court Sentencing Results

Qari Sher Mohammad, 61, from Woodford Road, Forest Gate, London, sexually assaulted four children over nearly a decade while acting as an imam at a mosque in Thorold Road, Gillingham, between March 2014 and December 2023. Initial concerns raised in 2018, with further assaults reported in 2022-2023. One victim, now an adult, supported prosecution.

Tyler Flisher turned on his victim during a disturbance in Hawkinge on Sunday 23 October 2022. Police were called to the Pannell Drive area shortly after 9pm after a man had been attacked and was bleeding from a chest wound, later confirmed to be a stab wound. Flisher had gone to meet a woman earlier that evening at a public place near Benson Lane. The victim was in the area with friends and the two groups, who were known to each other, became involved in a dispute. Despite bail conditions not to approach witnesses, Flisher intimidated his victim, causing fear of further harm. He was arrested the following day.

Alan Morris, formerly of Ruckinge near Ashford, sent sexualised messages including images of himself and videos of sexual material to someone he believed to be a child via an internet chat site in February 2024 and October 2023. These actions breached a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) issued in 2018. Examination of his phone uncovered indecent images of children and recent sexual communications. Arrested on 8 February 2024 by Kent Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team.

Patrick Holmes and John Hazelgrove carried out a violent attack in Herne Bay at around 3.30am on Sunday 3 March 2024 on the High Street. A man and a woman were assaulted by strangers from a white van. The man suffered swelling to his brain, a fracture to his skull and a broken nose. The woman sustained facial injuries. Both victims were treated at hospital and discharged.

Patrick Holmes and John Hazelgrove carried out a violent attack in Herne Bay at around 3.30am on Sunday 3 March 2024 on the High Street. A man and a woman were assaulted by strangers from a white van. The man suffered swelling to his brain, a fracture to his skull and a broken nose. The woman sustained facial injuries. Both victims were treated at hospital and discharged.

On 11 December 2023, at an address in Canterbury, William Crump and Lawrence Cole attacked a man known to them. The victim was kicked, punched and hit with a baseball bat during the violent assault. He received treatment from South East Coast Ambulance Service and further medical attention at a local hospital before being discharged.

Stuart Rigden carried out a savage assault on a man in his 30s at a home in Cliftonville, Margate, in the early hours of 18 August 2023. The pair had been out in Ramsgate the previous night, argued in a bar, and Rigden returned by taxi two hours later to attack the victim, leaving him unconscious with broken ribs, internal bleeding, and facial injuries requiring urgent hospital care in London. When police arrived, Rigden answered the door covered in blood but claimed everything was fine.

Daniel Whereatt, 48, of Bristol, was stopped at Dover’s Eastern Docks on March 18, 2019, as he returned to the UK from Amsterdam. He claimed to have been on a day trip to Dunkirk, but phone analysis confirmed he was in Amsterdam picking up heroin. Border Force officers searched his car after noticing a strong smell of fuel and found 18 tape-wrapped packages submerged in the fuel sender tanks, containing 6kg of heroin worth £800,000 and 2kg of cutting agents (paracetamol and caffeine). His DNA was on a screwdriver and metal file near the concealment area. The vehicle was insured for only two days, believed to be solely for the drug importation.

Ashari Mohamed, 28, a Sudanese national, piloted a small boat carrying 37 people including Sudanese, Iraqi, Syrian and Albanian nationals and eight children across the English Channel. The vessel was intercepted by the Border Force on July 10, 2022. Mohamed allegedly received 600 euros for the role due to his previous experience, though he claimed he did it for free in exchange for passage.

Azad Ahmadi, 31, of Derby, was the paymaster in a people smuggling ring, intimately involved in planning to bring seven Iraqi nationals illegally into the UK. He transferred £4,280 to the Fullwoods' account to facilitate two smuggling attempts in December 2018 and January 2019.

Pamela Fullwood, 45, of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, joined her husband in attempting to smuggle Iraqi nationals into the UK. In December 2018, her husband was stopped by French authorities with five migrants. In January 2019, they tried to smuggle two Iraqis hidden in furniture in a hired van, with their 13-year-old daughter travelling with them. Received £4,280 from the scheme's paymaster.

Nicholas Fullwood, 48, of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, hired a van and attempted to smuggle five Iraqi nationals into the UK in December 2018 but was stopped by French authorities. A month later, he and his wife attempted to smuggle two more Iraqis hidden inside furniture in a second hired van, with their 13-year-old daughter present.

Robert Keogh, 37, from Clonee, Dublin, was stopped by Border Force officers at the Port of Dover at 5am on Friday 2 August 2019 en route from Calais. He had left the UK through Dover on 24 July 2019 and claimed he was returning from driving around Europe. A search of his Volkswagen Passat recovered 60 firearms, including a Turkish manufactured Zoraki blank firing handgun converted to fire live ammunition concealed in the rear-left quarter panel, and 59 others wrapped in plastic and hidden in the bumper and rear quarter panels. None had serial numbers. This was believed to be the largest seizure of lethal weapons at a UK port. Latex gloves, three sim cards, and four mobile phones were also found. In interview, Keogh stated he had a 3,000 Euros gambling debt and claimed the vehicle was out of his control for three days while abroad, suspecting money might have been hidden in it. The firearms belonged to an organised crime group.

Horace Nix, 84, of Whitfield, carried out sex attacks on two girls in the 1990s. One victim attempted to report the abuse at age 11 by calling Childline but was made to believe it was a dream and retracted her claims. The case was reopened in 2013 after complaints from victims following Malcolm Nix's conviction for other offences. Police found evidence supporting the allegations, leading to conviction on all charges.

Malcolm Nix, 55, of Nonington, a plumber, carried out sex attacks on two girls in the 1990s alongside his father. In 2013, police investigated after victims' complaints, seizing his laptop containing 160 indecent images of children. He denied 14 offences but was convicted on all charges. He had a prior conviction in 2013 for a sex attack on a woman, for which he received a suspended sentence, and earlier this year for eight more offences.

Houcine Argoub, 32, from Bromley, assisted Jamal Elkhadir in smuggling 39 migrants out of the UK by parking his van close to the HGV in a layby near Sandwich, Kent, in September 2023, allowing migrants to transfer to the lorry. The lorry was intercepted at Dover docks. Argoub was arrested at his home in November 2023.

Howard David Lavers, 55, sexually assaulted a young girl repeatedly between 1994 and 1997 in the Folkestone area. Kent Police also found indecent images of children on his computer. The abuse came to light after the victim bravely reported him in 2016. Lavers was convicted and appeared at Canterbury Crown Court on 28 August for sentencing.

Imre Szatmari, a Hungarian lorry driver, was caught with 30 packages of cocaine hidden inside a freight lorry at Dover Docks. Border Force officers stopped the vehicle after it refused to stop at the exit. Sixteen kilos of cocaine were found in a fridge in the cab, and 20 more kilos were stashed in holdalls. During interrogation, Szatmari admitted he collected the drugs from a contact near Dunkirk, France, and that they were destined for an address in Hertfordshire. The total haul was valued at £2.4 million.

Jamal Elkhadir, 47, from Morocco, attempted to smuggle 39 migrants, including a 6-year-old boy and a teenage girl, out of the UK in the back of a refrigerated lorry. He met accomplice Houcine Argoub in a layby near Sandwich, Kent, in September 2023. Migrants were seen climbing into the lorry, which was intercepted at Dover docks by NCA officers. Elkhadir claimed he was delivering cherry tomatoes and later said he was threatened at gunpoint.

On the evening of 24 November 2017, James Bates deliberately drove his silver Vauxhall Corsa into a crowd standing outside a New Romney pub. He had been thrown out of the pub minutes earlier for picking fights. He then circled the block to accelerate before slamming the car into the building’s front door area, directly striking drinkers. Seven people were injured, including one man who suffered severe fractures to his leg and arm after being hit head-on.