Warwick Crown Court Sentencing Results

Edward Foster, 77, from Holbrook Lane, Coventry, groomed what he believed to be two girls under the age of 16 online, urging them not to tell anyone and asking one for indecent images. In August 2022, he arranged to meet one of them, believed to be a 13-year-old girl, at Bedworth Railway Station. Warwickshire Police were alerted, leading to his arrest at the scene. He had previous convictions for related offences.

James Griffiths was part of a gang that stole over £500,000 worth of vehicles using keyless technology, targeting residential properties and businesses across Warwickshire, Coventry, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire. The thefts occurred between December 2016 and March 2021, involving 35 vehicles that were either broken down for parts or altered and sold to unsuspecting buyers.

James Wright and his associates stole over £500,000 worth of vehicles using keyless technology, targeting residential properties and businesses across Warwickshire, Coventry, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire. The thefts occurred between December 2016 and March 2021, involving 35 vehicles that were either broken down for parts or altered and sold to unsuspecting buyers.

Luke Griffiths was part of a gang that stole over £500,000 worth of vehicles using keyless technology, targeting residential properties and businesses across Warwickshire, Coventry, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire. The thefts occurred between December 2016 and March 2021, involving 35 vehicles that were either broken down for parts or altered and sold to unsuspecting buyers.

Scott Prosser was involved in a gang that stole over £500,000 worth of vehicles using keyless technology, targeting residential properties and businesses across Warwickshire, Coventry, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, and Leicestershire. The thefts occurred between December 2016 and March 2021, involving 35 vehicles that were either broken down for parts or altered and sold to unsuspecting buyers.

Johnny Bradley, 36, of Cumberland Crescent, crashed into street furniture, drove through a red light and narrowly missed colliding with a pedestrian after losing control of his vehicle in the early hours of September 10, 2023, while driving erratically through Leamington. Warwickshire Police located the damaged car in Helen’s Road, where it had lost its front bumper, nearside tyre and nearside lights, with sparks coming from it. Bradley smelt of alcohol, had glazed eyes and was unsteady on his feet. He refused to provide a specimen in custody and was also arrested for a public order offence after swearing loudly in hospital despite warnings.

Remus Bahica was driving a red Transit van with a flat tyre on the A46 near Wootton Wawen on August 25, 2023. He failed to stop for police, leading to a pursuit where officers used a stinger, resulting in the van colliding with a tree. He was arrested and charged with dangerous driving, driving without insurance, failing to stop for police, and driving while disqualified.

Baki Karim, a 54-year-old from Middlemarch Road, Coventry, armed himself with a knife and stabbed a woman around nine times in a Kerseley End home in November 2022, while screaming threats and obscenities. The victim was rushed to University Hospital Coventry for surgery.

On September 1, 2018, following the stabbing death of his best friend outside Club M in Coventry, Pa Salieu Gaye participated in a violent mob attack on the lone victim. Caught on CCTV, Gaye used a tree branch (or stick) to repeatedly strike the 23-year-old victim, hurled a bottle, and brandished a smashed bottle as a jagged weapon. The victim was chased, brought to the ground on Queen Victoria Road, kicked, whipped with a belt, punched, and stabbed, suffering a brain injury, stab wound to his side, and abdominal wound requiring emergency surgery and 10 days in hospital in intensive care.

On October 1, 2021, police were called to a property on Newdigate Road in Bedworth due to concerns for the welfare of a woman. Upon arrival, James Cox, aged 34 and residing at the same address, went into the loft and started a fire. No one was injured. The incident involved domestic violence, with Cox making threats to kill the victim.

Tadiwanashe Matemadombo, aged 24, from Gun Lane in Coventry, was driving a Vauxhall Astra at 84mph back from a party with two female passengers, both aged 24, on the A429 in Wellesbourne near Stratford-upon-Avon on 4 July 2021. He lost control, hit a roundabout, and the car launched over a parked car and through a brick garage, coming to rest on its side in a residential garden. Matemadombo and the passengers were injured, with one passenger left unconscious.

In August 2019, Luke Kyberd, while helping his brother move a sofa into a flat in Radford Road, Leamington, punched a 19-year-old man with autism and learning difficulties in the head after accusing him of being 'a f***ing grass', knocking him into a bush and delivering four or five more punches before being pulled away. He then chased the victim, grabbed him by the throat and hit him again. The victim suffered bleeding between the skull and the brain, requiring emergency surgery to relieve pressure, with surgeons noting it had the potential to be fatal. Two days later, Kyberd threatened a witness (his brother's girlfriend) against making statements to police. While on bail in September 2020, in breach of curfew, Kyberd assaulted the same victim again in Pump Room Gardens, Leamington, punching him and threatening him not to tell police. Initially, Kyberd falsely claimed his brother Paul carried out the first attack.

On July 11, 2020, Sean McCabe, 24, of Dormer Harris Avenue, Coventry, was approached by British Transport Police at Coventry Station for not wearing a face covering. He became verbally abusive, refused to leave, and was arrested. During arrest, he attempted to discard cannabis and was further arrested for possession with intent to supply. While being searched, he racially abused two rail staff members. At police custody, he falsely claimed to have Covid and deliberately coughed in a detention officer's face, assaulting them.

On July 2018, Andene Harvey was captured on CCTV in Leamington town centre behaving violently towards her boyfriend and a taxi driver. She kicked and lashed out at her boyfriend in Victoria Terrace until he walked away. She then kicked a parked taxi and punched the driver in the face. Ninety minutes later, at a ground-floor flat in Charles Gardner Road, she struck her boyfriend on the head from behind with a beer bottle as he opened the door, causing a wound with blood pouring out. She then kicked him while he was on the floor. A Good Samaritan intervened, protecting him in the bathroom. Harvey smashed furniture and banged on the door before leaving. Police found her outside with a cut to her leg and her boyfriend covered in blood inside, who refused treatment and complaint.

On May 25, 2017, Carly Seymour stabbed the victim, who was acting as a peacemaker during a confrontation initiated by Hannah Carson, Seymour's romantic rival. Carson had thrown a brick through a window at a working men's club where Seymour worked and later tracked her down, assaulting her and causing her to drop her mobile phone. The victim, who had no prior involvement, picked up the phone to return it, prompting Seymour to attack her with a knife. The victim suffered a gash to her hand while defending herself and was then stabbed three times—once in the arm and twice in the shoulder—resulting in a punctured lung. Seymour was arrested shortly after with the knife still in her possession. The incident occurred on the day of Seymour's grandmother's funeral, amid claims of disassociation due to trauma, but the judge emphasized the premeditated nature of the attack.

In October 2016, Liam Timms was involved in a shooting inside a Seat Leon car near Coventry’s War Memorial Park. The victim, in the front passenger seat, was shot in the forearm and thigh, left staggering on Coat of Arms Bridge Road crying for help. Timms, who sustained a shotgun wound to his hand, sought treatment at Warwick Hospital A&E accompanied by another man, but left when informed he would be transferred to University Hospital in Coventry where the victim was taken. He later attended Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham under a false name. The car was set alight in Wathen Road, Warwick, but not fully destroyed; Timms’s blood was found on the rear off-side door, the victim’s on the near-side rear door, and a partly-melted unfired shotgun cartridge was discovered. The shotgun, speculated to be sawn-off, was never recovered. Timms denied possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

On August 26, 2016, Daniel Bourke, aged 46, stabbed his 34-year-old partner, the victim, at least 20 times during a drunken argument at the victim's home in Leamington, following mutual excessive alcohol consumption. The attack caused severe internal injuries including haemorrhaging around the spleen, liver, and gall bladder, penetrating wounds to the liver and right kidney, neck wounds possibly injuring the thyroid gland, a hole in the small intestine, and a shoulder stab that fractured the scapula and bent the knife. Bourke called 999 after the incident; the victim was found bleeding profusely in the bathroom and was rushed to University Hospital in Coventry, where she underwent surgery and remained in an induced coma for three weeks. The relationship had a history of mutual violence, primarily initiated by the victim, including a recent assault on Bourke for which the victim was awaiting charges. On the day, both were heavily intoxicated from morning drinking; defence claimed self-defence after the victim attempted to stab Bourke and herself, but prosecution noted Bourke retrieved the knife from the kitchen before using it.

Michael Connor met the underage girl (15 years old) in around 2006 through an internet chatroom when he was 32. He sent her a sex toy and incited her to perform sexual acts over the internet. They met in person, with the girl travelling from Nuneaton to Coventry to his brother's house where they engaged in sexual activity after drinking wine. They met again in Riversley Park, Nuneaton, for further sexual activity. The case came to light in 2006 when the girl's mother found the toy and a pornographic DVD, but she did not disclose details then. She reported it two years ago, leading to Connor's arrest.

On December 2014, Nicky Gosal, driving his girlfriend's Mercedes SLK 250 AMG Sport at 50mph along Windmill Hill towards Browns Lane in Coventry, collided head-on with the victim's Smart car as she made a right turn out of Washbrook Lane at just after 7am. The impact killed the victim outright from multiple injuries, shunted her car backwards, and caused it to burst into flames after Gosal fled the scene. He had been driving while disqualified and without insurance. Gosal approached the burning car, saw the victim dead inside, and ran to his girlfriend's home before being arrested at Coventry railway station.

On the evening prior to the collision, Ross Clark, aged 38, had been drinking at the Craven Arms Public House on Woodway Lane, Coventry. He offered to drive the 16-year-old victim and her friend to a petrol station to buy cigarettes. On the return journey, Clark turned his Mercedes CLK directly into the path of two oncoming vehicles at the junction of Ansty Road and Woodway Lane, resulting in a collision that killed the victim, who was in the front passenger seat, almost instantly. The friend sustained serious injuries. Clark refused to provide a blood specimen at the hospital, claiming influence of morphine, but witnesses described him as drunk. The manoeuvre was described as staggeringly stupid and reckless.