Stoke On Trent Crown Court Sentencing Results

Mark Sproston, 50, breached his indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order by living at an address where two children resided for around 12 months. He deleted 2,094 internet search records, primarily Facebook messages, and images of a child and upskirt pictures were recovered from seized phones. He also created accounts on bet365 and Truth Social without informing police. Officers arrested him on May 27 after discovering he was living at the address.

Japheth Wellington was driving a Mini displaying cloned plates on the M6 when it failed to stop for police on November 15, 2025. After a short pursuit the car was stopped in Clayton, Staffordshire, having travelled at 60mph in a 30mph area. He was arrested and cannabis and cocaine were seized.

David Vincent Hammonds went to the victim's home on 30 December the previous year. An argument took place before he got on top of the woman and strangled her. The victim managed to stop the attack before losing consciousness. Police attended the property a short time later and arrested him.

Layton Bowman, 20, and a co-defendant damaged a car and windows at a property in Blurton using a pellet gun on 15 December 2025. Later that evening, the vehicle they were travelling in failed to stop for officers in Longton and crashed on the A500 near Talke. Officers found a large quantity of cannabis and scales in the rear, a kitchen knife and hammer in the front passenger footwell, and a loaded pellet gun outside the car. Bowman, who was the passenger, admitted possessing a firearm, possessing a bladed article and possession of cannabis with intent to supply.

Zohaib Mehmood, aged 22, from Dagenham, Essex, bombarded his victim with approximately 10,000 calls and left hundreds of voicemails between September and October last year. He travelled 180 miles to her university accommodation in Newcastle-under-Lyme, loitered outside, threatened to share intimate photos of the victim with her family, and repeatedly asked her to withdraw her police report.

On 16 December 2021 in Kildare Street, Dresden, Stoke-on-Trent, Bilal Ahmed, the defendant's brother, and two others confronted the victim and another man. During a public disorder incident captured on CCTV, the groups clashed, and the confrontation moved into an alleyway where the defendant's brother was stabbed. Bilal Ahmed was part of the group that advanced on the victim. The stabbing later prompted a revenge arson attack on a house in Beverley Drive, Bentilee.

On 16 December 2021 in Kildare Street, Dresden, Stoke-on-Trent, Naveed Hussain and an unidentified man were involved in a violent confrontation with a victim, his brother, and two others. During the altercation, which moved into an alleyway, the victim's brother was stabbed in the shoulder with a machete, sustaining a 6cm deep wound. Hussain was part of the group that retreated before the stabbing and was later found to have carried a bladed article. The stabbing triggered a revenge arson attack on Hussain's partner's home in Bentilee, leaving a mother and daughter seriously injured.

On 20 July 2025, Daniel Mohammed was driving a black Ford on Scotia Road, Tunstall, uninsured and while using his mobile phone. He overtook a vehicle on a bend, lost control, and crashed into a takeaway. A female passenger suffered serious injuries and was taken to hospital, but later discharged. Nobody inside the takeaway was injured. Police investigation used CCTV to secure his guilty pleas.

David Barker, 27, from Weston Coyney, drove a Skoda Octavia at speed (admitting 76mph in a 30mph limit) on High Street, Wolstanton, on 15 June 2025 after drinking with friends. The car crashed, throwing the victim, 40, from the vehicle; he died at the scene from multiple injuries. Barker fled but handed himself in five hours later.

Between April 2025 and April 2026, Andrew Vaughan contacted the victim approximately 600 times via calls, texts, emails, and bank transfers. On 14th March he forcibly entered the victim's home, verbally abused her, threw his phone at her, gripped her wrists tightly and slapped her across the face. Days later he threatened to send an intimate picture of the victim to her mother.

Shaun Mitchell carried out sexual offences against a schoolgirl below the age of legal consent 11 years ago. The victim reported the conduct to Staffordshire Police in 2024. Mitchell originally denied the accusations but later admitted guilt on the basis that any sexual contact was consensual. Judge Graeme Smith remarked that Mitchell knew what was happening was wrong. The victim stated in her impact statement that she became anxious, withdrawn, and secretive, feeling her childhood was taken away.

Harley Hough, of Longton, was driving a BMW 1 Series at excessive speed when he overtook another car on Dawlish Drive, Bentilee on Friday 17 October 2025. The seventeen-year-old victim was crossing the street at the time and was hit by the car. Hough did not stop at the scene and continued driving. Two days later, he handed himself in to police. The victim was rushed to hospital but tragically died in the early hours of the next morning on Saturday 18 October 2025.

On Friday 7 March 2025, Faye Dawson, 50, from Cheadle, lost control of her Vauxhall Corsa on Delphouse Road in Cheadle while driving at 80mph on a 60mph road and on the wrong side of the road. There were five passengers in the car, four of whom were injured in the crash.

On September 23 at around 7pm, Daniel O'Hagen, 44, of Wellfield Road, Bentilee, stabbed a man he knew in the neck with a bladed article during a fight outside The Market Tavern pub in Hanley, at the junction of Percy Street and Tontine Street. The victim, who refused to co-operate with police, suffered a three-inch wide and one-inch deep wound requiring steri-strips and sutures in hospital. The reason for the disagreement was unclear. CCTV captured the incident, showing them shaking hands inside the pub before the altercation outside.

Lauren Leese, 30, of Trentham, abused her position at Savana charity by unlawfully obtaining and sharing sensitive personal information from a child victim of serious sexual offences with Shane Davis, a prisoner at HMP Dovegate, over six months in 2024. Davis used the information to threaten and intimidate a fellow prisoner. Leese sustained a relationship with Davis while he was in prison.

In August 2025, Lloyd McNicholas strangled a woman at her home in Smallthorne, causing her to nearly pass out, and later threatened her not to report the incident.

Owen Meredith repeatedly strangled and punched his partner. After his first arrest and release, he attempted to access her social media accounts, sent two personalised cards, and emailed her as part of a continued campaign of control and fear. The abuse came to light when the victim spoke out in November 2022.

Matej Ciroka plunged a kitchen knife into a seven-month-old Shar Pei puppy named Aki at a flat in William Greatbatch Close, Fenton, on May 13, 2024. Aki suffered a sharp force trauma to his right rib, resulting in his death later that day. He was taken to a veterinary clinic in Stoke-on-Trent with breathing difficulties, where he was found deceased with a two-centimetre deep wound on his right flank. The incident was reported to the RSPCA due to suspected deliberate harm, and Staffordshire Police seized the kitchen knife as evidence. A post-mortem was conducted by the RSPCA.

Daniel Hemmings, 34, a dad-of-four and registered sex offender, began a romantic relationship with a woman in 2022. The relationship deteriorated in June 2023 when she discovered his status on the sex offenders register, stemming from a 2017 conviction for sexual activity with a child under 16. After splitting in 2024, Hemmings engaged in stalking from February 5 to March 4, 2025, while on bail for a separate rape charge. He sent abusive messages threatening to set fire to her house with her and her son inside, to hit and break her jaw, punch her teeth out, and boasted about his sexual preferences for children. All offences were committed whilst on bail for the 2021 rape of a different woman, for which he was convicted in October 2025. The victim reported feeling unsafe, undergoing therapy, sending her son to live with relatives due to fear, and constantly checking for Hemmings outside her home.