Canterbury Crown Court Sentencing Results

Jack Walker, 26, of Sandgate Road in Folkestone, started sending unwanted texts, social media messages and making nuisance calls to his ex-partner in December 2021 after refusing to accept the end of their relationship. Despite being blocked, he used public pay phones and borrowed mobiles from members of the public to contact her. By February 2022, unwanted calls increased to almost daily, including from newly-created accounts. On 22 March 2022, he called from a withheld number and threatened to come to her home and stab her father if not allowed entry, leaving the victim terrified. He was arrested by Kent Police.

James Joiner, 67, from the town, took advantage of his victim between February and May 2017.

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.

James Clark, 26, from Whitstable, carried out multiple online offences targeting vulnerable young people between December 2020 and January 2024. Detectives from Kent Police’s Paedophile Online Investigation Team led the investigation.

On Friday 3 November and Monday 6 November 2023, Joseph Kemp, 33, approached teenage girls in the Ashford Road area of Tenterden and made inappropriate comments to them. The girls reported the incidents and, following an investigation by the East Kent Vulnerability Investigation Team, Kemp was charged on Thursday 9 November.

Jordan Piper, 31, sprayed graffiti tags on multiple properties in Folkestone starting on Wednesday 3 June 2020, including a guest house in Cheriton Road, a residential property in The Parade, two vans in Brockman Road on 3 and 4 June, outside Sainsbury’s on Park Farm Industrial Estate on 12 June, and other locations such as Castle Hill Avenue, Middleburg Square and Sandgate Road. The graffiti caused £51,000 in damages. He was identified via CCTV, arrested at his home on 24 June 2020, and items including spray cans, clothing, sketch books, paint pens and artwork were seized.

John Reading and Levi Smith attacked a man following an argument at the bar in a pub on Church Road, Willesborough, Ashford on 15 August 2019. The victim had entered the pub for a pool tournament but was approached by Reading and Smith, who began an argument. They followed him as he tried to leave; Smith punched him in the face, Reading repeatedly hit him, knocking him down. The victim was punched, kicked in the face, put in a chokehold, and Reading dropped a fire extinguisher on his back. Reading was arrested on 2 October 2019.

John Richards, 48, from Whitstable, subjected a woman and a teenager to years of abuse. He regularly exposed the woman to harmful and degrading behaviour, controlling her life, speaking to her derogatorily, dictating how she should act and behave, who she could speak to, and distancing her from her family. His behaviour worsened when drinking; on one occasion, he hit her in the face with her dinner from the oven claiming it was dried out. He also directed abuse at a teenage girl, leaving vicious messages on her phone threatening to harm a family member. Victims reported to Kent Police in 2022; Richards was arrested in September.

James Richardson, 32, formerly from Dymchurch, fired a BB gun at a man during a confrontation near Brookland on Tuesday 6 April 2021, hitting the victim's hand with ball bearings after asking his name. He fled in a white Mercedes. Arrested two days later at his home, where police found ingredients for making anabolic steroids and a small amount of cannabis. A photo of a similar BB gun was on his phone, and he had consistent injuries.

Jayne Macdonald, 56, retired nurse and daughter of Margaret Rigby, of Burnt Barn Cottages, Betteshanger, Kent, benefited from £57,000 stolen from the dementia sufferer's bank account by Rigby, who held power of attorney. The money was spent on luxuries including expensive dental treatment, cars, caravan, holidays, and other items.

Jed Coates, along with Matthew Sales and Thomas Pearson, attacked the victim with a kitchen knife, a chain and a wooden bat in Cheriton Road, Folkestone, at around 11.50am on 25 August 2020. Coates hit the victim with a wooden bat. The victim was taken to hospital with stab wounds requiring long-term treatment. The attack was witnessed by members of the public, including a young girl. Coates was arrested at a nearby property on the same day.

Ruth Lambert and Jessica Silvester preyed on terminally ill residents in Thanet, Canterbury, Whitstable, Faversham and Herne Bay, posing as nurses to steal morphine and other painkillers prescribed for end-of-life care. They used access to patient records from their work as paramedics with South East Coast Ambulance Service. They worked in tandem, one researching addresses and the other stealing. Offending spanned nine months from December 2020, with at least 25 burglaries. They also stole medication from ambulances and NHS reserves between 2018 and 2021.

On Monday 25 January 2021, Jason Campbell was travelling over 60 miles-per-hour, twice the speed limit on Broad Oak Road, Canterbury, which meant he couldn’t stop his car quick enough to avoid colliding with a man who was crossing the street after coming around a corner. Officers from Kent Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit discovered that Campbell had tried to brake but was driving too fast. The pedestrian was rushed to hospital with broken ribs, a broken shoulder, numerous other fractures to his arms and legs, and required an emergency blood transfusion.

Between 2007 and 2018 Jason Robson committed a catalogue of serious offences against a child including holding a knife to their throat, forcing their head into a toilet, pushing them down the stairs, a number of sexual offences, punching and kicking them on numerous occasions. Crimes reported to Kent Police in June 2020; arrested shortly afterwards and charged.

Jason Scott set fire to clothing in a bedroom of a flat in the Dover Road area of Deal on 30 August 2020 using a cigarette, after the occupant had asked him to leave the property and he refused. The occupant and her relative were forced to leave the flat as it filled with smoke and they helped to evacuate elderly neighbours before the fire was extinguished. The fire caused serious damage to the property as well as affecting the flat above. Scott was arrested at the scene.

Joszef Papp, a Hungarian lorry driver, was involved in smuggling 30 kilos of cocaine with an estimated street value of £2.4 million through Dover Docks. Border Force officers discovered the drug packages hidden in the HGV—10 in a fridge in the cab and 20 in holdalls. The conspiracy was uncovered when the lorry failed to stop at the exit checkpoint. Papp and his co‑defendant collected the cocaine from a contact in France and planned to deliver it in Hertfordshire. Both admitted the offence.

Karamvir Dhadda was shopping with a friend at Costcutter in Northdown Road, Margate, when a fight broke out involving another man shortly after midnight on Saturday 28 August 2021. He used an object believed to be a screwdriver to stab the victim six times until a member of the public intervened, allowing the victim to escape.

Karol Niewiadomski (30), a lorry driver from Poland, was arrested after his lorry was searched on arrival at Dover on 7 January 2026. The lorry, meant to contain vintage clothing for Nottingham, had 50kg of cocaine worth £4m hidden in cardboard boxes in the sleeping area of his cab, plus amphetamine in a first aid box. He claimed he did not know about the drugs and had left the lorry unlocked while travelling by ferry from the Netherlands.

On December 27, 2017, Kevin Jones, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, stabbed two women with a kitchen knife during a dispute in a home in Ramsgate, causing cuts to their arms. He then stole a vehicle, drove dangerously around Newington Road, mounting the pavement, narrowly missing two pedestrians, and crashing into a fence and tree. He reversed the car three times into a house wall, causing major damage. When a neighbour tried to stop him, Jones kicked and bruised him, and then knocked him down with the car. He also punched a paramedic who arrived to help.

Kevin Andrews stole a Ford Transit Tipper from outside a property on Paul Harman Close, Ashford, just after midnight on Sunday, 2 December 2018. He drove towards Maidstone on the A20, then joined the M20 motorway heading the wrong way, driving at up to 70mph towards London on the coastbound carriageway. He refused to stop, narrowly missing several vehicles and driving head‑on into oncoming traffic for over ten minutes, continuing onto the M26. He finally stopped on Vigo Road, Fairseat, then reversed the truck into a parked police car, causing significant damage and injuring two officers.

Lance Colston abused his ex-partner over a period beginning in October 2017. He head-butted her and slammed her against a wall. On 24 October he grabbed her by the throat, pinned her down, and head-butted her again. He later smashed dishes, broke her mobile phone, and punched her in the face following a row about money. On 10 November 2017 he subjected her to a prolonged attack, punching and kicking her repeatedly as she curled up on the sofa. After she reported the abuse to Folkestone Police Station on 13 November, her flat was found ransacked with bannisters broken, appliances smashed, TVs knocked over, a games console destroyed, and an oily substance smeared over plug sockets. He was arrested the next day and found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court.