Teenage knifemen, gangsters and a posing killer driver amongst those locked up this week in Greater Manchester
Three teenage knifemen are amongst those who have been jailed this week for stabbing their friend to death in broad daylight.
Tafari Smith, Yousef Sesay and Lewis Ludford attacked Kyle Hackland, 17, when he was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Alfie Benson then drove the killers from the scene in a stolen car, leaving Kyle to die in the street.
Also locked up this week was a gang from Huddersfield who embarked in a brutal feud in Moss Side[1] after the Caribbean Carnival resulting in the death of Javell Morgan, and a posing killer driver who filmed himself driving at 98mph on Snapchat before a fatal crash.
Prison terms are handed out to the most serious offenders. Manchester Evening News reporters are on the press bench each day to cover such cases.
The faces of teen killers who murdered a teenager they claimed was their friend
Yousef Sesay, Tafari Smith and Lewis Ludford (Image: GMP)
These are the faces of the teen killers jailed following the murder of Kyle Hackland[4]. Kyle, 17, was stabbed to death in broad daylight after being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He was targeted because of his association with a friend, who one of his killers blamed after he was ‘set up’ in a drugs deal gone wrong. A gang of four young men out drug dealing set upon Kyle in Withington[5] after they saw him walking with his friend, a man named James Todd.
Todd fled when he saw them but Kyle, who knew all four, appeared to be taken by surprise by the brutal attack. Tafari Smith, then aged 16, stabbed him before another two, Yousef Sesay and Lewis Ludford, both aged 18, joined in as Kyle was punched and kicked.
Manchester Crown Court[6] heard that 17-year-old Alfie Benson drove the killers to and from the scene in a stolen VW Golf. After leaving Kyle to die in a driveway on Southlea Road, at about 11.30am on November 22 last year, the four, some of who claimed to be Kyle’s friend, arranged to be ‘taken into hiding’.
Following a trial which concluded in June, Smith, Sesay and Ludford were found guilty of murder. Benson was convicted of manslaughter.
The four can be pictured for the first time after they were sentenced on Tuesday morning. Sesay, of Denton[7] Road, Audenshaw; Smith, of Lancashire Hill, Stockport[8]; Ludford, of Aylesby Avenue, Gorton[9]; were all detained at His Majesty’s pleasure, the equivalent of a life sentence for juveniles. Smith will serve a minimum of 19 years. Sesay and Ludford will serve a minimum of 22 and 21 years respectively.
While Benson, of Wellington Road North, Stockport, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The gangsters from down the M62 who brought terror to Manchester
Harlan Richards, Mikyle Bucknor and Karmarni Batler (Image: GMP)
Three more men have been jailed for their part in a gang feud which ended with the brutal murder of a 20-year-old[10]. In May, two young men were handed life sentences after Javell Morgan was stabbed to death at an after-party following Moss Side’s Caribbean Carnival in May 2022.
Now three others have been jailed for their part in the violence between two rival groups from Huddersfield who travelled to the south Manchester event. Javell, who was unarmed, died in hospital after he was stabbed five times at a street party on Claremont Road in Moss Side during the early hours of Monday, August 15, 2022.
He was chased down and repeatedly stabbed by Jacob Doughty, 22, and Deontay Crosfield, 23, who were both jailed for murder in May this year. They were convicted after a trial at Manchester Crown Court, which heard Doughty inflicted the fatal blow with a fearsome Samurai sword.
Now three others have been jailed following a second trial.
Mikyle Bucknor, 19, of Mirfield, Kirklees; and Karmani Batler, 21, of Belle Vue Crescent, Sheepridge, were both found guilty of attempted murder of a young man in the rival group.
The pair, and a third man, Harlan Richards, 20, of Trafalgar Close, Kirklees, were also found guilty of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Bucknor was handed a 25-year prison sentence while Batler was jailed for 24 years. Richards was jailed for eleven years.
The police investigation, which included an extensive trawl and forensic review of CCTV, identified two rival groups who had travelled from Huddersfield to Moss Side.
Batler, Bucknor and Richards, members of one of the groups, who all had guns, approached the opposing Huddersfield group which included Doughty and Crosfield.
Bucknor’s gun was fired towards one man in rival group but the bullet hit the floor and did not hit anyone who had gathered for the street party.
The rival group then responded with knives which resulted in the killing of Javell Morgan by Crosfield and Doughty.
Crosfield, of Rawthorpe Crescent in Huddersfield, learned in May that he must serve a minimum of 20 years behind bars while his co-defendant Doughty, of Ponyfield Close in Huddersfield, must serve 21 years before he becomes eligible for parole.
Three other men were found not guilty at the first trial.
Gang dubbed the ‘most organised outfit around’ locked up after peddling £7m out of church ‘drug factory’
Top row L-R: Dean Smallwood, Jamie Kenny, Leon Kenny and Nathan Cooke. Bottom row L-R: Sam Causer, Nathan Hart, Ian Ormshaw and Daryl Golding. (Image: GMP)
A gang dubbed the ‘most organised outfit around’[11] have been locked up after peddling £7 million worth of cocaine through a church ‘drug factory’. The eight strong outfit bought and sold huge amounts of cocaine and flooded streets across the country with the class A drug.
The dealers used a former Methodist church as part of the staggering operation. The building, in Bamfurlong, Wigan[12], was most recently the base of the Kenny family’s business antiques shop, J.W. Antiques, Manchester Crown Court heard.
But it was transformed into a drugs warehouse where cocaine was packaged to be dealt to addicts on the streets. Two Kenny brothers, Jamie and Leon, were among the members of the gang locked up for combined sentences of more than 60 years.
Jamie Kenny, 33, taught other dealers how to break blocks of cocaine in order to ‘maximise profits’, while others were employed in the antiques shop to package up the drug for street selling. Their drugs operation was brought down following the law enforcement hack of the EncroChat network in June 2020, which led to each of the eight gang members being arrested and their houses searched. Officers found designer clothing, expensive watches and numerous phones.
The sentences imposed on the eight gang members by Judge John Potter were as follows: Dean Smallwood, 43, of Landgate Lane, Wigan, was sentenced to 12 years and eight months in prison; Jamie Kenny, 33, of Ashwood Avenue, Abram, was sentenced to 11 years and two months; Leon Kenny, 31, of Warrington Road, Abram, was sentenced to eight years; Sam Causer, 33, of Egerton Street, Abram, was sentenced to six years and four months; Daryl Golding, 38, of Brookland Avenue, Hindley, was sentenced to five years and six months; Ian Ormshaw, 44, of Mesnes Avenue, Wigan, was sentenced to five years and seven months; Nathan Cooke, 32, of Eskdale Road, Hindley, was sentenced to six years and four months; Nathan Hart, 33, of Warrington Road, Abram, was sentenced to six years and six months.
All pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to acquire, use, or possess criminal property. A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing was set for March next year, when prosecutors will attempt to claw back their ill-gotten gains.
The arrogant Mercedes driver who killed teenager while ‘showing off’ and driving ‘ridiculously fast’
Rohail Jillani
An arrogant speeding Mercedes driver killed a 17-year-old girl while he was ‘showing off’.[13] Rohail Jillani reached speeds of 98mph on the Mancunian Way in his Mercedes A180 while filming a Snapchat clip in one hand, and inhaling nitrous oxide balloons with the other.
He passed out and ploughed into a viaduct as the busy A road merges onto Great Ancoats Street. Manchester Crown Court heard that his passenger Nadia Yusuf, 17, who was studying to become a paediatrician, suffered terrible injuries and died.
Another passenger, Shafi Sufi, then 18, survived but was seriously hurt. University graduate Jillani, 25, has now been jailed for eight years and eight months after admitting causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.
A judge admitted the sentence ‘will necessarily appear low to many’. Judge Alan Conrad KC said he was bound by previous sentencing guidelines, which were in force at the time of the horror crash in January last year.
The maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving has since increased from 14 years in prison to life. “I must make it clear that any sentence cannot in any way reflect the value of a human life, still less can it bring anybody back, nor can it alleviate any of the terrible suffering that your conduct has caused to a large number of people,” the judge said.
Prosecutors told how Jillani was driving on the Mancunian Way on January 10 last year at about 11.30pm when the crash occurred.
At one point Jillani passed out and slumped on the steering wheel, before veering left and crashing into a wall. Moments earlier, he’d been filming a video on Snapchat and using his other hand to inhale nitrous oxide balloons.
Two ‘brave’ victims came forward years later to report childhood sexual abuse at hands of paedophile
Two victims who were sexually assaulted as children came forward years later to report the abuse they suffered at the hands of a paedophile. Mark Crossley, 28, of Hopwood Court, Middleton was jailed by a judge to 15 years at Minshull Street Crown Court on Wednesday (October 4) after pleading guilty to 14 counts of child sexual offences against two children in Rochdale between 2013 and 2020. Greater Manchester Police said the victims were ‘subjected to a terrifying ordeal’ inside a house of someone who they trusted, and that, at the time, the victims did ‘not understand the seriousness’ of the abuse.
Two victims who were sexually assaulted as children came forward years later to report the abuse they suffered at the hands of a paedophile.
Mark Crossley, 28, of Hopwood Court, Middleton[14] was jailed by a judge for 15 years at Minshull Street Crown Court on Wednesday (October 4) after pleading guilty to 14 counts of child sexual offences against two children in Rochdale[15] between 2013 and 2020.
Greater Manchester Police[16] said the victims were ‘subjected to a terrifying ordeal’ inside a house of someone who they trusted, and that, at the time, the victims did ‘not understand the seriousness’ of the abuse.
However years later, the victims reported the abuse to the police who began investigating, later arresting and charging Crossley before he was later jailed for the offences.
Woman jailed after texting hundreds saying “CLEO! FIRE! ON! DEALS! ABOUT ALL DAY!!!!!!”
Sophia McAllister (Image: GMP)
A woman took around 6,500 calls on her dedicated drugs hotline that she named ‘CLEO’[17], police said.
Sophia McAllister, from Timperley[18], ran the class A hotline for at least four months. Police found that from April 2023 to August 2023, 3,500 text messages were sent and 2,300 were received.
Almost 2,500 calls were made from the hotline, while 6,500 were incoming. Messages on the ‘busy’ line included ones that read ‘CLEO! FIRE! ON! DEALS! ABOUT ALL DAY!!!!!!’.
They were sent as bulk messages during a small-time window to advertise the drugs line was active, Greater Manchester Police said. Follow-up messages saying ‘yh’ and ‘u about’ were then sent from the phone.
After a covert investigation, detectives linked the line back to McAllister. She was caught out after deciding to pay for the line with an account in her own name.
McAllister, 25, was arrested at an apartment in August 2023. During a search, police found the phone as well as some crack cocaine and heroin in the kitchen.
McAllister, of Bowker Court, Timperley, was jailed for 30 months at Manchester Crown Court yesterday (October 4) for her part in the county lines drugs operation. She was previously charged with being concerned in the making of an offer to supply quantities of Class A drugs.
‘He has ruined my life…’ the face of ‘dangerous’ sex offender locked up after targeting young girls
Glen Stone
A man has been jailed for historic sex offences on two young girls[19]. Glen Stone, 64, was convicted of three offences of indecent assault on the victims following a trial earlier this year.
The court heard that Stone, of Wigan, assaulted the girls in the 1970s and 1980s.
In a statement read out on behalf of one of the women, she said that she had struggled with the secret of being sexually assaulted and felt she was unable to talk about it.
She said it affected her self confidence and created anxiety, as well as affecting intimacy in her relationships.
“I wish I had told someone all of this years ago,” she said. “I have to remind myself that I was a child – and he took an element of my childhood away from me.”
The other woman said: “He has ruined my life and a big part of my childhood.”
Stone, of Duncan Place, Wigan, was jailed for four years and must sign onto the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.
References
- ^ Moss Side (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Shop workers rush to help after boy, 16, struck by police vehicle (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ The top stories across the M.E.N. (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ These are the faces of the teen killers jailed following the murder of Kyle Hackland (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Withington (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Manchester Crown Court (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Denton (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Stockport (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Gorton (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Three more men have been jailed for their part in a gang feud which ended with the brutal murder of a 20-year-old (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ A gang dubbed the ‘most organised outfit around’ (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Wigan (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ arrogant speeding Mercedes driver killed a 17-year-old girl while he was ‘showing off’. (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Mark Crossley, 28, of Hopwood Court, Middleton (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Rochdale (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Greater Manchester Police (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ woman took around 6,500 calls on her dedicated drugs hotline that she named ‘CLEO’ (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ Timperley (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
- ^ A man has been jailed for historic sex offences on two young girls (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)