St Helens court cases that shocked Star readers in November
Here is a look back at four court cases we have covered this month that led to defendants being given prison sentences.
Christopher Cook
Christopher Cook (Image: Police Scotland) A man from St Helens who admitted murdering his partner in Aberdeen in a “brutal attack” was sentenced. Christopher Cook had pleaded guilty to murder after Jacqueline Kerr, 54, was found with multiple serious injuries in her own home on Sunnyside Road in Aberdeen on January 16.
She had suffered head injuries consistent with a car crash or a fall from height. The BBC reported that a judge described her killing as an “appalling outbreak of lethal violence”. Cook, 44, from St Helens, was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday, November, 3, where he was given a life sentence and must serve a minimum of 20 years in prison.
Govar Abdul-Rahman
Govar Abdul-Rahman (Image: Merseyside Police) A “predatory sexual offender” who molested three women and broke into another’s flat as she slept was jailed. Govar Abdul-Rahman, an Iraqi-born asylum seeker who had entered the UK illegally, had sexually assaulted two women in the sauna at Queens Park Leisure Centre, on Boundary Road, within three days.
Three weeks later he launched an attack in an alleyway on an 18-year-old woman, who had been on one of her first nights out in St Helens town centre. A week later, Abdul-Rahman’s “escalating” offending then saw him make his way into a young woman’s flat through a window in the early hours. She was awoken as she slept naked on her bed to the sight of the defendant standing over her bed.
In what a judge called the “stuff of nightmares”, a week later the same woman heard a noise and opened her curtains and saw Abdul-Rahman trying to get into her flat again. The 28-year-old was convicted, after a trial, of trespassing with intent to commit a sexual offence, voyeurism and attempted trespassing to commit a sexual offence. He was convicted of sexual assaults at Queens Park, and he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault over the town centre attack.
Abdul-Rahman, of Silkstone Street, Newtown, St Helens, was given an extended sentence of 12 years, seven in custody with an extra five years on licence for the attempted trespassing, with concurrent sentences of four years and four months for the trespassing and voyeurism offences. For the sexual assaults at Queens Park he was given two consecutive four-month sentences, and a 20-month consecutive sentence for the town centre sexual assaults, making a total of 28 months. Abdul-Rahman, who was sentenced via video link with the aid of an interpreter at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, November 16, must serve two-thirds of the seven-year custodial term and half of the 28 months in custody.
Thomas O’Halloran
Thomas O’Halloran (Image: Merseyside Police) A paedophile who sexually abused a girl over a five-year period was given an extended prison term. Thomas O’Halloran, of Duke Street, St Helens, was sentenced on Thursday, November 16, at Liverpool Crown Court.
O’Halloran had been convicted after a trial of six counts, including offences of sexual assault of a child under 13 and causing a child to engage in sexual activity. The 74-year-old defendant had previous convictions for exposure in 1985, and in 2021 he received 12 months imprisonment for sexual communication with a child in 2021, which postdates these offences. Reading a statement to the courtroom, his victim said that “I was too scared to tell anyone in case they didn’t believe me.
I was a quiet child and I felt anxious all the time.” Calling O’Halloran a “dangerous offender”, a judge gave him a 13-year sentence, consisting of nine years in custody and a four-year extended licence period. He was also given two concurrent three-year terms and a concurrent four-year sentence.
The defendant must serve at least two-thirds of the nine-year period in prison. Read the full report here[3].
Conor Gavin
Conor Gavin (Image: Merseyside Police) A man who committed “heinous” sexual abuse on a girl and then put his victim through the ordeal of a trial has been jailed.
Connor Paul Gavin, 21, of Blackbrook, St Helens was found guilty by a trial by jury at Liverpool Crown Court last month.
On Friday, November 17, he was sentenced to 14 years and nine months in prison for nine counts of rape and sexual assault of a child under 13.