Preston Crown Court Sentencing Results

Darren Callaghan, 36, of no fixed address, breached a restraining order by contacting and being with the woman he had previously assaulted, after his release from prison in September 2025. He was placed in approved premises but was found with her in a bedroom. Police were called after she fled to another flat, reporting that he had put his hands on her throat during an argument. She stated she was a bit drunk and did not support charges, but Callaghan admitted the breach.

Brian Loka Horricks, a convicted sex offender, was released from custody on October 7, 2025, and housed in the Prestige Plaza Hotel in Blackpool. On October 13, 2025, police visited and discovered Horricks had an iPhone with a deleted browsing history, despite claiming it could not access the internet. The phone contained screenshots from Pinterest of women in revealing clothing, which Horricks explained were related to body goals for transitioning. This breached the terms of the 10-year SHPO imposed in 2020 following a conviction for attempting to meet a child after sexual communication. Horricks complained about the squalid hotel conditions, including no running water and bed bugs, and expressed a desire to return to prison.

Vincent Walker, 72, of Rawson Street, Burnley, groomed and abused five young girls aged 8 to 13 over a year-long period, leaving them traumatised and fearful. The crimes came to light after two victims told their parents, leading to his arrest and charges in March 2025. Further victims then came forward reporting similar abuse. The offences included engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13-15, assault by touching, causing a child under 13 to watch/look at an image of sexual activity, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child under 13, and breach of a sexual harm prevention order.

John McDonald, 35, of Gibson Street, Kilmarnock, lured a 14-year-old girl into his bedroom and sexually assaulted her at a property in Blackburn in April 2023, while her father slept downstairs. After the assault, the victim woke her father, who alerted the police. McDonald was arrested, charged with engaging in sexual activity with a child, and found guilty at trial. He attempted to lie to cover his tracks, including to the victim's father, police, and jury, but was convicted based on the victim's testimony and DNA evidence.

Michael Burns, 59, of Ripon Street, Blackburn, made a sexual innuendo comment on Facebook in response to a memory, less than four weeks after receiving a lifelong restraining order and suspended sentence in September for offences relating to the same victim. This direct breach led to his arrest and remand in custody for seven weeks before resentencing.

Christian Cherchi, 48, of Haydock Street, Blackburn, committed offences on two occasions while under the influence of cocaine, spending over £150 daily on the drug. On July 18, 2024, following a dispute over money at a property on Pendle Drive in Blackburn where he was staying, he threatened to slit the victim's throat with a Stanley knife in front of witnesses and later smashed the property's windows. On January 23, 2025, he was stopped by police driving the wrong way down a one-way street without insurance; cocaine was found in his system and a baseball bat in his van, claimed for protection after tools were stolen.

On August 18, 2024, 22-year-old Uday Akrim was driving an uninsured black Ford Transit van with cloned plates on Addison Street, Blackburn. Police attempted to pull him over, but he reversed and rammed their patrol car at speed, injuring two officers. He fled and rammed the police car again when approached a second time. One officer suffered pain to ankle, shoulder, and wrist, off work for weeks; the other had pain to knee, head, and shoulder and was in shock. Akrim was arrested and gave a false story about the van.

Zachary Hocking, 26, of Grand Manor Drive, Lytham, was driving a £100,000 McLaren 570GT V8 at an average speed of 91mph in a 30mph zone when he lost control and ploughed into a property on Heyhouses Lane, St Annes, in December 2023. The car and the house were engulfed in flames. Hocking and his passenger, a man in his 20s who was thrown around 25 metres from the wreck, suffered serious injuries. Fortunately, no one inside the property was hurt.

Aiden Stringer, 27, of New Hall Lane, Preston, attacked a man at Preston Railway Station on March 28, 2025, after an argument between the victim and Stringer's brother at a halfway house the previous night. As the victim walked down the steps to the station, Stringer ran towards him holding a mug and shouted, 'You've been in my room. I'm going to f***ing kill you.' He struck the victim several times with the mug, causing cuts to the back of his head. Stringer was arrested following the incident.

Frankie Bromley, 23, of West End, Great Eccleston, deliberately drove a hired Ford Transit van towards another man outside a bar in Breck Road, Poulton-le-Fylde, at 12.50am on February 16, 2025, using it as a weapon. Semi-professional footballer the victim, 20, an innocent bystander, was mown down and dragged under the van, suffering life-changing injuries including eight broken ribs, a broken collar bone, broken sternum, two collapsed lungs, a broken nose, and deep cuts on his face and elbow. Another man was also struck. Bromley sped away and abandoned the van in Skippool car park.

On the evening of February 22, 2025, John Moir, 49, of no fixed address, walked to the Polish Shop on King Street, Blackburn. CCTV footage captured him sitting on the pavement next to a car for around six minutes before approaching his victim with two unidentified men from a nearby Shisha Bar. Moir punched the victim to the side of the head, knocking him down. The victim attempted to flee but was chased and hit by one of the men, causing him to fall. Moir then kicked the unconscious victim in the head multiple times, with further assaults involving dragging and additional kicks and punches from Moir and others, totaling around 40 blows. The victim suffered a fractured eye socket, fractured nose in two places, concussion, damaged eye nerve causing pain and vision issues, headaches, stress, anxiety, chest pain, and breathing difficulties.

Sean Bean, 34, of Sedberg Street, Preston, breached a restraining order imposed on January 28, 2025, following criminal damage to his ex-partner's car by kicking its wing mirror. Just 24 hours later, on January 29, he pulled up alongside her car on Ribbleton Lane and laughed at her in an act of intimidation. On January 30, he drove by her house despite warnings, initiating 37 drive-bys over three and a half weeks, with 32 captured on camera. This behaviour caused severe psychological harm to the victim and her children, leading her to move house and consider changing schools. The relationship, which ended in November 2024, involved controlling and coercive behaviour, including isolating her from friends.

In June 2025, Christopher Taylor, 46, formerly of Tenterden Walk, Wythenshawe, Manchester, stood next to the urinals at McDonald's in Rawtenstall and carried out a sex act in full view of an 11-year-old boy who was washing his hands after using the toilet. The boy was left upset and told his mum that 'something’s happened in the bathroom that’s really weird'. An investigation was launched, and CCTV footage of Taylor’s car helped trace him to Manchester where he was arrested a few days later.

On October 31, 2022, shortly before 9pm, Tariq Mahmood, a 70-year-old taxi driver from Livingstone Road, Blackburn, was involved in a road rage incident in a double parked street in Darwen. Neither driver was prepared to give way. The other driver, who had his stepson and grandson in the car, got out and kicked the wingmirror of Mahmood's taxi. Mahmood picked up a screwdriver intending to damage the other car's paintwork. When confronted, they grappled, and Mahmood stabbed the man two or three times to the side of his torso. He was restrained until police arrived. Mahmood initially claimed self-defence.

Joseph Williams, 31, of Nelson Avenue, Leyland, vandalised St James' Church in Leyland on Good Friday in April 2025 by spraying 'God is a lie' and 'f*** you God' on the walls and desecrating graves with penises and cross-eyed smiley faces. A week later, he smashed a stained glass window at St Mary's Church and spray painted obscene words and pictures on seven cars in the area. He was arrested after a witness reported him at Leyland Police Station on April 27, 2025, and a carrier bag with red spray was found at his father's home.

On June 11, 2023, Nashaat Ali, 39, was driving her newly leased Audi Q5 at grossly excessive speeds of up to 119mph on the westbound M65 near Rishton, Lancashire, treating the motorway as her personal speed track to test the car's capabilities while excited to see her husband in Scotland. When traffic slowed, she braked but collided with the central reservation, rebounding into the highway and hitting a Nissan X-Trail and a Nissan Micra, with two other vehicles also involved. The impact speed was 52-53mph. The elderly driver of the X-Trail suffered serious head injuries including a brain bleed, plus neck, spine, leg, face, and arm injuries, requiring eight days in hospital. His wife and the Micra driver sustained injuries treated as outpatients.

Anjan Ahmadi, 27, of Stefano Road, Preston, played a crucial role in his brother Amanj Hasan Zada's international people smuggling network. The gang used social media to advertise services, moving migrants from Turkey into mainland Europe and onto the UK, often via small boats from France. Ahmadi stayed in contact with migrants, booked travel tickets, and acted as driver. Voice notes on his phone revealed him referring a migrant to a lorry smuggler, instructing them to 'go with my name'. He was arrested in July 2024 after evidence implicated him in the gang.

Kai Edmundson, 18, groomed a 14-year-old girl online via Discord, WhatsApp, and Telegram over a four-month period starting in September 2024. He referred to himself as a paedophile, sent her up to five indecent images of children and a link to a website containing images of children as young as four. He demanded images and videos of her undressing and performing lewd acts, encouraged her eating disorder, told her to self-harm and carve his name into her skin, and requested proof. The pair never met in person; the victim lived in Derbyshire while Edmundson was from Oswaldtwistle. Contact stopped on January 31, 2025, after Derbyshire Police were informed. Edmundson was arrested on April 1, 2025, by Lancashire Police's East Internet Child Exploitation Team, and indecent images were found on his seized phone.

Jez Shepherd, of Green Street, Morecambe, stole a Fiat Punto earlier on 10 August 2025 and drove around Morecambe at high speeds while intoxicated by drugs and alcohol, more than twice the drink drive limit. He made off without paying for fuel from a garage. In the early hours, he was speeding at 90mph in a 30mph zone on Westgate, Morecambe, when he collided with a taxi, causing the death of rear seat passenger the victim, 50, who suffered serious injuries and was pronounced dead in hospital.

Jennifer Rochford, 42, engaged in sexual activity with the couple's dogs at their flat in New Lane, Penwortham, above a former vet's practice, encouraged by her husband Daniel who recorded the footage. She acted as an administrator for an online community of like-minded perverts, logging those who no longer shared their interests. The couple revelled in sharing their twisted fantasies online and possessed thousands of indecent images, with Jennifer having 1,764 extreme pornographic (bestiality) images. The depraved crimes involved only their own animals.

Andrzej Mikulski, 27, of no fixed address, went on a two-day crime spree in Preston in February 2025, including stealing a rucksack containing a laptop from Preston Market offices on Earl Street after pulling out a knife, theft from shops, and theft of a pedal cycle. On February 26, 2025, while fleeing B&M Bargains on Carlisle Street with a basket of unpaid goods, he stabbed a security guard in his 40s in the thigh with a kitchen knife with a 19cm x 3cm pointed blade. The guard was airlifted to Royal Preston Hospital for emergency surgery; the knife came close to passing completely through his thigh. Mikulski was arrested 45 minutes later on Edward Street by firearms officers, with blood stains on his hands and jacket, carrying a backpack and the knife. His clothing and description matched witness accounts.

Billie Despard, 25, of Nevett Street, Preston, communicated with her uncle Frankie Hawkins, an inmate at HMP Manchester, using an illegal mobile phone in his cell. The calls were purely social and spanned back three years to when she was 22. The phone was discovered, revealing the chats. Although the contact itself was not criminal, it was deemed to encourage the possession of a prohibited item in prison.

Kristian Hill, 28, of Main Street, Morecambe, attacked his partner on multiple occasions in May 2025, two days after receiving a suspended sentence for domestic violence against his ex. He visited the woman to collect belongings but refused to leave, slapped her face leaving a red mark, put his hands around her throat during one attack, and kicked the bathroom door off its frame while she hid. While on remand, he sent a threatening message via a third party warning of 'karma' for her complaint. He was also involved in a separate affray incident in Morecambe where he was part of a group of men who entered a property with weapons, picked up a knife (but did not use it), and the melee spilled onto the street.