Newcastle Crown Court Sentencing Results

Jackson Roberts attacked his former partner in Sunderland, strangling her on 11 June 2022 and again in November 2022. The victim said the first attack was the day she 'died mentally' and that she was left with PTSD, flashbacks and trust issues. Roberts admitted two charges of intentional strangulation, pleading guilty on the basis that the incidents occurred during arguments in a toxic relationship after he had taken drink and drugs.

Graeme Lamb and his mother Brenda operated an illegal money lending business through Percuniam Solutions Ltd between October 2014 and November 2019, issuing 361 loans to 78 people ranging from £50 to £1,500 with interest rates of 40% to 69.5%, receiving total payments of £173,299.35. Neither was authorised to conduct credit business. Investigation triggered by anonymous tip to England Illegal Money Lending Team hotline, involving Sunderland Trading Standards and Northumbria Police.

On 14 September 2025, after a family left a restaurant in Newcastle, one threw a lollipop at Hasan Mohammed's taxi to slow him down as he was travelling fast. Enraged, he turned around and deliberately drove at the group at about 33mph, striking a grandfather who suffered multiple broken bones and required a prosthetic shoulder. He narrowly missed others, including a woman with a one-year-old child.

Harry Bertram, 19, of Sunderland, stormed into his aunt's home during a family gathering over a misplaced vape belonging to his mother. After threats, he repeatedly punched her in the face, causing her to fall and lose consciousness intermittently. After a brief pause, he produced a small black knife from his waistband and slashed her face, causing a deep three-inch wound requiring hospital treatment. He kicked the door and threatened to burn the house down as he left. Incident linked to relapse on crack-cocaine.

Kai Gray and John Tyas were at Monkseaton Metro station on the evening of January 21 when they fired air pistols from the hip at advertising hoardings and in the direction of members of the public. The pair were wearing balaclavas and had pellets. A concerned member of the public alerted police, who arrested them and seized the weapons. Metro services were held for 12 minutes, causing a total delay of 90 minutes. Gray pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

MacFarlane, from South Shields, admitted multiple child sex offences. Between June and November 2023 he met a nine-year-old boy through a PlayStation, moved contact to Snapchat, sexually abused the child online and pressured him into sending videos of him performing graphic sex acts on another nine-year-old. MacFarlane also messaged a 13-year-old boy he had met on Facebook, twice met up with him and filmed the child performing a sex act upon him, then offered money to do it again. He had indecent images of children on his phone and tablet. After arrest and release under investigation, he was made subject of an interim sexual risk order banning contact with under-18s, but he breached it within months by having three 16-year-old boys round to his home and hiding one in a cupboard when police called. He also had undisclosed devices containing more indecent images.

Jenna Thompson, 40, of Kennet Avenue, Jarrow, catfished her best friend by posing as a man and his son, sending menacing messages with pictures of grenades, crossbow, and references to a new shooter, extorting £23,446 in 87 bank transfers between November 2023 and July 2024, leaving victim with 16p.

Jonathan Evans threatened to kill the son of a woman after she made a report about him to police. The woman called 999 in June and told officers Evans had made threats to her and her property. He was arrested and bailed with conditions not to contact her or attend her address. Two days later he saw her in South Shields, told her to drop the charges and warned he would kill her son. Later that day she received a series of phone calls and Evans turned up at her house but was chased away by a neighbour. He admitted perverting the course of justice.

John Tyas and Kai Gray were at Monkseaton Metro station on the evening of January 21 when they fired air pistols from the hip at advertising hoardings and in the direction of members of the public. The pair were wearing balaclavas and had pellets. A concerned member of the public alerted police, who arrested them and seized the weapons. Metro services were held for 12 minutes, causing a total delay of 90 minutes. Tyas pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Kern Rayne subjected his partner to more than two-and-a-half years of domestic abuse, violence and controlling behaviour between January 2023 and September 2025. The court heard he threw a bottle at the victim's head, repeatedly punched her, poured coffee and bleach over her, damaged her kitchen worktop and car, and sent repeated messages demanding she prove her whereabouts. He displayed significant sexual jealousy and what the judge described as 'cocaine-fuelled paranoia', repeatedly making unfounded accusations of infidelity while boasting about his own affairs. He also lied to and gaslighted the victim and isolated her from family and friends. The judge said Rayne had failed to take responsibility and continued to blame the victim.

Terry Dixon, 48, carried out an unprovoked hammer attack on a man in his 40s while he was asleep in Hetton-le-Hole in May last year, leaving the victim with multiple skull fractures. The victim was taken to hospital and has since made a full physical recovery.

Thomas Baxter repeatedly contacted his mother by phone using a withheld number despite a restraining order protecting her. During a 45-minute period he called her 13 times, shouting and causing her to fear for her safety.

Tony Bonner, 62, from South Shields, was arrested in June 2024 after communicating online with an undercover officer throughout 2023, arranging to watch the live sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl and discussing meeting in person. Multiple electronic devices were seized, revealing indecent images and videos of children. He was charged and pleaded guilty.

In November 2024, following an initial assault on a woman in Sunderland over a blocked driveway, the woman and her partner returned to check on a friend. Further violence flared, and Nixon became involved as an accomplice. He and another man joined the initial attacker, and the group followed the woman and her partner before attacking the man, who later needed 27 staples. Nixon admitted causing grievous bodily harm to the man and affray.

In the 1980s, Steven Gustafson targeted vulnerable teenage boys at railway hubs in Newcastle and Sunderland, pretending to share an interest in trainspotting to groom them. He sexually assaulted two 14-year-old schoolboys. An initial prosecution in 1999 collapsed due to evidential difficulties, allowing him to remain free for another twenty years. After a second survivor stepped forward in 2017, police reopened the cold case and gathered substantial evidence. Gustafson eventually pleaded guilty to five child sex counts and was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment at Newcastle Crown Court.

Tygue Crowther admitted encouraging terrorism, dissemination of a terrorist publication and six counts of possession of documents likely to be useful to a terrorist. He shared extreme right wing views and Nazi propaganda and wanted to set up his own neo-Nazi group.

In December 2022, after a night out at six pubs in Sunderland, Yasmin Martin drove a hired Vauxhall Astra at around 70mph in a 30mph zone while under the influence of alcohol and with three friends in the car. She ignored passengers' pleas to slow down and appeared to become angry when asked. She lost control on a bend and hit a crash barrier, causing fatal head injuries to her 17-year-old backseat passenger. Martin was almost twice the legal alcohol limit and later falsely claimed her drink had been spiked.

A 31-year-old man, Patrick Coe, used a home tattoo kit on three young children, wrongly telling them the tattoos would fade. One child was left permanently disfigured and all three suffered pain. The children were treated at hospital and given preventative antibiotics for infections such as hepatitis B and tetanus. The victims have experienced trauma, anxiety and are receiving therapy after the incident.

Michael Storey, 56, from Gateshead, believed he was chatting with the mother of a nine-year-old girl online but it was an undercover police officer. During a two-week police sting in February, he admitted young girls were a 'serious turn on', said he would 'love' non-consensual sex with them, sent lewd photos of himself, and demanded depraved images of the child. He contacted a Snapchat profile claiming the woman abused her eight-year-old niece and suggested teaming up. Another Telegram profile posed as a woman who enjoyed watching men abuse her nine-year-old daughter; Storey agreed and detailed his plans. They set a date for the abuse but police intervened.

Musa Qaushi, an Albanian university student, was arrested inside a property in Sunderland where police found 351 cannabis plants across four growing rooms and one drying room. A drugs expert valued the potential yield at between £19,000 and £88,500. Qaushi admitted cultivating cannabis and had no previous convictions. His barrister said he was studying for a degree in Albania, was enticed by the offer of money, and had no involvement in or knowledge of the wider criminal operation.

On the evening of February 21, 2021, Moaaz Siraj and four others, wearing masks and hoods and carrying weapons, descended on a property at Shipley Rise in the Byker area of Newcastle. They shouted threats and banged on windows while the occupants were making dinner, but fled when they spotted an occupant with a phone. Siraj was identified via CCTV and witnesses, arrested at his home in Heaton where matching clothing and a balaclava were recovered.

Mohammed Miah, a Fenham taxi driver of Hadrian Road, was convicted of a child sex offence following a police sting operation.

Matthew Crook, 27, caused a deadly crash on the A1 near Newton-on-the-Moor in April 2017. Driving the wrong way, Crook smashed head-on into the victim's car, fatally injuring the 33-year-old father of three. The victim died at the scene after his car burst into flames. Crook and his female passenger survived with serious injuries. Crook was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, and the Crown Prosecution Service accepted his plea to causing death by careless driving.

Matthew Andrew Leiper cleared land he owned south of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, dumped scrap vehicles and waste, and lit bonfires causing smoke to fill nearby homes between March and July 2020. Environment Agency officers visited in March 2020, warned him to stop, but found continued activity including smouldering waste in June 2020.

Leon Watson, 35, from Sunderland, joined an anti-immigration protest on 2 August 2024 that turned violent. He threw missiles at police, handed items to others to throw, blocked a taxi and shouted at the driver while encouraging others to attack the car. Up to 1,000 people were involved in the disorder which included attacks on Asian-owned businesses, looting, petrol bombs, damage to a mosque, seven police cars and a police office destroyed by arson. Watson admitted riot.