Plymouth Crown Court Sentencing Results

John Ashworth attacked his partner with a knife at a property in Mutley, Plymouth on 19 February 2026. The victim told police that Ashworth held a knife to her throat; she grabbed the knife to prevent him cutting her throat and sustained cuts to her hands in the process.

John Woodley-Rennie admitted a catalogue of child sexual offences including taking and distributing indecent photographs of a child, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, causing or inciting a boy under 13 to engage in sexual activity, engaging in sexual communication with a child, arranging or facilitating a child sex offence, attempted sexual communication with a child, and making indecent images of children. He was first arrested in January 2025 after travelling within Plymouth to meet someone he believed was a teenage boy; he was instead met by officers. In July 2025 he attended a police station and reported that he had sexually abused a male child on numerous occasions over a prolonged period in the 2010s in the Plymouth area, filming or photographing the abuse.

On the afternoon of 10 January 2025, Brandon Wyatt, 22, entered a property in North Prospect, shouting and screaming, grabbed a woman by the hair, repeatedly punched and kicked her, and then used a wrench to cause lacerations to her head and hands. He later travelled by taxi to Plympton without paying the fare, smashed a rear door with a plant pot to enter a second property where the sister of the first victim was present, punched the woman, and kicked two children in the face, resulting in facial fractures to one child and swelling and bruising to the other child and the woman. Wyatt was known to both women. He was arrested later that day on Derriford Road with the help of the police helicopter.

On 26 April 2024, Jack Goodman, aged 27, from Golitha Rise, Liskeard, drove his Seat Leon car after consuming a pint of lager and eight pints of Guinness at a pub in Blackawton from around 2.30pm with work colleagues. He left just before 9pm with three passengers. One was dropped off at Totnes Railway Station. During the journey, a passenger texted concern about the driving and asked him to slow down during a phone call. The single-vehicle collision occurred at Halwell Cross near Totnes around 9.30pm, embedding the car in a hedge with substantial front-end damage. Goodman sustained minor injuries and was arrested at the scene. Rear-seat passenger the victim, 31, from Torbay, died two days later in hospital. The front-seat passenger sustained serious injuries from which he is still recovering.

Ashley Partington, 33, of Pier Street, Plymouth, intimidated and financially exploited his elderly grandparents (aged 85 and 78) over approximately three years after moving into their flat. He was abusive, aggressive, and threatened them with knives and hammers to extract money, taking around £5,000 from their State pensions and small private pension. He sold their personal items and kitchen equipment to fund his drink addiction, left them unable to afford food or heating, forcing them to rely on foodbanks. He lied about fines and electricity payments to pocket money, used their Motability car while disqualified, accruing speeding tickets in their name. The couple suffered significant distress, with the grandfather experiencing two heart attacks in 2024 and 2025. Neighbours witnessed the threats. Since his remand, the grandparents have regained financial stability.

On October 24, 2024, Daniel Hunter drove a Seat Leon erratically at speed through narrow residential streets in Plymouth, including Mount Gould Road, Beaumont Road, and Ladysmith Road, failing to stop at give way signs and junctions. The vehicle crashed on Mount Gould Road, requiring firefighters to remove part of the roof. He was arrested at the scene. During a Newton hearing, he claimed a female passenger encouraged him to flee police and caused the crash by tapping the steering wheel, but this was not accepted by the judge.

Charlie Houslander, aged 20, was riding a Piaggio moped scooter at 43mph on Exeter Street in Plymouth on the evening of July 2, 2025, when he ran a red light and struck pedestrian the victim who was crossing on a green light. The victim was flung into the air, suffered a brain bleed, was placed on a ventilator, induced into a coma, and spent four weeks in hospital with a significant brain injury. Houslander came off his bike, attempted to flee the scene, and punched a witness who tried to stop him. He was seen on CCTV riding dangerously around Plymouth prior to the incident.

On April 27, 2025, at around 4am, Max Evans, under the influence of drugs and in a state of brief drug-induced psychosis, entered the Esso fuel station on Wolseley Road, Plymouth. Behaving erratically and believing he was being chased, he refused service, lit barbecue lighter fluid with a lighter, approached a petrol pump with the flame still lit, swung a petrol pump causing fuel spillage, and threatened to ignite it by shouting 'I've got a f***ing lighter - I'm going to go for it'. This endangered the life of the station worker and customers. Police intervened, tackling him to the ground and arresting him. He provided a statement claiming he sought help and attention.

On December 3, 2023, at around 1.40am, Alex Gilman, aged 28, of Danum Drive, Plymouth, was involved in a brawl outside the Post Office Inn in Ridgeway, Plympton, after the pub closed. Initially friendly banter with another group escalated. Gilman pushed and attempted to kick one man, threw punches at another, contributing to unpleasant group violence that left two people unconscious and requiring medical treatment at Derriford Hospital, including one with a laceration to the skull needing stitches and stapling, black eye, and bruising.

On December 3, 2023, at around 1.40am, Alfie Samuels, aged 26, of Perriwinkle Drive, Plymouth, was involved in a brawl outside the Post Office Inn in Ridgeway, Plympton, after the pub closed. Initially friendly banter with another group escalated. Samuels was rugby-tackled and pushed into a wall, then kicked another man to the body and punched him to the face several times, leaving him unconscious. The violence left two people requiring medical treatment at Derriford Hospital, including one with a laceration to the skull needing stitches and stapling, black eye, and bruising.

Keith Northey engaged in a pattern of coercive control, verbal abuse, violence, and threats against his former partner from 2020 onwards. The relationship began positively but deteriorated after she miscarried, involving routine verbal insults, physical assaults such as punching, scratching, and choking, and controlling behaviours like preventing her from leaving and monitoring her movements. Key incidents included assaults in 2021, 2023, and 2024, and threatening voice messages in January 2025 where he threatened to kill her and her new partner.

Katelyn Dimmock Cooper possessed a black-handled dagger in Beaumont Park on January 25, 2024. A pre-arranged meeting between young females escalated into a physical altercation involving several teenagers, resulting in a 17-year-old boy sustaining a serious stab wound to his neck. She was initially arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent but was charged with possession of a bladed article in a public place.

Donald Ladell, a boatbuilder and director of Built & Spaces Ltd and Spyderstudios, fraudulently claimed £278,150 in VAT repayments by inflating the value of aircraft parts he claimed to have purchased and by claiming for computers he never bought. This fraudulent activity took place over two years from May 2021, and he paid the stolen tax into his bank account.

Martin Payne and Kirsty Burford failed to provide adequate food, water, and exercise for two nine-month-old male bull breed dogs named Trigger and Pablo, leaving them barricaded in a bathroom at an address in Plymouth, Devon, between August and October 2023. The dogs suffered from prolonged neglect, leading to starvation and dehydration, and resorted to drinking water from the toilet until it ran out, resulting in their deaths. RSPCA officers discovered the bodies amid a strong smell of rotting flesh.

Aaron Williams, aged 20 and under the influence of Spice and alcohol, went with two other men to an Aldi store in Union Street, Plymouth, in June 2025, where he stole a box of beer. He punched a security guard in the face, breaking a tooth, and outside the store, he produced a knife and threatened the guard in front of members of the public. Williams has a history of knife possession and claimed to have stabbed himself 12 times in the past, with limited recollection of the incident but influenced by others in his group.

George White and Stefan Ledden attacked a victim in a private garden in Camborne on September 10, 2024. The victim was visiting a friend who knew the attackers were dangerous. White and Ledden ordered the victim to the ground and used a sledgehammer to beat him multiple times on the head and body, and a screwdriver to stab him in the leg, resulting in a fractured skull, broken leg, multiple lacerations, and defensive injuries. The attackers fled on bicycles afterwards.

Stefan Ledden and George White attacked a victim in a private garden in Camborne on September 10, 2024. The victim was visiting a friend who knew the attackers were dangerous. Ledden and White ordered the victim to the ground and used a sledgehammer to beat him multiple times on the head and body, and a screwdriver to stab him in the leg, resulting in a fractured skull, broken leg, multiple lacerations, and defensive injuries. The attackers fled on bicycles afterwards.

Kurtis Smith attacked the victim, a Royal Navy serviceman, in Plymouth city centre on March 18, 2023, following an altercation inside a McDonald's restaurant. Smith threatened to 'bite his face off' and later knocked the victim to the ground, bit off part of his ear, and spat it out. The incident was captured on CCTV, and Smith was under the influence of alcohol at the time. The victim suffered permanent injury, required multiple surgeries, and experienced significant pain and disruption to his naval service.

Talha Redwan was dealing heroin and crack cocaine in Cambridge Road, Plymouth, on November 4, 2024, when he was approached aggressively by the victim, armed with a hammer, and a witness, who threatened him with a liquid. Redwan carried a kitchen knife for protection as advised by a more experienced criminal. During the altercation, he used the knife in self-defence, resulting in the victim's death. He was acquitted of murder but sentenced for possessing the knife in a public place.

Colin Taylor, aged 67 and of no fixed abode, set light to his flat in a block in Vauxhall Street, Barbican, Plymouth, on May 30, 2024, which put other lives at risk. Firefighters from Greenbank, Camel's Head, and Plymstock stations, along with police and paramedics, responded to the incident. One resident was rescued and treated for smoke inhalation, and the road was closed for several hours due to the emergency response.

While serving a prison sentence at HMP Dartmoor, Christopher Thompson possessed a smuggled Zanco mobile phone and charger in his cell, which was discovered on 18 July 2022. He used the phone to make over 700 calls and send messages to his ex-partner between 14 June 2022 and 22 June 2022, including extremely abusive and threatening content such as threats to kill her and her family. The phone was also used to contact his mother and was shared among other prisoners.

In 2019, Samuel Netley, who lied about his age, befriended a girl under the age of 16 on Snapchat, sent her inappropriate pictures, pressured her to meet him in woods in Ivybridge, and physically abused her. The offending and grooming were uncovered through extensive examination of mobile phones after the victim's mother reported the abuse to police.

Leon Adkins kidnapped his victim and drove dangerously in a car with a smashed front windscreen, nearly colliding with another vehicle while driving extremely fast. He forced a vulnerable young man to snort glass fragments, which constituted administering a noxious substance, and also threatened the victim's mother by telling her he would firebomb her home. The offences occurred prior to February 2025 and included false imprisonment, dangerous driving, affray, possession of an offensive weapon, and possession of cannabis.

Peter Lamble, 47, of Citadel Road in Plymouth, sexually abused a girl at a number of locations, including in Plymouth and in Cornwall. The victim later confronted Lamble, who apologised and said he didn’t know what he was doing. The abuse has had a considerable psychological effect on the victim, who reported what had happened in 2020, leading to a full police investigation.