Stafford Crown Court Sentencing Results

Thomas Sykes murdered his father, the victim, by inflicting head and facial injuries, leading to his death a few days before the body was discovered. On August 19, 2022, police found the 67-year-old victim's body in a cardboard box in a shed behind their shared flat in Staffordshire. A freshly dug grave-sized hole was located in the garden, along with gardening tools. Forensic examinations revealed blood staining on the carpet and furniture in the flat, indicating the crime scene.

Abiola Raji approached and raped a woman as she walked on Salters Street, near to the Vine Hotel in Stafford, last year. The force issued an urgent witness appeal and scoured CCTV from the scene. Raji, of Stafford, was arrested days later.

Wilson Pereira, a teen from Bentilee, killed the victim, 55, in an attack outside a Milton takeaway.

Dana Abdullah murdered his estranged wife, the victim, a 32-year-old mother-of-four, at her home in Stoke-on-Trent on 1 October 2023. He inflicted 50 wounds using a kitchen knife in a brutal and sustained attack after she refused to support his application to stay in the UK. Abdullah, an illegal immigrant and convicted paedophile, had threatened to kill her previously, claiming she dishonoured him after converting to Christianity. He attempted to cover up the crime by pouring white spirit on her body and trying to create a fire or explosion in the kitchen, then fled to Liverpool and Glasgow before handing himself in to police, admitting only to being a failed asylum seeker.

Thomas Grant, 28, met recently-widowed victim, 39, on Christmas Eve 2021 and was offered a place to stay at her home in West Chadsmoor, Staffordshire, as he had nowhere else to go. On Christmas Day 2021, he stabbed her multiple times and strangled her in an exceptionally violent attack. He then stole her jewellery, including her wedding ring and a necklace belonging to her late husband, as well as her mobile phone, and sold them to fund his drug addiction. Grant was arrested on December 30, 2021, in Hednesford, initially giving a false name. A knife with both his and the victim's DNA was found at the scene. He initially admitted to the murder in custody but later retracted the statements.

Kayley Mahood inflicted a single fatal chest wound on her partner the victim with a kitchen knife during a violent row at their home in Rosliston Road, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on July 25, 2023. The incident followed a build-up of frustrations and a previous assault by the victim, who punched her in the face causing an eye wound. Mahood had sought sanctuary with a neighbour and returned to collect her belongings, but encountered the victim again, leading to the stabbing. The victim collapsed in the back yard and was pronounced dead at 12.32pm after paramedics arrived. Mahood protested her innocence during arrest, claiming self-defence.

On October 31, 2023, in Shrewsbury, Javed Qureshi, aged 30, of Ellesmere Road, attacked a woman with a shock absorber, inflicting serious injuries including several cuts to her head, a fractured skull, a bleed to the brain, and a broken elbow. He was located nearby at his home address where he had started a fire causing extensive damage and endangering lives in neighbouring properties.

Mehakdeep Singh, along with others, planned a brutal attack on the victim following an incident at a Kabaddi tournament in Derbyshire on August 20, 2023. On August 21, 2023, they used inside information to track the victim's delivery route in Shrewsbury, ambushing him with weapons including an axe, hockey stick, and shovel. The victim was attacked while making deliveries, sustaining fatal injuries, and was pronounced dead at the scene. Mehakdeep fled in a white Mercedes Benz, discarded weapons, and later escaped abroad before being arrested in Austria on May 20, 2024.

Sehajpal Singh, along with others, planned a brutal attack on the victim after an incident at a Kabaddi tournament in Derbyshire on August 20, 2023. On August 21, 2023, they obtained the victim's delivery route information and ambushed him in Shrewsbury using weapons such as an axe, hockey stick, and shovel. The victim was attacked while working, suffered severe injuries leading to his death at the scene, and the suspects fled in a white Mercedes Benz and grey Audi, discarding weapons nearby before escaping abroad. Sehajpal was arrested in Austria on May 20, 2024.

Stephen McHugh, intoxicated on cocaine and alcohol, deliberately drove his Volvo S60 into a crowd of pedestrians on Willow Street in Oswestry, Shropshire, at about 2.45am on Sunday October 9, 2022, after an altercation near the Grill Out takeaway. Bystander the victim, 22, was crushed underneath the vehicle and died of catastrophic injuries. McHugh, who had no driving licence, was attempting to frighten the group following verbal abuse about his driving. He was arrested on October 10, 2022, in Gobowen, Shropshire.

Richard Street, aged 30, partnered with Alan Martyn to pressure the victim over a £5,000 cannabis debt. On 22 August 2019, after an argument at the victim's home in Sandon Street, Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Martyn stabbed the victim while Street sent threatening text messages. Street and Martyn disposed of the victim's mobile phones in a storm drain at 1.30am, captured on CCTV. Phone and DNA evidence linked them to the crime.

Lewis Crofts, 30, of Broadstone, Dorset, stabbed his ex-partner the victim, 29, multiple times to the face, neck, and chest at her home in Leigh Street, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, on 6 November 2020. Police were called by a neighbour just before 4.40pm. The victim died just under two hours later at the Royal Stoke University Hospital. Witnesses reported a man speeding away in the victim’s Vauxhall Corsa, which was located by police in Northampton that evening with Crofts as the sole occupant. There were blood stains on his hands, clothes, and inside the vehicle.

On 15 May 2019, at about 2pm, Ben Hunt, 32, and a colleague were working at a garage in Speedwall Street, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, when they heard the alarm of an Audi activate outside. A man called the victim, 25, had picked up a sledgehammer and was causing damage to the Audi. Hunt and his colleague ran after the victim, who was still carrying the hammer. They chased him along Wood Street to a grassy area, some 400 metres from the garage, where they caught up with him. The men took the victim to the ground and restrained him using a neck restraint. A number of people witnessed the incident. Police attended, and body-worn camera footage showed the victim still held in the neck restraint. He was taken to hospital but pronounced dead just after 4pm. The post mortem found the cause of death to be due to compression of the neck, with deep bruising from the left shoulder to the chest, bruising to the nose and face, and abrasions to the arms and hands. Hunt claimed in interview that his reaction was reasonable force used in self-defence.

John Rombach, a 74-year-old from Furness, Glascote, Tamworth, committed multiple sex offences between the late 1980s and 2014, including rape, nine counts of indecent assault, and three further serious sex offences.

Jamie Reynolds murdered the 17-year-old victim at his parents' home in Wellington, Shropshire, on May 26, 2013. He lured her there under the pretense of a photo shoot, strangled her using a noose he had prepared, and watched her die. He then stripped her body, took photographs, dumped her remains in woodland near Wrexham, and went on the run before being arrested in Glasgow. Reynolds had a long-standing obsession with violent pornography and had written graphic stories and scripts detailing the murder in advance. He had prior warnings from police for assaulting another girl in 2008.

Clowes and the deceased lived together in a loving relationship; both were alcoholics and the deceased binge drank. Following a bout of drinking and after she soiled herself, Clowes pushed her into a bath of scalding water set at 82 degrees. Paramedics found scald marks and piles of skin on the floor. The deceased was utterly incapable, vulnerable and under his control, creating an obvious and serious risk of death from immersion in such hot water.