Lewes Crown Court Sentencing Results

James Gathercole, 40, of Streatham, exposed himself and masturbated in front of a woman in her 20s on a train from London Victoria to East Grinstead on July 15, 2025. He was caught staring at her, then undressed and performed the act after passengers alighted at East Croydon. The victim reported the incident at Upper Warlingham, leading to his arrest at East Grinstead where he was found asleep. This occurred just 12 days after his release on licence. He had prior convictions for similar acts in July 2024 at Motspur Park and West Sutton, identified via victim footage and CCTV.

On 20 September 2024, police went to arrest Reece Hodges at a property in Bognor, for recall to prison where he was serving a sentence for stalking. He climbed onto the roof and garage, initiating a 12-hour stand-off during which he threatened to ignite a propane gas cylinder. Neighbours were evacuated, and a significant emergency service response was required. Officers from the Tactical Enforcement Unit entered a garage full of obstacles and arrested Hodges before he could set the gas cylinder on fire, fearing he had doused himself and the floor in petrol or accelerant.

Charles Wood, 34, of Sompting, used voice-changing technology to catfish teenage girls and young women on TikTok and Instagram. Posing as a teenage girl named ‘Riley’, he pressured victims into sending sexually explicit images and videos, some of which he shared with other predatory men. He possessed 30 child abuse images across categories A, B and C, as well as an extreme pornographic image. He also sent false messages claiming ‘Riley’ was self‑harming and pretended to be her mother. Arrested on 21 November 2024, he pleaded guilty at Worthing Magistrates’ Court on 14 November 2025 and was sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on 13 January 2026.

Mikey Winchester, 25, posed as a teenage girl on Snapchat and Instagram to groom three young girls (two aged 10, one aged 13) in 2022 and 2023. He sent explicit images and asked the victims to send explicit images in return. Police traced the accounts to his home and arrested him in May 2023. His devices contained 69 child sex abuse images and four images of extreme animal pornography. He was charged with three counts of sexual communication with a child, inciting sexual activity with a child (with and without penetration), three counts of making indecent images of a child, and four counts of possession of extreme pornography.

Between 2017 and 2018, Benoy Thomas recruited Indian nationals to work as care assistants through a Bexhill-on-Sea based care home recruitment company, despite knowing they had no right to work in the UK. He was found guilty of assisting the unlawful immigration of 13 individuals. The court heard he tried to hide employment documentation from immigration officers in a garage before his arrest. Prosecutors presented timesheets, invoices, text messages, bank statements, handwritten office notes and diary entries showing he deliberately organised work for people he knew were in the UK illegally.

John Simpson, 52, of Eastbourne, groomed and repeatedly sexually abused a 13-year-old girl in 2011, convincing her they were in a normal relationship. The abuse continued for several months before she cut contact. She reported the offences to police in 2021. Simpson was arrested and charged with 13 counts of sexual activity with a child and 2 counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. At Lewes Crown Court, he was found guilty of 9 counts of sexual activity with a child and 2 counts of causing or inciting. He was sentenced to 9 years 6 months in prison, placed on the sex offenders register for life, and given an indefinite restraining order against the victim.

During the violent confrontation at the Smugglers Return pub in Worthing on 23 July 2024, Matthew Cook, after his brother Jason shouted to 'get the shooter', cycled away and returned wielding a large knife. He slashed at the group of customers who were trapped in a wooden booth with no means of escape. At least three members sustained arm wounds while trying to defend themselves. Matthew fled but was later arrested.

On the evening of 23 July 2024, Jason Cook was drinking with his father and brother at the Smugglers Return pub. During a confrontation, he picked up an umbrella base and threw it at someone, and threw glasses towards the group which smashed. He later shouted to his brother Matthew to 'get the shooter', prompting Matthew to fetch a knife. Jason was arrested outside the pub.

On 23 July 2024, Derek Cook was drinking with his sons at the Smugglers Return pub in Worthing. They became involved in a confrontation with another group of customers in the outside seating area. Derek attempted to punch one individual, then later hit a female member of the group over the head with an umbrella pole and jabbed it into her body, causing significant bruising. He was arrested outside the pub.

Thomas Murphy was driving a silver Kia Sedona with cloned number plates and failed to stop for police. He evaded pursuit by speeding at up to 80mph in a 50mph zone, driving on the wrong side of the road, ignoring traffic lights, and overtaking dangerously. On 7 March 2025, he collided head-on with a family car near Godstone, causing life-changing injuries to the occupants while under the influence of drugs.

George Leighton, 26, of no fixed address, began a relationship with a woman in January 2025, which turned violent after eight months. On September 14, 2025, while driving from Sunbury, he strangled her twice until she couldn't breathe and punched her face, causing swelling. On October 10, 2025, at home, he strangled her again, pushing her against a bed headboard, causing bruising, and hit her face. On October 15, 2025, while driving, after she refused to lend him her car, he repeatedly banged her head against the car door until she lost consciousness. He was arrested on October 21, 2025.

Jevonte White, 18, of Thornton Heath, ran a service with Bradley Scott to deliver knives, class A and class B drugs, and illicit mobile phones into 17 British prisons using drones between January and June 2024. Contraband was hidden inside mango flavoured Rubicon drinks and Alpro almond milk cartons. They conducted 105 drops, peaking at 28 in March, exploiting holes in prison security at facilities including HMP Lewes (breached 27 times), Rye Hill, Onley, and others.

Bradley Scott, 27, of Thornton Heath in Croydon, ran a service with Jevonte White to deliver knives, class A and class B drugs, and illicit mobile phones into 17 British prisons using drones between January and June 2024. Contraband was hidden inside mango flavoured Rubicon drinks and Alpro almond milk cartons. They conducted 105 drops, peaking at 28 in March, with Scott involved in nearly twice as many operations as White. Police analysed phones and vehicle movements to identify the prison visits.

George Voisey, a 24-year-old Sussex Police officer, was caught after the National Crime Agency alerted the force to offences in October 2024. He admitted one count of making a category A indecent image of a child via a Snapchat video, and two counts relating to five category B and seven category C images. The offences took place between 22 June 2024 and 24 October 2024, while he was not on duty. He was arrested on 24 October 2024, suspended from duty, and later resigned on 1 March 2025.

Russell King hid four bin bags containing 100kg of ketamine in a Fiat motorhome and transported them from Rotterdam to Hull on August 24, 2024. He was also involved in importing 632kg of ketamine in July 2023. Police arrested him at his home in Royston, Barnsley, after which officers from the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit seized the drugs with a street value of £2 million. The wider organised crime group was identified and charged in partnership with Sussex Police.

The incident occurred at 12:10pm on December 13th, 2023, when Cole was travelling down a stretch of the A27 in Southborne. Driving his van at 72mph, 12 mph above the speed limit for his vehicle, he became distracted by social media on his mobile phone. He failed to see what was ahead of him on the carriageway, and collided with a broken-down car, seriously injuring its driver. Although the accident occurred on a straight stretch of road, it was found that excessive speed and lack of attention to the road ahead led to what could have been a fatal accident. The injured driver sustained life-changing injuries.

Kevin Wyeth posed as a teenage boy on mobile apps to exploit girls under 13, coercing them into sending explicit images and videos and threatening to find and rape those who refused. Police traced him to a flat in Eastbourne and seized a mobile phone containing indecent material. He was convicted of 35 offences, including making indecent images, engaging in sexual communications with a child, inciting girls under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Adrian West subjected his ex-partner, the victim, to months of violent attacks, including strangling, punching, and kicking her at her home in Crawley, Sussex. After being removed from the property, he returned on September 13, 2024, and smashed her doorbell camera with a rock. He was arrested for criminal damage but released without charge the next day. Later that day, he returned and started a fire in the porch using white spirit as an accelerant, which engulfed the house while the victim was napping inside, forcing her to flee and resulting in the death of her three-year-old British Bulldog, Peggy, who was trapped under the bed.

Brandon Lee, 28, was driving a brand new blue Ford Fiesta at speed on the A23 out of Brighton at about 2:20am on Friday 8 December 2023. Police spotted him driving over the speed limit and activated their blue lights. Lee, who held only a provisional licence and had used cannabis, accelerated away, reaching speeds of up to 100mph on the A273 at Clayton. The road, a 50mph single carriageway, was wet and unlit. Passenger the victim repeatedly asked him to slow down, but he ignored her and the police. After two to three minutes of dangerous driving, he lost control on a bend and crashed into a wall, destroying it, a BT box, and the car. The victim, in the rear seat, suffered two complex fractures of her left leg, a damaged kneecap, a chest injury, and subsequent infection, leaving her with lasting disability including a metal rod from knee to ankle, nerve damage, scarring, and mobility issues. Lee admitted being the driver at the scene and entered an early guilty plea.

Terry Colley, 46, of Wandsworth, London, was driving erratically on the A22 at Golden Cross in November 2023 after consuming alcohol and cocaine. He sped up and crossed into the path of a car driven by the victim, causing a head-on collision. The victim, a 29-year-old mother, was left with life-changing injuries including a collapsed lung, a ruptured spleen and multiple fractures, and was placed in an induced coma. Colley's dog died in the crash. He blamed the victim throughout the police investigation, pleading not guilty, but changed his plea at the last moment when his trial was due to begin at Lewes Crown Court. He failed to attend the sentencing hearing and was sentenced in his absence.

Luke Maddran, 38, was arrested at gunpoint on Brighton beach on 17 September 2024 after threatening to kill a woman and her children. He subjected her to repeated physical and psychological abuse over a period of around five years, including strangling her in Brighton Road, Worthing, and assaulting her causing actual bodily harm at Long Furlong Farm, Clapham. He also sent a death threat in Berriedale Drive, Sompting, on 15 September 2024. Maddran had a history of violence, having previously been jailed for 14 years in 2014 for a burglary.

On 8 July 2024, Michael Dyos, 59, from Southwater, West Sussex, drove to Littlehampton to meet someone he believed was a 13-year-old child, following online sexual chat. He was arrested by police upon arrival and charged the next day. He had previously been subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

On October 25, 2022, at about 3.35pm, Kieran Shaw, then 18, was riding a Yamaha Tracer 700 motorcycle on the B2140 Worthing Road at East Preston while disqualified from driving. He failed to see the victim, an 81-year-old pedestrian, crossing the road and collided with her. She sustained critical injuries and later died in hospital. Shaw had been disqualified a year earlier for dangerous driving and was also riding a motorcycle too powerful for his age range. He was listening to music via a Bluetooth speaker in his helmet but denied being distracted. Witnesses saw the collision and later estimates put his speed between 27mph and 38mph in a 30mph zone. Shaw gave false details to police when previously stopped. He admitted causing the death while disqualified.

Paul Wallis tried to arrange the rape of a young girl known to him in Crawley. Police in Manchester found online chats between him and another paedophile planning the abuse. Sussex Police’s Online Child Abuse team investigated, discovered indecent images of children and extreme pornographic images of bestiality on his devices, and safeguarded the child. Wallis admitted the offences at Lewes Crown Court on 24 February 2025.