Paedophile pals, horror crash drug driver and £180,000 fraudster mum jailed
A pervert who colluded with another paedophile he met while behind bars, a £180,000 scammer mum and a drug driver who caused a horror crash were among the Merseyside criminals jailed over the past week.
Also locked up was a drug dealer who hid behind the nickname "Zac n Paddy". Meanwhile, Liverpool Crown Court heard that a thug threatened to "terror" a man then hit him in the head with an axe.
Here are the faces of 12 criminals from our region who were imprisoned over the last seven days:
Tracey Ellis
Tracy Ellis, also known as Tracy Hatton (Image: Merseyside Police)
A mum's £180,000 scam was uncovered after she went shopping at B&Q.
Tracy Ellis lived out a "fantasy life" as she lavished family members with gifts, funded by swindling her employer out of huge sums of money over a period of more than five years. Her actions were described as a "betrayal" to the small firm for which she worked as a bookkeeper for nearly a decade.
The 52-year-old admitted fraud by abuse of position. Wearing a pink and black checked coat and glasses in the dock, she was jailed for two years and eight months.
Scott McLean
Scott McLean (Image: Facebook)
A thug said a man was "getting terrored" before hitting him in the face with an axe.
Scott McLean, who has a history of violent offending dating back more than 15 years, launched a brutal unprovoked assault upon the stranger on his own doorstep in the early hours. The victim was left with several broken facial bones as a result of the attack and had to travel to Turkey in order to undergo corrective dental work.
McClean was found guilty of wounding with intent by a jury, having admitted possession of a bladed article in a public place and a malicious communications offence. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool, he was jailed for six years and handed an additional three years on licence.
Aiden Quirk, Curtis Roberts and Daniel Doyle
Aiden Quirk was sentenced to eight years and six months for conspiracy to commit burglary, possession of a Class A drug, dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and without insurance, and failing to provide a specimen for analysis (Image: North Wales Police)
A Scouse burglary gang led police on a 27-mile chase on the wrong side of the motorway.
Aiden Quirk, 30, of no fixed abode, Curtis Roberts, 28, Elleray Drive, Dingle and Daniel Doyle, 28, of Corinthian Street, Seaforth targeted a number of addresses in North Wales. These included homes across Flintshire, Conwy and Gwynedd between January 6 and February 6 this year, predominantly houses of elderly people for cash and jewellery.
Daniel Doyle was sentenced to six years for conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of a Class B drug (Image: North Wales Police)
On January 24, four addresses in Flintshire were ransacked in quick succession by Quirk and Roberts, with a number of war medals among the items stolen. All three admitted conspiracy to commit burglary.
Curtis Roberts was sentenced to six years and nine month for conspiracy to commit burglary (Image: North Wales Police)
Quirk was sentenced to eight years and six months, having also been convicted of offences including dangerous driving. Roberts was handed six years and nine months, while Doyle received six years.
Damien Crellin
Damien Crellin, 39, of Salisbury Street, Runcorn (Image: North Wales Police)
A drug driver had his daughter in the car with him when he caused a horror crash that injured three people.
Damien Crellin, from Runcorn, who tested positive for cannabis, veered into the path of a family's car on a rural road in North Wales, injuring several people. A court heard Crellin, 39, had overtaken a number of other cars and may have been trying to catch up with a group ahead before the crash on the A494 on September 5, 2021.
A woman at the scene asked one motorist, who had stopped, where she should "hide the defendant's weed," Caernarfon Crown Court heard. A judge condemned his driving as "aggressive, dangerous and selfish" and jailed him for 28 months for causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
James Spindler
James Spindler (Image: South Wales Police)
A county lines gang who dealt drugs near a primary school forced their way into a vulnerable couple's home and refused to leave.
The organised crime group sent two men - 21-year-old Sam Oliver, from Clubmoor, and 22-year-old James Spindler, from Warrington - to the house in Swansea, South Wales, to deal heroin and cocaine in what was described as a "classic county lines operation". Spindler pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin and was jailed for 58 months, with Oliver having previously been handed three years and four months.
Korben Bell
Korben Bell, 21, of Rice Lane was jailed for five years and six months (Image: Merseyside Police)
A man who was found to be in possession of a knife and drugs can now be stopped and searched by police at any time.
Korben Bell, 21, of Rice Lane, was spotted by Merseyside Police officers on Wednesday, June 14, as he left his home. When Bell became aware of officers he ran away but was stopped after police found a six inch blue metal lockable knife that he dropped on the street.
Officers then searched his address and found cash, snap bags of cannabis, phones and individual deals of heroin and crack cocaine that were hidden inside a shoe box in his bedroom. Bell admitted five drug offences, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of criminal property and was sentenced to five years and six months.
Barry Hewitt
A man who raped a woman on multiple occasions mocked her and claimed she "enjoyed it".
Barry Hewitt, 38, was found guilty of two counts of rape. He was jailed for 12 years.
James Kelly
James Francis Kelly, of Gorsedale Road, Wirral, jailed for 10 months after he repeatedly gave the name of an innocent man when he was fined for travelling without a ticket on Merseyside (Image: British Transport Police)
A man avoided paying fines by passing them onto a former school friend.
James Francis Kelly, of Gorsedale Road, Wirral, has now been jailed for 10 months after his scheme was eventually found out. Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 31-year-old had been repeatedly giving in the name of an innocent man, who he used to know from school, when he was fined for travelling without a ticket across Merseyside.
He pleaded guilty to committing a series of acts with intent to pervert the course of public justice and was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £149. Kelly's deception dated as far back as October 2019 and continued until July last year, encompassing a total of 26 separate incidents.
Patrick Kinsella
Patrick Kinsella, 29, from Spur Close in Croxteth (Image: Merseyside Police)
A man using the nickname 'Zac n Paddy' controlled a County Lines drug supply chain.
Patrick Kinsella, 29, from Spur Close in Croxteth pleaded guilty to supplying heroin and crack cocaine. As part of Operation Toxic, officers executed a warrant at a property on June, 14, 2023 where Kinsella was arrested.
During a joint investigation between Project Medusa and Police Scotland it was found Kinsella was controlling a County Lines drugs supply in Fraserburgh, in Scotland, using the name ‘Zac N Paddy’. He was jailed for four years and four months.
Connor Jackson
Paedophile Connor Jackson, of Liverpool City Centre, jailed for sharing sick videos of child rape (Image: Merseyide Police)
A paedophile ring was smashed thanks to cutting edge technology and the work of a sniffer dog.
Connor Jackson, 27, was already on the sex offenders' register when an alert was flagged on a new piece of software - the eSafe Global monitoring service - suggesting he may have an illegal image on his mobile phone. Merseyside Police's Sex Offender Unit launched an investigation and found Jackson had exchanged WhatsApp messages with a man who sent him a video of another screen, displaying an indecent video of a boy.
The video was followed up with the message: “Not the best quality but I’ll get a USB for you tomorrow.”
Officers were able to identify the other man as Thomas Stanley, 33, another registered sex offender with previous convictions for child rape. It emerged the two perverts had struck up a friendship while in prison together.
The chat meant Stanley was in breach of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order, prohibiting him from associating with other registered sex offenders. Raids were carried out simultaneously at the home of Jackson in Seel Street, Liverpool City Centre, and Stanley, in Phoenix Brow, St Helens, in March - including the use of a "specialist digital media search dog" trained to sniff out any devices that could have electronic storage, such as mobile phones, USB memory sticks and even SIM cards.
A number of items were recovered at Thomas Stanley’s home, including the USB stick referred to in the messages. He jailed for two years after admitting making, possessing and distributing indecent images of children while Stanley was previously locked up for 32 months.
References
- ^ Woman's screams 'heard from balcony moments before she was strangled to death' (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)