Leicester Crown Court Sentencing Results

Thierry Robinson, aged 21, entered the cell of the victim at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire on August 20, 2024, alongside Ashirie Smith, and participated in a violent assault by kicking and stamping on the victim. This led to the victim's death from injuries, including head and neck trauma, exacerbated by the victim's pre-existing health conditions such as tuberculosis.

Ashirie Smith, aged 19, entered the cell of the victim at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire on August 20, 2024, and carried out a violent attack by kicking and stamping on the victim's head and neck. This resulted in fatal injuries, including a bleed at the base of the brain and fractures to the ribs. The victim had previously expressed safety concerns and was serving a sentence for a sexual offence. Smith was caught on CCTV entering and leaving the cell.

Parvinder Singh attacked a victim with a knife at a bookmakers in Melton Road, Leicester, on 24 May 2025, while the victim was celebrating winning a bet. The victim, who did not know Singh, sustained cuts to his head and hand requiring hospital treatment. Singh was detained by staff before police arrived.

Ian Burdett was found guilty of raping a woman. The offence was reported to police in March 2023, and he was convicted following a trial at Leicester Crown Court. The victim said the crime had a fundamental impact on many parts of her life.

On January 27, 2024, at about 1.20am, Olegs Arklins, 45, of no fixed address, stabbed his girlfriend in the chest with a knife at her home in Leicester after becoming jealous over her friendship with a male colleague. The blade missed her heart by 3cm and aorta by 2cm. He had been drinking, slapped her, smashed her phone two days prior, taunted her with the knife, threatened to kill her while she called police, then thrust it into her chest up to the hilt. After the stabbing, he advised her not to remove the blade and smoked a cigarette by the window while taunting her. Her two young children entered the room hearing her cries for help.

Sundeep Singh, 49, murdered his 76-year-old mother by subjecting her to a savage beating and smothering her with a plastic bag at her home in Bolsover Street, Leicester, on May 13, 2024. He then attempted to bury her body in the back garden, but was interrupted by his sister who discovered the body and called 999. Singh denied responsibility, tried to blame his sister, and fled but was arrested nearby with over £500 in cash and his mother's bank card. Prior to the murder, he engaged in a campaign of controlling and coercive behaviour, demanding money, threatening to kill her and family members, stealing cash, bank cards, phone, and gold jewellery worth £4,000-£5,000. His actions stemmed from a delusional belief that the family home was his after his father's death in 2020, despite evidence to the contrary. He had serious mental health issues since at least 2021, including delusional disorder, and had been detained under the Mental Health Act twice.

Raj Sidpara murdered his partner, the victim, in the early hours of May 6, 2024, at his property in Tarbat Road, Thurnby Lodge, near Leicester. The attack involved beating, kicking, and stamping on her in his bedroom, resulting in 64 injuries including bruising, a brain injury, and 20 rib fractures. The couple had been out drinking earlier that evening, and Sidpara claimed the injuries were from her falling while drunk, but evidence showed he acted with intent. After the attack, he removed his bloody shoes, went to bed next to her, and fell asleep before calling emergency services the next day, where CPR was unsuccessful as she was already deceased.

Ghulan Mohammed targeted a woman in Leicester city centre while driving around looking for sex workers. The victim was alone and severely intoxicated; after she asked whether he was a taxi driver, he persuaded her into his car and drove her to several remote locations where he sexually assaulted her and attempted to rape her. She tried to escape at a petrol station, and her friends later traced her through a location app and found her muddy and bruised in his car. Prosecutors built the case using CCTV, ANPR and a translator app that recorded the victim asking him to stop and asking for her clothes. He was also convicted of stealing her bank card and using it during and after the attack.

Michael Davis murdered his four-week-old son the victim in October 2017 by breaking his neck and inflicting multiple severe injuries, including fractures to the skull, collar bone, both arms, joints of all limbs, and 23 rib fractures, over four separate overnight episodes of violence while living in Upper Temple Walk, Leicester. The victim was left to die in his cot without medical help and was pronounced dead on October 21, 2017.

Natasha Akhtar took part in the group that ambushed and rammed the victims' car off the M40 motorway in February 2022, contributing to the deaths of the two victims in the ensuing fire.

Raees Jamal was involved in the fatal ambush on the M40 motorway in February 2022, where he helped force the victims' car off the road, resulting in the deaths of the victims.

Rekhan Karwan participated in the ambush on the M40 motorway in February 2022, driving one of the vehicles that forced the victims' car off the road, leading to their deaths by burning.

Sanaf Gulamustafa was involved in the February 2022 ambush on the M40, where vehicles rammed the victims' car off the road, causing the fatal crash that killed the victims.

Ameer Jamal participated in the motorway ambush in February 2022 that led to the car crash and deaths of two victims, convicted of manslaughter.

Danny Pechap raped a woman in her 20s after a party on 26 April 2024. He returned to the address where the victim was staying and assaulted her while she slept. The victim woke the next morning to find her shorts on backwards and stained with blood, and she reported the assault to police. Officers seized mobile phones, DNA samples and clothing. Videos of the assault were found on one of Pechap's phones, and he admitted removing a blood-stained bedsheet and throwing it away. He pleaded guilty to one count of rape.

Ross McCullam murdered his work colleague, the victim, whom he had been dating for less than a month, on 6 August 2021 at his parents' home in Windsor Close, Coalville, Leicestershire. He claimed a loss of control during oral sex triggered by undiagnosed PTSD from childhood abuse, but this was rejected by the jury. The victim suffered extensive injuries from a sustained struggle, including grip marks on her shoulders and arm, indicating an attempt to silence her. The victim's FitBit was ripped off during the attack. McCullam was convicted after a trial where he was portrayed as a dangerous, sadistic individual.

Katie Tidmarsh, a foster carer in the process of adopting the one-year-old victim, murdered the child in August 2012 at the family address in Littlethorpe, Leicester, by shaking her and causing a high-energy impact, leading to catastrophic brain damage. The victim suffered a seizure and stopped breathing, prompting a 999 call; she died two days later. Tidmarsh delayed seeking medical help and claimed the victim fell backwards onto a thick rug after her eyes rolled back, but medical experts disproved this, attributing injuries to abuse. X-rays revealed two previous fractures to the victim's right shoulder and a broken arm treated two weeks prior, which Tidmarsh attributed to a dog knocking her over. Tidmarsh was also found guilty of one count of causing grievous bodily harm relating to prior arm injuries. The case took 11 years to reach court following an inquest and 2017 proceedings that ruled she inflicted the fatal injuries.

On 21 January 2023, Robert Truscott, obsessed with his friend the victim, became angry and jealous upon learning she was on a Tinder date at her home in Oakham, Rutland. He armed himself with a 10-inch kitchen knife, cycled to her home, and stabbed the victim 10 times, inflicting horrific injuries to her neck, chest, and stomach. He also caused grievous bodily harm to her date by cutting his hand during a struggle to wrest the knife away. The victim survived after four life-saving operations and was discharged in April 2023, but died on 23 June 2023 from unrelated causes. Truscott was at the scene, admitted fault, and was arrested after calling emergency services.

Chukwuemeka Ahanonu, a 24-year-old drug dealer and former university student from Dover Street, Leicester, originally from Peckham, London, was driving a car that overturned near Leicester Royal Infirmary on June 24, 2023. In a random attack fueled by anger and cannabis use (THC level of 7.6mcg, above the 2mcg limit), he punched, kicked, and stamped with full force on the head of stranger the victim, a 56-year-old mother-of-two who had just alighted from a bus on her way home. She suffered fatal brain damage and died in hospital two days later. Ahanonu had been released from a two-year prison sentence on licence in July 2023 for an earlier offense involving running a red light, possession of over £1,000 cash, and a machete. He ran a significant drugs business earning up to £10,000 monthly while claiming universal credit.

Karen Vamplew murdered her seriously ill mother-in-law, the victim, by setting a fire in her home in the early hours of 15 December 2021 while she was asleep. The victim was chronically ill with a serious lung condition, deaf, and had very limited mobility, requiring twice-daily carer visits. Vamplew had significant debts and had been accessing money from the victim’s bank account until it was depleted and blocked by the bank. She visited the home just after midnight, set the fire by applying a flame directly to the bedding, fled, and then returned to pretend to call emergency services. Investigations confirmed the fire was deliberate, not accidental from the victim's smoking habit. CCTV evidence showed Vamplew's suspicious behavior, including parking away from the property despite having a key. The motive was to secure inheritance for her husband after losing access to the victim's funds.

Philip Burdett failed to provide adequate care to his immobile sister the victim, 61, who suffered from numerous chronic and complex medical conditions. In January 2019, her health deteriorated, and she was left on the floor of her bedroom in Oakside Crescent, Leicester, for at least two weeks, covered in faeces, urine, and vomit. She weighed just 4st 10lb at death on January 15, 2019, with extensive pressure sores, necrotic tissue on her back and hip infected with MRSA, leading to deadly sepsis. The family became reclusive after their mother's death in 2005, and despite promises not to seek external care, basic medical attention could have saved her life.

Rekan Karwan, aged 29, was part of the group assembled by Mahek Bukhari to ambush the victim and retrieve his phone containing blackmail material against the blackmail victim. On February 11, 2022, he participated in luring the victims to a Tesco car park in Leicester, followed by a high-speed pursuit on the A46, where the victims' vehicle was rammed, crashed, and exploded, resulting in the deaths of the two victims.

Ansreen Bukhari orchestrated the murders of her lover and his friend in February 2022 after the victim threatened to expose their affair by releasing sexually explicit material unless she paid £3,000. With her daughter Mahek and accomplices, she lured the victims to a Tesco car park in Leicester pretending to return the money, then chased their Skoda along the A46, ramming it off the road at high speeds up to 100mph, resulting in their deaths.

Raess Jamal was part of the group that ambushed the two victims on February 11, 2022, in Leicester. Involved in the pursuit from the Tesco car park in Hamilton up the A46, where the victims' Skoda was forced off the road into the central reservation and burst into flames, killing both 21-year-old men from Banbury, Oxfordshire. The ambush was planned by Mahek and Ansreen Bukhari to confront the victim over an affair.

Gillian Leivers, as accounts manager at Greenfeeds Limited, was involved in a case where two workers, the victims, died on December 22, 2016, while cleaning a tanker containing semi-liquid pig feed. Due to inadequate health and safety procedures, carbon dioxide built up in the unventilated tanker, causing the workers to lose consciousness and drown.

Hawkar Hassan, along with Aram Kurd and Arkan Ali, ignited a fire at the Zabka Supermarket in Leicester's Hinckley Road, leading to five fatalities. They were convicted of murder and insurance fraud.

Aram Kurd, along with Arkan Ali and Hawkar Hassan, caused a fatal blast at the Zabka Supermarket in Leicester's Hinckley Road by starting a petrol-fuelled fire, killing five people. They were convicted of murder and fraud after plotting to claim a £300,000 insurance payout.

Arkan Ali, with Aram Kurd and Hawkar Hassan, started a fire at the Zabka Supermarket in Leicester's Hinckley Road, resulting in five deaths. They were found guilty of murder and attempting to fraudulently claim insurance.

Jamie Wileman was involved in the attack on the victim, who was beaten over the head with his prosthetic leg and stabbed to death during a drugs deal that went wrong on January 14, 2018, in a garage block near Moira Street, Loughborough. The victim had intended to rob the defendants of drugs.

Katie Leong poured sulphuric acid at 96 per cent concentration on the victim while he slept at the house they shared in Leicester in July 2016. The attack was driven and orchestrated by Leong, who had a fascination with attacking someone using acid, including possession of a book written by an acid attack survivor. The acid was poured for about six seconds, fully intending to kill.

Christopher Pendery was involved in the manslaughter of the victim, a 47-year-old man found dead in his flat on Kimberley Road, Evington, on March 10, 2016, due to a head injury caused by an assault. An investigation followed a missing person report, and Pendery was sentenced for his part in the incident.