Chester Crown Court Sentencing Results

Julie Sweeney, 53, of Church Lawton, Cheshire, posted an online message on Facebook on August 3 saying, 'Blow the mosque up with the adults in it,' which was reported to the police. She lived a quiet, sheltered life but contributed to the context of widespread disorder.

Between July 29 and August 6, 2024, Rhys McDonald posted messages on Facebook in response to and alongside Taggart's posts, including 'Need to march on the Daresbury Hotel with torches and pitchforks. Enough is enough.', 'It’s not about immigration it’s about an ideology... it’s about radical Islam.', and 'They need to protest at the hotels where these animals are living. No good in Liverpool city centre. Get to the Daresbury.' These posts were intended to stir up racial hatred amid widespread UK riots starting in Southport. He was arrested on August 10, 2024, at his home on Oxford Road, Runcorn, Cheshire.

Between July 29 and August 6, 2024, Christopher Taggart posted messages on Facebook calling for a rally and march on the Daresbury Hotel in Runcorn, Cheshire, where asylum seekers were staying, with comments such as 'Who’s up for a rally?', 'To get them gone. We don’t want them.', and 'We don’t want them here. F*** em. They started we will end it.' These posts were intended to stir up racial hatred amid widespread UK riots starting in Southport. He was arrested on August 10, 2024, at his home on Caesars Close, where police seized a knuckleduster.

On December 14, 2024, Charlotte Wollaston and Daniel Wollaston set fire to curtains in a bedroom at a block of flats in Nantwich, Cheshire, endangering the lives of residents from 12 homes who had to be evacuated. They attempted to blame a child for the arson, with Charlotte telling Daniel to tell police the child was responsible. Charlotte had recently searched for house swap pages on social media and continued to deny involvement even after being charged.

On December 14, 2024, Daniel Wollaston started a fire by setting curtains alight in a bedroom at a block of flats in Nantwich, Cheshire, with reckless endangerment to life, leading to the evacuation of residents from 12 homes. He and Charlotte Wollaston attempted to blame a child for the incident, telling officers the child used a lighter. The child later disclosed that Daniel was responsible, and further enquiries revealed their attempts to pervert the course of justice.

On June 19, the victim, a 59-year-old man, was walking in the Morrisons car park in Ellesmere Port when he was nearly hit by a car driven by Luke Cooper. After confronting Cooper about the incident, the victim was punched in the face, causing him to fall and sustain multiple fractures to his cheekbone. Cooper drove away from the scene while shouting obscenities and was later identified and arrested through CCTV footage. He initially claimed self-defence during questioning.

On May 3, Llewellyn Parry-Jones was driving a white van while disqualified and without a licence or insurance. He was reported for drink-driving, tailgated a car, collided slowly with a pedestrian, drove around stationary cars in Vicar's Lane towards Little John Street nearly causing a crash, resisted arrest by reversing into a squad car, and was found with cannabis. He gave a breath test reading of 63mcg per 100ml, nearly twice the legal limit.

Sarah Rigby, 41, of Sunningdale Close, Winsford, subjected her boyfriend to controlling and coercive behaviour over six months in their shared home. The abuse included preventing him from using the toilet in the house, forcing him to sleep on the floor with windows open, assaulting and scratching his face, controlling his diet, forcing him to pay for her private treatments and reports, making him obtain codeine prescriptions for her habit, verbally abusing him with names like 'fat', 'lazy', 'sweaty', 'a whale', 'dopey', 'thick', 'smelly', 'dog', isolating him from family, frisking him to prevent taking food, accusing him of stealing, requiring cameras to watch him, evicting him from the house even when she was absent, and threatening to leave him if she did not get pregnant. The victim reported her to police in early March 2022; her phone messages confirmed the offending. Trial began 26 February 2024; she pleaded guilty on 28 February 2024.

Benjamin Lewis, 31, of Neston, Wirral, was driving his blue BMW in convoy with his partner on the A5117 near Dunkirk on the Wirral, around 9.20pm on 25 November 2021 when the crash happened. He was overtaking another car on the single-track road when he collided with a silver Citroen car, coming the other way, being driven by the victim, 20. The victim's long-time friend, also 20, was a passenger in the car at the time. Lewis had driven his car into the opposite lane and was heading straight towards them when the crash happened. There were two solid white lines in the middle of the road, indicating that drivers in neither direction should overtake. Both victims were seriously injured in the crash and died shortly afterwards. Witnesses reported seeing Lewis driving at excessive speeds in the lead up to the crash. It had been raining and the roads were wet and it was dark. Lewis was said to lose control of his car when it became clear that he was going to crash into the oncoming vehicle. His car had also been found to have a worn rear tyre.

Andrew Thompson, a 32-year-old teaching assistant and volunteer with a children’s activity group in Cheshire, committed 33 child sexual abuse offences against more than 15 young boys. His offending was discovered when another volunteer found a hidden camera he had installed under a toilet in a Warrington hall used by the youth group. Indecent images were found on the downloaded footage, and Thompson was identified as he had filmed himself placing the camera. Arrested on 23 December 2022, his devices revealed further indecent images, videos of him abusing children at the school where he worked, and images from a school trip.

Nathan Bake, a 28-year-old car mechanic from Runcorn, Cheshire, served as second-in-command of a dark web site called The Annex, which had nearly 90,000 users worldwide and facilitated the sharing of extreme child abuse images, including 'hurtcore' involving violence against babies and toddlers. He moderated the site under the username 'Pink', answered user queries, offered advice on evading detection, and was involved in other sites like Lolita's Paradise. Following his arrest in November 2022, authorities recovered over 3.6 million indecent images from his devices, along with children's tights, underwear, and sandals at his home. The site was a sophisticated operation with staff shifts and meetings, and Bake rose through the ranks after the previous head moderator's arrest in May 2022.

David Norbury, a 52-year-old sex offender from Shores Green Drive in Wincham, failed to notify police of his online alias 'TrendyBear109758' as required by the sex offenders register. He also breached a sexual harm prevention order by entering and remaining at an address with a child under 16 between June 25 and August 27, 2023. This is his second breach of an SHPO in three years; previously, he received an eight-week sentence for deleting his internet search history.

Police executed a warrant at Russell Wilcox's home address in Longridge, Knutsford, on August 29, 2023, where they seized four sawn-off shotguns along with ammunition. Wilcox, aged 52, was arrested at the scene.

Jermaine Scott, diagnosed with HIV in 2005, rekindled a relationship with the victim in summer 2009 without disclosing his diagnosis. He did not take his medication regularly and had unprotected sex with her, leading to her infection. In October 2009, at a sexual health clinic, he provided false information. The victim tested positive for HIV, and the relationship ended. Scott fled the area, was arrested in 2011 but released due to insufficient evidence, and deported. The case reopened with new medical evidence showing high likelihood of transmission during their relationship and genetic links in HIV strains. He was charged in 2020 and extradited in 2022.

Jack Edward Finney sold 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), a highly toxic industrial chemical falsely marketed as a weight loss drug, along with anabolic steroids, Viagra, and anti-oestrogens on the dark web. DNP has caused at least 33 deaths in the UK. He used Monero cryptocurrency for transactions. Finney was involved in fraudulent evasion of importation prohibitions and rendering food injurious to health by adding DNP for human consumption.

Tanya Rowe, 42, posing as Mia Cavalli, accepted £70,000 in gifts and cash from an 83-year-old retired entrepreneur she called her ‘Sugar Daddy’. She possessed faked Cartier payslips which enabled her to rent out a £265,000 apartment in the city. Prosecutors claimed she told the old man, who believed she had breast cancer, that she had not been paid by Cartier and was facing eviction from her flat. The businessman denied an affair, claiming that he had lent Rowe the money expecting to be paid back. However, she claimed the pensioner knew she was an escort and had offered her money to pay for a botched operation.