Locked Up: The criminals justice caught up with in May and what happened to them
We have come to the end of the fifth month of 2023, and it is time for our monthly round up of the criminals from Wales or with links to Wales who have been locked up.
There are 46 on our list for May and they include a man from Newport o stabbed a student to death and attempted to decapitate her after she ended their relationship. Dennis Akpomedaye, 30, stabbed his ex-girlfriend Anna Jedrkowiak in an alleyway in west London on May 17 last year after stalking her for 130 miles. On Wednesday he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years.
Others on the list include a man who shook his eight-week-old baby so violently he caused catastrophic injuries, and a man who drove deliberately into a group of people, killing a young woman on a night out.
Here are the faces of the criminals and their crimes:
Dennis Akpomedaye
(Image: PA)
The Newport man was jailed for murder after stabbing his ex-girlfriend almost 40 times[1] after she ended their relationship. The 30-year-old tried to decapitate polish student Anna Jedrkowiak while ambushing her in an alleyway in London having stalked her from his home in Wales in May, 2022.
Wearing a balaclava and with his hood up, he waited for the 21-year-old, known as Ania, to finish her shift at Las Iguanas before following her and a young man she was close with in Ealing, west London.
Nicholas Bateman
(Image: South Wales Police)
The dad shook his eight-week-old son so violently he caused the infant catastrophic and permanent brain damage.
Bateman then spent years lying about how the boy suffered his injuries, claiming his son had accidentally hit his head while being picked up. It wasn’t until Bateman’s trial started that he told the terrible truth – that he’d shaken the infant when he wouldn’t stop crying.
The little boy Bateman abused is now aged five and has cerebral palsy and is unable to speak, eat, or stand while he cannot sleep without medication.
Stephen McHugh
(Image: PA)
Jailed for deliberately driving into a crowd of pedestrians, killing 22-year-old Rebecca Steer in Oswestry.
McHugh had snorted about eight lines of cocaine and downed six beers and ten double shots of spirits before driving his Volvo S60 on to a footpath.
Bystander Rebecca Steer was crushed underneath the vehicle near a takeaway and died of “catastrophic” injuries. Read his sentencing here.[3]
Christopher Williams
Christopher Williams (Image: South Wales Police)
The drugged driver crashed into four parked cars, writing three of them off, and an oncoming people carrier as he fled from police.[4]
Williams was thrown from his Mini Cooper in the collision and was found by officers lying in the road while his two passengers were found unconscious in his car. Swansea Crown Court[5] heard the defendant has a long history of committing motoring offences including three for driving with excess alcohol and 10 of driving while disqualified.
James Allchurch
(Image: South Wales Police)
The white supremacist who produced a series of “vile” racist and antisemitic podcasts was jailed for two-and-half years.[6]
Allchurch - who used the name, Sven Longshanks, for his broadcasts - published a string of podcasts on his website, Radio Aryan, over a two-year period where he talked about topics including the inferiority of non-whites and used language such as “negroes” and “jungle bunnies”.
Junior Johnson and Karla Docherty
The scheming couple set up a friend who was viciously robbed at a cash machine[7] and left blinded in one eye.
Johnson and Docherty tipped off a third party that Russell Pipe would be collecting hundreds of pounds in benefits money for himself and Docherty’s mother from an ATM. Mr Pipe was subsequently brutally assaulted in Newport[8]’s Marshfield Street during the early hours of February 12 last year after withdrawing £500 in cash.
Zak McDonald
(Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
The young drugs courier was caught on a train to a Welsh town[9] with almost 140 wraps of heroin and cocaine hidden up his bottom.
McDonald was also found carrying a drug gang phone, a mobile which police discovered had made the return journey from Birmingham to west Wales seven times in the previous couple of months.
Leigh Stevens
(Image: South Wales Police)
The "depraved" man drew thousands of pictures depicting babies being raped and wrote stories about child abuse. He also filmed himself having sex with a doll that looked like a child.
Stevens, 43, originally of Penarth, was found with the sickening images which he drew after drinking a litre of whiskey at a time. He also searched the internet for cartoons depicting child abuse, but claimed to police he was not attracted to children. Read his sentencing here.[10][11]
Dean Rees
(Image: South Wales Police)
The man, who felt “jealousy and bitterness” towards his partner, throttled her[12] after going to her house to check whether she had another man there.
Rees barged into the woman’s house and pushed her onto the sofa before choking her with one hand and putting his other hand over her nose and mouth. Swansea Crown Court[13] heard the woman thought she was going to die during the assault and feared her children would be left without a mum.
Kyle Raybould
Kyle Raybould
The "career criminal" stole an array of meats and booze in his latest shoplifting spree. Raybould was on a "course of self-destruction" as he targeted stores in Newport[14] and Cwmbran to fund his heroin addiction.
The homeless 30-year-old was already under a suspended prison sentence when he committed 12 thefts between February 20 and April 24.
Kyle Redwood
(Image: South Wales Police)
The 30-year-old was found with up to £1,500 worth of cocaine after he was stopped by police driving through Pontypridd.[16]
He had turned to dealing in order to fund his cocaine addiction. Redwood, 30, was sentenced alongside his girlfriend Chloe Green.
Andrew Sackett
He repeatedly knifed his friend[17] to the head following a dispute over milk. Sackett left Morgan Wynn with eight head wounds and two broken ribs in a brutal attack in Ammanford. One neighbour described the 44-year-old as looking like he was "possessed".
Prosecutor James Davies told Swansea[18] Crown Court that Mr Wynn had been "drinking pals" with Sackett for about 20 years and would often let him stay over when they socialised.
Alton Ibrahimi and Edison Pocari
(Image: South Wales Police)
A cannabis factory with 271 plants was discovered after police could smell cannabis coming from a letter box. Two men working as gardeners were found inside the property who travelled illegally to the UK from Albania.
Ibrahimi, 27, and Pocari, 44, were found inside an address in Cardiff on March 16 when police raided what they suspected to be a cannabis factory. Read their sentencing here.[19][20]
Sophie Colfer, Stuart Evans, Peter Teifion Jones and Cadonius Lowe
(Image: South Wales Police)
An experienced drug dealer was helped to flood a city with cocaine and heroin by a gang[21] who drove him between London and south Wales and facilitated and carried out deals. Davanual Linton ran a county lines number known as the Max Line, using five different phones to do so and making over £70,000 in the space of three months.
He was aided by a four-strong group who between them provided him with transport and accommodation, while also setting up and carrying out deals on the streets of Swansea[22] during the height of the coronavirus[23] pandemic.
Mathew Pointer
The arresting officer said Pointer was sweating and had glazed eyes after the high-speed pursuit (Image: South Wales Police)
The sweaty and glazed eyed disqualified driver went more than double the speed limit in a built up area during a police chase - and then told the officer who arrested him he thought his angry partner was chasing him.
Pointer was behind the wheel of a Ford Transit tip truck when its tyres were heard screeching near the fire station in Seven Sisters - which was spotted by an officer in a patrol car. Read what happened next here.[24]
Callum Edwards-Pritchard
(Image: South Wales Police)
The drug dealer was in left in tears as he told a judge how he had made the "biggest mistake of my life" by turning back to crime to finance his daughter's eye surgery.
Edwards-Pritchard was caught after police found messages from him on the phone of another dealer who they had arrested last year.
Simon Fisher
(Image: South Wales Police)
He moved into his grandmother's house and spent months bullying the pensioner and stealing her life savings.
Fisher cleaned out the 87-year-old's bank accounts, spending the money on heroin, taxi rides, and online shopping. In total he stole almost £47,000 leaving the widow overdrawn and penniless. Read his sentencing here.[26]
Rachel Simpson
(Image: South Wales Police)
The former employee of the Crown Prosecution service abused her position to gain unauthorised access[27] to sensitive material relating to investigations into major drug operations and money laundering over a number of years.
On two occasions, Simpson passed this information onto third parties, before it made its way into the hands of criminals, who on one occasion "modified" their criminal strategy.
Peter Hicks
(Image: South Wales Police)
The paedophile who thought he was sending sexual messages to young girls on social media was actually speaking to decoys set up by a vigilante group.
Hicks, 75, set up a Facebook[28] profile under the name 'Rob Page'[29] and sent a string of vile messages to what he thought were three girls aged between 13 and 14, telling them how he wanted to kiss and touch them while also sending one of them a photo of his penis.
Philip Harris
(Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
The former French Foreign Legion soldier[30] attacked a man in the street in the middle of the afternoon, pushing him to the ground and repeatedly kicking him.
Harris then lifted the injured man's body and head off the pavement and slammed it back down.
Cameron Osman
(Image: National Crime Agency)
The children’s holiday camp manager has been exposed as a paedophile[31] who groomed more than 70 teenage boys online by pretending to be a 16-year-old girl.
Sick Osman targeted his vulnerable victims on social media sites before engaging them in sexualised conversation revolving around a fantasy online world where he pretended to be a teenage girl. The 44-year-old groomed scores of boys around the UK including in Wales claiming to be a girl called "Lizzielemon" who had a fetish for dominating boys in school[32] uniform and sports kit, and for conducting teacher/student role plays. All his victim were aged between 12 and 16.
Lee Rawle
(Image: Gwent Police)
The stalker terrorised his ex-partner in a months-long campaign that included parking his car outside her home, doing wheel-spins and blaring his horn.
In one disturbing voicemail Lee Rawle, from Caerphilly county, told the woman: "I will be a dad to your kids but I will never leave you alone." Read his sentencing here.[33][34]
Andrew Bradnum
(Image: South Wales Police)
Police who went to a house to assist council trading standards officers as part of an investigation into a dog breeding business found the occupier was involved in dealing cocaine.[35]
Bradnum refused to reveal the PIN for his phone but officers were able to gain access to the device, and on it found messages relating to the buying, selling and delivery of the Class A drug - including one message where the idea of exchanging coke for oral sex was mentioned.
Mathew Jones
(Image: Tarian)
The paedophile who believed he was communicating with a 12-year-old girl made sexual advances towards her during their conversation and arranged to meet her. But he was actually speaking to an undercover police[36] officer and was arrested when he tried to meet the fictitious child.
The 33-year-old, of Newport[37], was arrested in March this year after engaging in a conversation with the decoy online. Despite believing it to be a young girl he began bringing up sexual topics and quickly arranged to meet with her.
Wesley Fender
(Image: South Wales Police)
The cocaine dealer used an expensive EncroChat device[38] to speak to those above him in a drugs chain and used a pseudonym to hide his identity. His cover was blown after the EncroChat server was infiltrated by the French authorities.
Fender, 39, of Cardiff[39], was involved the supply of five kilograms of cocaine between March 31 and April 24, 2020, and was known by the handle "LooseBow". He was described as playing a "leading role" in a conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and had close links to the original source.
Lee Cross
(Image: South Wales Police)
The shoplifter who stole expensive Ralph Lauren clothing[40] was later caught by police dealing heroin and crack cocaine after he failed to turn up to court. He took to dealing in order to fund his own drug addiction.
The 43-year-old was caught stealing £742 worth of clothing in John Lewis in Cardiff[41] city centre on April 3. He was identified by facial recognition and arrested but the clothes were never recovered. During his police interview he claimed to be drunk.
Keanun Wilson
(Image: South Wales Police)
A passenger was left disabled[42] and with serious spinal injuries following a car crash in which the driver fled the scene as he didn't have a licence. The victim was left trapped and unconscious in the wreckage and had to be cut free.
Wilson, 26, left two of his passengers injured after crashing his red Volkswagen Polo on the A48 in Cardiff[43] in the early hours of October 9 last year. He had met with work colleague Liam Curran earlier in the evening and had drunk a pint and a half of Coors when he offered to give Mr Curran a lift.
Antonian Psota and Anderson Gjuta
(Image: South Wales Police)
A father sought to gain financially by seeking to place another man's name on his baby's birth certificate.[44] The fraudulent scheme was scuppered after staff at Cardiff[45] Register Office became suspicious when the baby's name was spelled incorrectly on the application.
Psota, 24, agreed to put the name of Gjuta, 23, on his child's birth certificate after he was offered payment. Mr Gjuta had come to the UK illegally and believed he would have more chance of securing a visa to remain in the country if he was registered as the child's father.
James Campbell
(Image: South Wales Police)
The robber stole £60 from a man walking back from a cash machine[46] after he and a woman became involved in a scuffle with him. They robbed the man after he refused to hand his money over.
Campbell, 32, and an accomplice approached Stuart Hornsbury shortly after midnight in Cardiff[47] on September 5 last year. They asked the victim to borrow £10 but he refused. They then approached him a second time after he had been to the cash machine.
Adrian Simjak
(Image: South Wales Police)
He lost his job and then his flat during the Covid pandemic[48] and ended up addicted to drugs and working on behalf of a London crime gang.
Simjak was caught red-handed by police in Swansea[49] with 45 ready-to-sell wraps of heroin and crack cocaine hidden up the sleeve of his jacket. An examination of his phone showed he had been in contact with a so-called county lines drugs operation and was operating as a "runner".
Mark Caffrey
(Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
He punched his neighbour and occasional sexual partner 38 times as she lay on the floor at his feet.[50]
Caffrey repeatedly struck the woman on the doorstep of his house and made disparaging comments to her following an argument between the pair. Sending the 57-year-old defendant down, a judge told him his behaviour had been "wicked" and only immediate prison was appropriate.
Corey Rowlands
The 21-year-old left his neighbour needing 25 stitches after savagely biting his nose following a row over noise levels. Rowlands drunkenly sunk his teeth into Russell Lewis in the early hours of January 16 last year outside their homes in Gilfach, Caerphilly[51] county.
Prosecutor Talia Keskin told Cardiff[52] Crown Court that Mr Lewis had been unhappy with "excessive noise" from the adjoining home, where Rowlands lived.
Alexander Jones
(Image: South Wales Police)
He fired a crossbow through the window of his friend's house[53] in the early hours of the morning
A judge told Jones he was lucky he had not caused serious injury or even death by using the "serious and highly dangerous weapon" in the street. Jones' victim said he doubted he would ever be able to get a good night's sleep in the property again.
Daniel Green
(Image: Gwent Police)
The disqualified driver[54] told police he was withdrawing from heroin after a police chase when he drove for miles with punctured tyres. He was on bail at the time having attempted to rob cash from a man outside a supermarket.
Green, 29, became involved in a police chase through Brynmawr[55], Blaenau Gwent[56], after an warrant was issued for his arrest. He was seen driving a red Ford Fiesta at around 2.30am on January 13 and was pursued by officers at the scene.
Dale Mason
(Image: Facebook)
The thug strangled his partner and hit her in the face with a shopping bag containing a vase[57] and a child's doll after he accused her of flirting with her teenage son's friend. The victim said the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her boyfriend had left her an "emotional mess".
Dale Mason, 43, of Caerphilly[58], was violent towards his partner during their relationship and accused her of lying when when he was questioned about his behaviour by police. The victim was left unable to breathe during the attacks and had trouble speaking due to the pain she felt.
Michael Cockerill
(Image: South Wales Police)
The drug user who began dealing in order to fund his own habit[59] was found with more than £1,000 worth of cocaine when police raided his home. He was also found with more than £1,000 in cash.
The 43-year-old was visited by police executing a drugs warrant at his home in Bridgend[60] on February 11 last year. In the property they discovered a small quantity of cocaine which was later valued at £1,160. Also found were £1,164 in cash and scales.
Umer Sajjad
(Image: South Wales Police)
The rapist took advantage of a woman as she slept in a hotel room[61] and she woke up to find him having sex with her without consent. He later claimed he had drunk alcohol for the first time the night before due to his religion.
The 24-year-old raped a woman at the Village Hotel in Cardiff[62] in 2019 while she was asleep having drunk a large amount of alcohol. When she woke up the victim found the defendant having sex with her and when she asked him what he was doing he stopped and apologised.
Jeremy Inglis
(Image: South Wales Police)
The stalker who was fitted with a satellite tracker after following and harassing a woman[63] for two years was jailed for breaching his suspended sentence.
Inglis turned up drunk at one probation appointment then took a knife to another before pointing the weapon at himself and then his probation officer. A judge at Swansea Crown Court[64] activated the previously-imposed sentence.
Dean Anthony Rosser
(Image: Dyfed-Powys Police)
Jailed after he was caught with heroin and crack cocaine when he got off a train.[65]
The 56-year-old arrived at Carmarthen[66] railway station on April 19. He was searched by police who discovered he was in possession of 15.8g of heroin – worth up to £1,580 – and one gram of crack cocaine. Examination of a Samsung mobile phone found evidence of dealing and a later search of his property found digital scales and tin foil.
Wesley Fender
(Image: South Wales Police)
The cocaine dealer used an expensive EncroChat device[67] to speak to those above him in a drugs chain and used a pseudonym to hide his identity. His cover was blown after the EncroChat server was infiltrated by the French authorities.
The 39-year-old, of Cardiff[68], was involved the supply of five kilograms of cocaine between March 31 and April 24, 2020, and was known by the handle "LooseBow". He was described as playing a "leading role" in a conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and had close links to the original source.
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