Sheffield Crown Court Sentencing Results

John Taylor, a 30-year-old lorry driver from Riverside Traveller Park in Kirkhouse Green, Doncaster, deliberately drove his 7.5 tonne vehicle the wrong way down the M18 motorway near Doncaster on 10 January 2024, speeding for several miles and narrowly avoiding collisions. Prior to joining the motorway, he rammed a police car with the vehicle. He eventually performed a U-turn, dumped the lorry in the emergency carriageway, and ran across three lanes of traffic, where police found him hiding in a caravan.

Mohammad Farooq, a 29-year-old clinical support worker at St James’s Hospital in Leeds, took a viable home-made pressure cooker bomb, modelled on those used in the 2013 Boston Marathon but with twice the explosives, into the hospital on January 20, 2023, intending to kill as many nurses as possible. After failing to access RAF Menwith Hill due to security, he targeted the hospital as Plan B. He planned to use a bomb threat to evacuate staff, attack them with knives, and provoke police to shoot him. In the hospital cafe, he was approached by a patient, who talked him down from detonating the device, preventing an atrocity in the maternity wing. Farooq had self-radicalised online, accessing Al Qaeda materials, and was inspired by Islamic State, though his lawyers claimed grievances with nurses. He was arrested after the patient called the police.

Nathanial Elsemore of Doncaster stalked a woman he met online for nine months from October 2022 to July 2023. He used multiple fake social media accounts to send abusive messages about self-harm and suicide, and made threats to kill her. He also sent messages to the victim's friends to further threaten her, causing serious harm to the victim.

Sharjeel Jelani, a 34-year-old Detention Officer working in Bradford District for West Yorkshire Police, committed perjury by submitting false claims in an 'Exceptional Hardship' application at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court in June 2022. He falsely stated he was a police officer in road traffic patrol and needed his licence for work to avoid disqualification from a speeding offence committed off-duty. The incorrect information was identified after sentencing, leading to an investigation by the Force’s Professional Standards Directorate.

David McClure conspired with others in the stealing of rail from Network Rail trackside and depot locations in the East of England on eighty-nine occasions between March and November 2016.

Joseph Savage conspired with others in the stealing of rail from Network Rail trackside and depot locations in the East of England on eighty-nine occasions between March and November 2016.

Karl Domonkos conspired with others in the stealing of rail from Network Rail trackside and depot locations in the East of England on eighty-nine occasions between March and November 2016.

Neil Atkinson conspired with others in the stealing of rail from Network Rail trackside and depot locations in the East of England on eighty-nine occasions between March and November 2016.

Mark Domonkos conspired with others in the stealing of rail from Network Rail trackside and depot locations in the East of England on eighty-nine occasions between March and November 2016.

Michael Waters was convicted for a series of sexual offences, including attempted rape, committed in the West Yorkshire area. The offences involved the abuse of young girls under the age of 14 over several years. Investigations revealed he had previously murdered a nine-year-old girl in Liverpool in 1959, for which he served 10 years in prison before being released and reoffending. The probe began in 2015 after a victim came forward, leading to the discovery of additional victims and his eventual sentencing.

David Vincent Berry, linked to Park Farming Limited (PFL), breached environmental permits at sites in Kiveton and South Anston in South Yorkshire. Operated sites illegally for financial gain, ignoring permit conditions on waste storage and processing, resulting in environmental impact.

Daniel Wright was found guilty following an eleven-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court of seven offences including manufacturing a firearm. The defendants had formed a private online chat group to share extreme right-wing views and endorse violence. A partially constructed 3D printed firearm was recovered from the home of Hall and Salmon. Wright was arrested in May 2021 by Counter Terrorism Policing North East.

Craig Berridge pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, possessing a knife in a public place, and affray.

Charlotte Winstanley, a prison officer at HMP Lindholme, admitted misconduct in public office and sending a photograph from inside a prison after beginning a relationship with an inmate. She smuggled items and contraband into the prison.

Cole Lavender and a co-defendant forced entry into a house and set it on fire after a girl's mother falsely claimed on Facebook that her daughter had been kidnapped and was being held there. Lavender was under the influence of alcohol, produced knives including a zombie knife, lunged at two men with the weapon, and started the fire with acid he had armed himself with. The two men inside feared for their lives and escaped by jumping from a first-floor window. Damage was valued at between £90,000 and £100,000.

Arron Bailey took part in large-scale disorder at a Rotherham hotel where asylum seekers were staying. He threw bottles, fence panelling and other missiles at police, attempted to gain access to a police van, added wood to a fire, and was seen launching bricks at the building and stoking a fire inside a hotel window.

Becky Parsons committed a string of shoplifting offences between June 29 and July 20, 2026, stealing goods worth more than £1,700 from shops. She was caught on CCTV breaching the terms of a criminal behaviour order by entering a shop she was banned from on June 29 and July 10, 2026. She pleaded guilty at Barnsley Magistrates' Court on July 22, 2026 to 13 counts of shoplifting and two counts of breaching a criminal behaviour order, and was sentenced to one year and eight months imprisonment with compensation ordered.

Barry Reddish, 52, a registered sex offender from Roughwood Road, Rotherham, was found guilty of three counts of breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). He babysat several children under 16 unsupervised between October 2019 and January 2020, ignoring his SHPO conditions. He was arrested on 30 March and charged shortly after.

Bradley Bennett, 32, of Doncaster, checked into the Holiday Inn Express in Balby under a fake name on 25 January due to paranoia. On 26 January he barricaded his hotel room door with a mattress, set the mattress and other items alight during a drug-induced psychotic episode, shouted for help and jumped from the window. He was arrested nearby. The fire caused £174,000 in damage plus over £50,000 in ongoing losses from closure. He had sought psychiatric help previously and had no prior similar convictions.

Cain Byrne was driving a Volkswagen Golf with cloned registration plates when he struck an 81-year-old man who had dismounted from his bicycle and was crossing the A57 near Todwick, South Yorkshire. The victim was thrown at least 15 feet into the air. Byrne made no attempt to stop and had been inhaling nitrous oxide from a balloon before and after the crash in April.

Alfie Rose had been drinking at a pub for several hours on June 1 2024 in Rotherham before driving his Suzuki Alto at speed along Potter Hill. He lost control and crashed into a wall outside the Crown public house. Police found open alcohol in the driver's footwell. His female passenger suffered a fractured elbow, ankle, foot and ribs, and a punctured lung, spending a week in hospital. Rose admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

During a home visit at his supported living accommodation in Sheffield, Aboubakar Diaby became agitated and prevented two victims from leaving. He produced a six-to-eight-inch knife, pointed it at them, threatened to stab them, held it close to one victim's stomach, and punched the other victim in the face. He pleaded guilty to affray and false imprisonment.

Aaron Jones contacted a child through TikTok and Instagram using usernames that hid his identity. He asked her age, then requested naked images and videos and offered to pay her. The messaging began in May 2025 and escalated in June 2025, when he arranged to meet her, drove her to what he said was a friend's house, and sexually abused her. The defendant, aged 32 and from Barnsley, had previously pleaded guilty to 10 offences including sexual communications with a child and engaging in sexual activity with a child.