Baby-faced criminal teenagers behind despicable crimes in Leicestershire
Every day of the week young criminals find themselves before the courts in Leicester, accused of all kinds of offences. Often their age works to their advantage and they avoid being locked up.
But occasionally those who are either repeat offenders or commit the most serious of crimes do find themselves behind bars, spending weeks, months or even years at a young offenders institution as they pay for their crimes.
Those below are some of the worst teen offenders who have been locked up in recent months. They range from drug dealers to killers.
Joel Lanycia
A young man was lured into an alley by a girl before being attacked from behind by two thugs who stamped on him, breaking his jaw, and stabbed his thigh with a machete. The victim lay unconscious while the attack continued and after the two were pulled away by friends they walked off leaving their victim suffering an epileptic fit.
After the attack in an alley off Guildhall Lane near Leicester Cathedral[2], the 20-year-old victim was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary[3] where he spent the next four days receiving treatment. One of the attackers, Joel Lanycia, 19, went to the police and admitted his part in the attack and later Kian Moore, who had used the machete on the victim, was identified by the victim in a police line-up.
Lanycia, of Littlegarth, Aylestone[4], had admitted grievous bodily harm, while his co-defendant Moore, 22, of Chettle Road, New Parks[5], Leicester, admitted grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing a blade in public. Moore was jailed for four years and four months and will have to serve two thirds of that term before being released on licence, while Lanycia was sentenced to three years and eight months detention, of which half will be spent behind bars.
Aaron Matthew
Aaron Matthew (Image: Leics Police)
A teenager who had already been locked up for killing his mother could face an even longer sentence after being found with a hoard of sickening pictures and videos of child abuse. Aaron Matthew was arrested for fatally stabbing Ingrid Matthew to death at their home in Lincoln Street, Highfields, Leicester, on September 11, 2021.
During the raid the officers seized the teenager's computer. On it were around 1,000 images and videos of illegal child abuse - including children as young as two years old.
A hearing at Leicester Crown Court took place this month and Matthew was sentenced to six months detention. It will not automatically lengthen his ongoing life sentence - which included a minimum of just over six years and seven months before he gets the chance of parole.
But it could affect the parole board's decision about when he is safe for release. Judge Timothy Spencer KC said: "It will not extend his sentence. What it will do is affect the opinions of the parole board when he comes before them."
Unnamed teen
A 17-year-old boy was sentenced to a two-year detention and training order after stabbing another teenager on their arm with a machete. The incident happened just after 6.10pm on Monday, June 13, with the other boy, also 17, having a slash on his arm.
The defendant, who couldn't be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent at Leicester Youth Court and was sentenced on Friday, 7 October.
An indefinite restraining order was also issued to protect the victim. The boy, who had recently been been accepted into a football academy, was described as having a "split personality" between a footballer and a gangster.
Judge Timothy Spencer KC, sentencing, said the youth was wasting a "glorious opportunity" to play football professionally. He asked him: "Do you realise how many 15 and 16 years olds are desperate to get a place at a football academy?
"But I'm seeing something of a split personality. I also have someone who wants to be a gangster, taking cannabis and, on this occasion, carrying a machete."
You can read the full story here.[8]
Alyeas Ahmed, Bradley Green, Tyler Smith, and Keon Green
Four young people from Leicester were jailed after travelling across the country to Bournemouth to attack and rob a man. Ahmed, Smith, Bradley Green, and Keon Green were instructed by a Leicester woman to make the trip to rob her father's house and attack him.
Arriving in Bournemouth, they attempted to access the man's house, threatening to hurt the man and his wife as well as smashing windows. Smith, Ahmed, and Keon Green, all 17 at the time, as well as Bradley Green, then 20, then fled the scene after being confronted by the man's neighbour.
After armed police, a dog unit, and a helicopter help track down and arrest the four men - discovering they were sent by Natalie Wild, 20, of Abingdon Road, Leicester, to attack her father. Wild, 17 at the time, assembled the group via text messages, and intended to rob her father of several thousand pounds, hurt him, and ruin his life by breaking him up with his wife.
Wild, who was placed in the child social care system from the age of 2 and wanted to hurt her father after finding out about the abuse and neglect she experienced before social services stepped in, was given a suspended sentence. The Judge, however, was less forgiving with the four men - but the three of them other than Bradley Green had reduced sentences due to their age at the time of the offence.
Bradley Green was sentenced to three years in prison; Keon Green for two years in a young offenders institute; Tyler Smith for 22 months in a young offenders institute; and Alyeas Ahmed for 18 months in a young offenders institute.
You can read the full story here.[9]
Michael McDonagh
(Image: Leics Police)
A woman looking for her dog that was driven off in a stolen car was met by "unjustifiable" violence. The attack on her while out searching for her pet left her with a lasting disability.
Her boyfriend's parked Nissan X-Trail had been stolen in Hugglescote, near Coalville - with their black and ginger pet lurcher, Duke, inside. The couple made inquiries with an appeal on social media the same afternoon, Wednesday December 8, where it was suggested the vehicle may be at a caravan park in Copt Oak Road, Markfield.
The boyfriend borrowed his mother's Vauxhall to drive to the Whitegate Stables site, with his partner and her brother - where they located his purple Nissan. But there was no sign of Duke.
In response to shouts and pleas for the return of the dog, 18-year-old Michael McDonagh emerged from a nearby chalet carrying a weapon. It was described as a two foot long hooked blade on a handle "like an old farming tool used for felling."
The defendant was aggressively yelling: "I'm a McDonagh. Do you know who I am?"
He struck the Nissan owner's girlfriend, who is in her 30s, on the head and left arm, causing severe lacerations, down to the bone and severing muscle and nerves on the limb that required "multiple surgeries." The three terrified visitors escaped in the white Vauxhall that, meanwhile, sustained "considerable damage" caused by other residents at the site.
They sought help at a BP garage on the A50 Shaw Lane in Markfield, as the gravely injured woman was bleeding extensively. The police arrived to administer emergency treatment, before she was taken to Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre.
McDonagh was sentenced to an eight year and three month detention sentence, of which he was told to expect to serve two thirds.
He was placed on an indefinite restraining order, banning any future contact with the victim, her brother and partner.
Travis Hindmarsh and Josh Healy
Hindmarsh and Healey were both locked up in young offenders' institutions
Two teenagers were part of a conspiracy to steal 51 high performance vehicles from homes across the region. The gang struck while their victims were asleep inside.
They appeared at Leicester Crown Court[11] having pleaded guilty to involvement in the conspiracy to commit the burglaries between June and October, 2019. They stole car keys, to drive off in high value motors, including Audis, Mercedes and BMW's, worth a total of £1,153,500.
A number of cars, collectively worth £373,000, are still missing. Josh Healy, 18, of Laurel Close, Mountsorrel, and 19-year-old Travis Hindmarsh, of no fixed address, got four years detention.
Ishaq Hassanjee
Ishaq Hassanjee, sentenced to a life custody sentence with a 19 year minimum term (Image: Leics Police)
Teenager Ishaq Hassanjee was jailed for killing 19-year-old Hassan Jama[13] with a single stab to his chest. Hassanjee, 18, had claimed he was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Mr Jama during a confrontation near their homes in Bartholomew Street, Highfields, Leicester, on Saturday, July 18, 2020.
The wounded Mr Jama ran a short distance to neighbouring Cedar Road where he collapsed and died, despite efforts by residents and, minutes later, police and paramedics, to save him. But a jury at Leicester Crown Court[14] found him guilty of murder and he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 19 years before the chance of parole.
Omer Nur
Omer Nur
A homeless drugs runner stabbed a customer 21 times after disarming him. Omer Nur, 19, formerly of Chartley Road, Westcotes[16] in Leicester had arranged to meet with his victim, Usman Patel, to sell him crack-cocaine in the early hours of Sunday, July 18, 2021.
But when Mr Patel took out a knife, demanding Nur hand over the drugs and stabbed him in the thigh. Nur took the knife and stabbed him to death.
Mr Patel died at the scene despite efforts to save him after a number of the 21 blows left him with underlying bone fractures. During the sentencing hearing at Leicester Crown Court, Vanessa Marshall QC, prosecuting, said Nur went way beyond self-defence when the victim no longer posed a threat.
Nur had fled the scene attempting to hide at his sister's flat in Bristol but was later accompanied by his family back to Leicester to the police station. Last year the 19-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years behind bars.
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References
- ^ Man sucker punched rowdy drunk after jibe about hair colour (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Leicester Cathedral (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Leicester Royal Infirmary (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Aylestone (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ New Parks (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Read the full story here. (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Read the full story here. (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ You can read the full story here. (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ You can read the full story here. (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Read the full story here. (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Leicester Crown Court (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ here (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ was jailed for killing 19-year-old Hassan Jama (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Leicester Crown Court (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ here (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ Westcotes (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ here (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
- ^ newsletter here (data.reachplc.com)