Lewes Crown Court Sentencing Results

Jevonte White, 18, of Nutfield Road, 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 Limpsfield Avenue, 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 Swanwick Close, 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.

Marcus Murphy was involved in starting a fire at a flat in Norwich Crescent, Bevendean, Brighton, on 25 September 2023. He drove from Bexhill with others as part of a revenge attack over a £23,000 drug debt. The fire quickly died out and caused only minor damage.

Bronnie Richards drove the group from Bexhill to Brighton on two nights, including the night of the Norwich Crescent fire on 25 September 2023. She was involved in starting the fire at the flat as part of a campaign over a drug debt. The fire self-extinguished before causing serious damage.

Callum Radband, aged 26, was the direct perpetrator who poured petrol and set fire to two Brighton flats on 25 September 2023, in a campaign linked to a £23,000 drug debt. The first fire, at Stonehurst Court, endangered the life of the sole occupant, who was trapped in her first-floor flat and had to climb out of a window with her dog; her home was completely destroyed. The second fire at Norwich Crescent caused minor damage before it extinguished. Radband had previously been jailed for aggravated burglary and was on licence at the time. He was acquitted of involvement in the Range Rover fire due to lack of evidence.

Elle-Mai Dunford, aged 21, recruited others and filmed Callum Radband as he started fires at two Brighton flats on 25 September 2023, as part of a campaign of terror over a £23,000 drug debt. The first fire was set at a flat in Stonehurst Court, believed to belong to an intended victim, but actually occupied by an innocent woman, the victim, who escaped out of a bathroom window with her dog after the stairs were engulfed in flames; the entire flat was destroyed, with repair costs estimated at £60,000–£80,000. The second fire was started shortly afterwards at a flat in Norwich Crescent, Bevendean, thought to belong to another intended victim, but the fire quickly died out. The night before, Dunford was involved in setting fire to a Range Rover outside a victim’s home in Downsway, causing £14,000 damage. Dunford pleaded guilty to all charges.

On Sunday 24 March 2024, George Horsted and Damien Lee were involved in a confrontation at the Toby Carvery in Goring Road, Worthing. Horsted punched a victim twice, knocking out three of his front teeth. After the pair left the pub, Lee fetched a kitchen knife from his nearby flat. When the victim and another victim approached them in the street to ask why Horsted had hit the victim, Horsted became violent again, wrestled the knife from Lee, and stabbed the other victim in the abdomen. The other victim lost significant blood and feared he would die. Horsted and Lee then fled to Lee’s flat, changed clothes, and escaped. Following a public appeal, they handed themselves in to police in early April. Both were charged and convicted of unlawful wounding after a trial.

On Sunday 24 March 2024, George Horsted and Damien Lee were involved in a confrontation at the Toby Carvery in Goring Road, Worthing. Horsted punched one victim twice, knocking out three of his front teeth. After the pair left the pub, Lee fetched a kitchen knife from his nearby flat. When that victim and another victim approached them in the street to ask why Horsted had hit the victim, Horsted became violent again, wrestled the knife from Lee, and stabbed the other victim in the abdomen. The other victim lost significant blood and feared he would die. Horsted and Lee then fled to Lee’s flat, changed clothes, and escaped. Following a public appeal, they handed themselves in to police in early April. Both were charged and convicted of unlawful wounding after a trial.

On 19 April 2024 at around 11.59pm, Amelia King drove the wrong way along the A2011 Crawley Avenue dual carriageway for approximately 1.25km after ignoring 'no entry' signs, and collided head-on with another car. She had a blood alcohol level of 92 milligrams per 100 millilitres, exceeding the legal limit of 80 milligrams. Her passenger sustained a fractured jaw, rib, arm and back, requiring surgery and a long hospital stay. The other driver suffered a fractured rib and blunt abdominal trauma, also requiring significant hospital treatment.

On 12 May 2023, Joseph Charlott attacked a 77-year-old pensioner in Hastings. He used a knuckleduster to smash the victim's motorhome, then knocked the victim to the ground and kicked him repeatedly after the victim called 999. The victim suffered serious injuries including a fractured shoulder blade, ribs and chest bone. Charlott was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, assaulting an emergency worker, possessing an offensive weapon and criminal damage. He had been caught with a knuckleduster and spat at a police officer the day before the main attack, went on the run for three months, and violently resisted arrest in August by jumping from a second-floor window and fighting three officers.

On 4 August 2024, during a week of rioting and disorder after the Southport stabbings, Max Ritchings posted an Instagram video threatening to burn down a mosque. Later the same day, he stood on a phone box near Brighton's Palace Pier, draped in a St George's flag, shouting anti-Islamic abuse and telling foreigners to leave the country. The incident coincided with the end of Brighton Pride weekend.

Robbie Cook, angered by a £3,500 drug deal involving fake cannabis (popcorn), pursued a Citroen Berlingo driven by the victim through residential streets in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on February 13, 2023. The vehicles reached speeds over 50mph, collided, and the Citroen crashed into a tree, killing the victim, the victim, and the victim. Cook, familiar with the area, slowed at a junction, then searched the crashed vehicle with a torch without calling for help, and later destroyed his phone to pervert justice.

On 12 March 2022 at around 10pm, Megan McQuade picked up a man in his 20s and drove him to Underhill Lane, Clayton, where Christopher Smith and Stephen McNicol were waiting. They viciously attacked the victim, threatening to stab him and tasering him, causing two broken wrists. McQuade’s phone records linked her to the conspiracy.

On 12 March 2022 at around 10pm, a man in his 20s was picked up by Megan McQuade and taken to Underhill Lane, Clayton. When parked next to another car, Christopher Smith and Stephen McNicol got out and viciously attacked the victim, threatening to stab him and tasering him. The victim suffered two broken wrists but escaped and called a friend. All three suspects fled. The attack was pre‑planned.