Chester Crown Court Sentencing Results

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.

George Boden, owner of Bosley Mill, was sentenced following the deadly explosion at Wood Flour Mills in Bosley on July 17, 2015, which killed four workers due to ignited kerosene cylinders leaking flammable liquid, causing explosions and a major fire. The incident led to 50 job losses and the abandonment of nearby homes.

Barry Bennell abused young footballers he coached by inviting them to stay at his home, with incidents occurring between 1979 and 1992. He targeted boys aged nine to 14, including acts of indecent assault and sexual abuse while associated with football clubs like Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra.

Benjamin Toop engaged in sexual offences involving children online. He admitted three offences of making indecent images, four offences of distributing indecent images, four offences of attempting to engage a young girl in indecent activity online, and four offences of inciting a young girl to engage in sexual activity online. The investigation began with a search of his address in October 2013 by the Sussex Police Paedophile On-Line Investigation Team, leading to the seizure of his computer which revealed systematic engagement with teenage girls in indecent conversation and activity. One victim was a 14/15-year-old girl in the United States contacted via a chat room.

Dennis Tanner, 57, of Meadow Close, Hove, grew 1,500 cannabis plants in various stages of growth in two upper rooms at the main workshop of his company, which specialised in restoring classic cars and making kit cars, located on the Mackley industrial estate in Henfield Road, Small Dole. The plants had an estimated street value of £120,000. He was arrested in January 2013 after detectives raided his workshops.

Philip Kane, a 46-year-old man from Little Bollington, Cheshire, engaged in online sexual communications over five days in October 2023 with an adult decoy he believed was a 14-year-old boy. He sent explicit messages, a photograph of his penis, and a video of himself performing a sex act. He pleaded guilty at Warrington Magistrates' Court and was sentenced at Chester Crown Court. The judge determined the actions crossed the custody threshold but imposed a suspended sentence due to mitigation.

Phillip Wright, a 33-year-old from Runcorn, Cheshire, accumulated over 5,195 indecent images of children on his electronic devices between May 2023 and 31 October 2023. The images included 2,971 Category A (the most severe, depicting child rape), 1,006 Category B, and 1,219 Category C. He also actively distributed some of the material to other offenders online. Officers further discovered 12 prohibited non-photographic videos of child abuse and six extreme pornographic images showing sexual acts between humans and animals.

Neil James Shaw, released from prison in December 2021 to serve the remainder of his sentence on licence, sent a friend request to his victim on Facebook on February 4, 2022, breaching an indefinite restraining order which prevented him from contacting her. He had been staying in London Road, Sandbach, Cheshire.

Nyle Smith, along with Kieran Mellor and Kenneth Stephenson, was involved in an altercation with two men outside a property on The Birches in Davenport Avenue, Crewe, on the evening of Sunday, April 19, 2020. They first arrived armed with knives and a wooden plank shortly after 8pm. They left and returned at 9.55pm with faces concealed and armed with a shotgun, which was fired at the 50-year-old man but missed and hit the house wall.

As director of managing agent Ashford of Essex Ltd for the HMO on Boscombe Avenue in Grays, Essex, with five bedrooms sharing a single kitchen, bathroom and WC. Raided by council officers, it had trailing cables, water damaged ceiling, poorly secured door, broken kitchen units, damp, and non-working gas boiler and cooker.

Arrested following a police raid on Keith Richards' home, Redlands, in West Wittering, Sussex on 12 February 1967 for drug possession. Amphetamine tablets found and claimed by Jagger.

Matthew Thomas secretly filmed people using the toilet by hiding a camera in the pocket of a jacket hung in a toilet cubicle at an unnamed business. He was discovered in September 2020 when a woman noticed a bright light and a camera lens. Police seized devices revealing over 100 videos of a sexual nature dating back to 2008, including voyeurism and upskirting, 28 indecent images of children, and extreme pornography videos involving 17 victims, some under 18.

On 13 June 2020 at around 12.21am on the A534 Haslington Bypass, Ellson was driving a black Corsa towards Crewe for a takeaway when he lost control after an overtake, colliding with a parked HGV lorry. Passenger Francesca Bugliarello suffered fatal injuries. Ellson lied to police and tried to blame his girlfriend.

Sohan Singh and his brother operated a property on Boscombe Avenue in Grays, Essex, as an HMO with five bedrooms sharing a single kitchen, bathroom and WC. Raided by council officers, it had trailing cables, water damaged ceiling, poorly secured door, broken kitchen units, damp, and non-working gas boiler and cooker.

Art dealer present at the party at Keith Richards' home, Redlands, in West Wittering, Sussex, raided by police on 12 February 1967. Found in possession of heroin.

On the night of 15 August and morning of 16 August, Sam Everitt assaulted a woman during a journey from Croydon to Horsham, causing her to lose consciousness on multiple occasions. The victim, a woman in her 40s, suffered significant injuries requiring hospital treatment. Everitt was arrested on 18 October after being tracked by police.

Ian Crockford, 52, was subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order after being jailed for child sex offences in 2019. On 7 March 2023, police received information that he had more indecent images of children. Analysis of his mobile phone and computers showed hundreds of indecent images of children, and he had also shared illegal images and instructed another person on how to abuse a child. He was charged with six counts of making or distributing indecent images of a child, one count of publishing an obscene article, and breaching his sexual harm prevention order. While on court bail, he obtained a new mobile phone and attempted to sexually communicate with children, leading to further charges.

Gaynor Woodward was convicted of cruelty in relation to the abuse of the young girl by her husband Roy Woodward. Her failing was one of recklessness, closing her mind to the ongoing abuse.

John Graham Edwards, 51, a Sandbach businessman, posed as a professional photographer using the alias 'Marcus' on the social networking site 'Vampire Freaks' to groom girls aged 14 and 15 between 2009 and 2010. He offered money for erotic photographs and arranged meetings, engaging in sexual activity including intercourse and paying the victims cash. Police found child pornography images and extreme pornography videos on his devices. Edwards, who ran Cheshire Wire Erosion, had no prior convictions, a 27-year marriage, and four sons. He was convicted of 20 child sex offences.

John Blake, aged 61, targeted three young girls aged between nine and 15 over seven years in Chester, Cheshire, subjecting them to systematic sexual abuse. He was convicted of 14 counts of sexual abuse at Chester Crown Court.

Joanne Foster, a 44-year-old former NHS clerical worker and justice campaigner from Macclesfield, was sentenced at Chester Crown Court for a series of sexual offences. The case came to light following a police raid in April 2017 at the home she shared with her then-boyfriend, Gary Keenan. During the raid, authorities seized devices containing indecent images of children and evidence of public sexual acts. Foster pleaded guilty to possessing 16 Category A, 18 Category B, and 69 Category C indecent images of children under 16, as well as one count of possessing indecent images and two counts of outraging public decency. Prosecutor Sarah Badrawy detailed how images recovered from Keenan's phone showed Foster engaging in sexual activity outdoors, including a specific set taken in Heaton Park, Manchester, where she was wearing a white dress and exposing herself. One particularly disturbing image had the words 'paedo s***' written on her bottom. The court heard that Foster's involvement began after she entered a relationship with Keenan, a former soldier, who encouraged her to participate in high-risk and illegal sexual activities, referring to her as his 'product'. Foster claimed in police interviews that Keenan had downloaded the images onto her phone, while he blamed her, but both were held accountable. This behaviour contrasted sharply with Foster's past as a campaigner; in 2009, following the death of her long-term partner in a 'one punch' attack during a night out in Macclesfield, she lobbied for tougher sentences in manslaughter cases and raised awareness about drink-fuelled violence. Judge Patrick Thompson sentenced Foster to 15 months in prison, highlighting the severity of the offences involving child exploitation material and public indecency. The case was investigated by Greater Manchester Police, underscoring the risks of such activities in public spaces like Heaton Park.

Jamie Carter, 22, of Shetland Drive, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, stored 357 indecent images of children between September 19, 2019 and December 5, 2020. Of those, 103 were Category A (most serious), 84 Category B, and 170 Category C. He also possessed 11 prohibited images of children and 10 images of extreme pornography involving animals.

James Arnold, a 31-year-old resident of Shepperton Close in Appleton, Warrington, was sentenced at Chester Crown Court for sexual offences involving communications with a child and possession of indecent images. The case came to light after Arnold began messaging what he believed to be a 12-year-old girl on Snapchat on 19 December 2024. The 'girl' was in fact a decoy account operated by undercover police officers. Despite acknowledging her young age on two occasions and stating that he 'shouldn’t be speaking to her', Arnold continued the conversation until 7 February 2025. During this period, the messages turned sexual in nature. Arnold asked to see what the '12-year-old' looked like, enquired why she didn’t have a boyfriend, and whether she had 'done anything with a man before'. In February 2025, he escalated by requesting a picture of her undressed and told the account that he 'wishes she was older' so that he could 'take her out'. He also expressed a desire to 'kiss and cuddle' what he thought was a young girl. On 2 May 2025, Arnold was arrested. He admitted to police that he had been speaking to the decoy and was aware of the claimed age. Although he denied possessing any indecent images of children, examination of his devices revealed 27 such images, including four category A images – the most severe form depicting child rape – and three category A videos. Additionally, five category B images and 15 category C images were found, featuring children aged between four and 16.

Dean used her mobile phone to download more than 1,000 images of child sexual abuse over a two-year period until her arrest by Cheshire Police in June 2025. She accessed the material via the encrypted app Signal and the dark web using The Onion Ring internet browser. Her Samsung phone contained 306 Category A images (including 224 videos) showing distressed babies being sexually assaulted, 173 Category B images (53 videos), 525 Category C images (48 videos), and six prohibited images that did not depict real children. She was arrested after police traced her email and IP addresses.