The faces of the killers jailed at Derby Crown Court in 2023

Derby Crown and Magistrates’ Courts have seen its fair share of tragic and horrific cases in 2023, including some that will live long in the memory. Many of the killers will not be released for decades. Court reporter Martin Naylor was on hand to cover each one, and rounds up some of the more serious ones here.

Each case was different but each ended up with at least one tragic death. Melissa Keilloh In January, Melissa Keilloh was jailed for three years for killing her 17-year-old friend Phoebe Jihnson after she lost control of her car speeding down country lanes and smashed into a tree.

Her sentencing hearing was told how prior to getting behind the wheel following a party in Derby, the 20-year-old had told her mother on the phone she was “too drunk” to drive. But having decided to instead, she drove out of Sunny Hill towards Ticknall, breaking the speed limit and while over the drink-drive limit, clipped a kerb on a corner and crashed into a tree and a hedge killing Phoebe. In a victim impact statement, read to the judge by her father Paul told how his hatred of the defendant “is only matched by the love for my daughter and that’s the only thing that keeps me going”.

Jailing Keilloh for three years, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “I have watched the entirety of that journey which ended in tragedy.

For the first seven or eight minutes there was nothing remarkable about your driving but when you ended up in rural areas it is there your foot very clearly hits the accelerator. “I have no doubt your state of inebriation, the loud music, the group mentality and the empty roads caused you to drive in the way you did. Your careless acts in that car caused the death of Phoebe.

There is no price on a human’s life, there never can be and I am not putting one on Phoebe’s. Sentencing does not allow an eye for an eye, whatever people might think.” The incident took place on the A514 between Stanton by Bridge and Ticknall on October 23, 2021.

As part of the crash reconstruction, PC Matthew Lacey used dash cam footage to provide a report in relation to the speeds involved. It concluded that when travelling through Ticknall, a 30mph limit, the defendant was travelling at around 44mph. A cause of death for Phoebe, of Outram Close, Swadlincote, was head and neck injuries.

Keilloh, of Brookdale Road, Hartshorne, pleaded guilty to causing death through careless driving while over the legal drink-drive limit and has no previous convictions. As well as the jail sentence, Judge Smith disqualified Keilloh from driving for six-and-a-half years.

(Image: Derbyshire Constabulary)

Melusi Madaweni

In February, Billy Pearson’s killer, 30-year-old Meluis Madaweni, refused to even leave his prison cell and come to court to find out his fate after being found guilty of his unlawful “revenge” killing of Billy. Had he done he would now know he has been jailed for life and will serve a minimum of 25 years before he is eligible to apply for parole.

Judge Robert Egbuna said: “In what can only be described as a callous and brutal attack, Mr Madaweni stabbed Billy Pearson with a blunt screwdriver to the left temple. He adopted a boxer’s stance to generate as much power as he could and struck Billy Pearson who just dropped.c

“It was a death borne out of anger and a desire for revenge, a senseless killing which has caused untold misery. I am satisfied, at the time of the fatal wounding of Billy Pearson, you intended to kill him, you were fuelled by a wish to avenge.”

Billy, of Birchwood Crescent, Chesterfield, was found injured in the grounds of St Mary’s and All Saints Church – Chesterfield’s famous crooked spire – at around 12.50am on August 7, last year. On the night of the attack, he was out in the town centre with three friends and at 12.30am his group came across the defendant, who was alone. There was an exchange of words which began amicably but then “turned ugly” and there was a fight between Mr Pearson and one of his friends on one side and Madaweni on the other, in neighbouring Rykneld Square, which is next to the church.

After it, Madaweni ran home made his way back to the same churchyard where Mr Pearson still was. As the victim walked through it, the defendant arrived at his side and stabbed him to the left side of his head with one of the screwdrivers. Passers-by tried to help Mr Pearson, who leaves three-year-old daughter Sapphire, with one of them carrying out basic first aid at the scene.

He said he was rushed to hospital in Sheffield and then transferred to a specialist neurological unit at a different hospital in the city and operated on twice. But almost a week later, on August 13, his family had to make the heartbreaking decision to have his life support machine switched off. Following the two-week trial, a jury took less than an hour to find Madaweni, of Chester Street, Chesterfield, guilty of Billy’s murder.

Melusi Madaweni, aged 30, of Chester Street, Chesterfield, jailed for life minimum 25 years for the murder of 26-year-old dad Billy Pearson in the grounds of Chesterfield’s crooked spire church, St Mary and All Saints, in August 2022 (Image: Derbyshire police)

Darren Burton

Also in February, 41-year-old Chaddesden driver Darren Burton was jailed for four years and eight months when he left a family devastated when he lost control of a speeding van he was behind the wheel of and killed two men.

The father-of-five was over the legal drink-drive and cocaine limits, was speeding and was on well underinflated tyres in his work van which contained bags of cement. Allan Reeve and Andrew Calf, who were in the back of it, we flung out of the back doors in a collision with two metal barriers and died at the scene, In her statement, mum-of two son Zoe Reeve, who was also in the van at the time it crashed near Rollerworld in Derby told how she ran between both her husband and father they lay in the road saying “it was devastating to see them both with such horrific injuries”.

Jailing Burton, of Waterford Drive, Chaddesden, Judge David Fletcher said: “A combination of under inflated tyres, the rain, the excessive speed, your assessment of what to do when you were overtaken by another vehicle and that you were over the drink and drug drive limits caused this tragedy.

Both of the men were flung out of the door and suffered catastrophic injuries which led to their deaths. “You took a risk which was unnecessary and resulted in this catastrophe for a family that have not just lost a father but a father, a husband and a grandfather.” The horror smash took place outside Rollerworld, in Mansfield Road, Derby, on the evening of June 18 last year.

Burton pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. Following an appeal, his sentence was increased in May of this year to five years and 10 months after a London judge ruled that the initial sentence was “unduly lenient”.

(Image: Derbyshire Police)

William Eade

In March, teenager William Eade who caused the death of much-loved Derbyshire[1] school assistant Lucy Knowles in a car crash was jailed for 10 months . The 19o-year-old was behind the wheel of a Skoda when it hit several trees in Harewood Road, Holymoorside, Chesterfield[2] , killing passenger Lucy who was sitting behind him.

Eade, of Enfield Road, Newbold and who had passed his driving test in December 2021, pleaded guilty to killing 17-year-old Lucy by careless or inconsiderate driving in February 2023 at Derby Crown Court[3] . In a statement read out at Derby Crown Court Lucy’s mum, Kerry said: “I have been put through hell and I know many of Lucy’s other family and friends have too. She loved life, she worked hard, she made life fun.”

Her father Paul added: “Losing Lucy changed everyone who knew her and left a hole in our hearts that will never heal.”

The court heard how Lucy’s mum had lost her best friend, as well as her firstborn child. Kerry also described telling Lucy’s young siblings what had happened. The incident took place at around 10.45pm on April 2 when Eade’s Skoda hit two trees before colliding with a third.

Calculations show that the first impact was at 14.62 times gravity. It’s likely that this is what killed Lucy. Investigations found that the speed at which the car hit the tree on the 60 mph road was 55mph, but according to the black box in the car, Eade had been driving at 59mph five seconds prior to the final impact.

Eade was also disqualified from driving for five years and told he must take an extended driving test in the future.

William Eade, 19 of Enfield Road, Newbold, Chesterfield (Image: Derbyshire Police)

Herish Zandi

Herish Zandiuw as jailed for nine years in March after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of popular Somercotes barber Peshan Sleman. Leicester Crown Court heard how the pair came together following a feud between two rival gangs in Somercotes Hill in November, 2021. It followed an ongoing dispute between 22-year-old Mr Sleman, known as Seba Rash and a separate defendant, called Danyaal Panahi, after the former left the latter’s barber’s business to set up on his own.

Jailing the Zandi for nine years, Judge Gregory Dickinson KC said: “Two groups decided to take the law into their own hands culminating in the death of Peshang Sleman.

Afterwards he was abandoned to his fate. “On any view, Peshang Sleman was outnumbered and someone had a knife, he was stabbed 13 times to the back, some of the injuries were superficial, others penetrated the muscle. There were two stab wounds to the chest, one to a depth of 14cm, or six inches, the full length of the blade.

“You, Herish Zandi, have admitted to wielding the knife which was used to inflict the fatal wounds. You were not acting in self-defence and neither was anyone else.” The victim, of Nottingham Road, Somercotes died following an incident outside the Co-op on November 25, 2021.

Five men were initially on trial for the murder of Mr Sleman. They were Panahi, 23, of Kelvedon Gardens, St Anns, Nottingham; Zandi, 31, of Somercotes Hill, Somercotes; Mohammed Rasulli, 33, of Somercotes Hill, Somercotes; Mohazeri, 26, of Croydon Hill, Surrey and Mohamad Shekak, 21, also of Kelvedon Gardens, St Anns. All of them denied the charge and four weeks into the trial, the prosecution accepted a guilty plea to a lesser charge of manslaughter from Zandi and guilty pleas to violent disorder from Panahi and Mohazeri.

Any charges against the remaining two defendants were dropped. In a victim impact statement, the victim’s brother, Ibrahim Takmary, who was stabbed during the same incident, said: “He was not just my brother, he was my best friend and mentor, since childhood we have done everything together. The worst part of all was seeing Seba lying there in so much pain and agony.

I was just not able to save his life.” Panahi and Mohazeri were jailed for two years and 11 months.

Herish Zandi pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Somercotes barber Peshang Sleman, known as Seba Rash, who was knifed in a street brawl in Somercotes, Derbyshire.

He was jailed for nine years. (Image: Derbyshire police)

Zach Spencer

In May, a sentencing hearing was told how 22-year-old driver Zach Spencer had taken a combination of drugs when he veered into the opposite carriageway of the A6 in Derby and killed an “extra-special human being” who was in a taxi on her way home from hospital. Shirley Muirden was travelling back to her Belper home from the Royal Derby Hospital following a regular dialysis appointment when the cab she was in was hit head on by a VW being driven by the defendant. Jailing him for four years, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “It is clear to those who loved Shirley have been utterly crushed and you should take those (victim) statements and read them as a reminder of what you have caused.

But I accept you did not set out that day, take drugs, make a conscious decision to drive and injure or kill someone.”

The victim suffered fatal injuries in the collision on the A6 Burley Hill, near Allestree, after Emergency services[4] were called to the scene just after 11.20pm on the evening of Friday, June 3, last year. Ms Muirden was taken to hospital but died the following day. At the time of the crash, Spencer, also of Belper, was driving a Volkswagen Scirocco which collided with a taxi which contained Ms Muirden.

He said both cars were mechanically sound, the road was dry, the weather was good and neither vehicle was speeding. The taxi driver taking Ms Muirden home suffered multiple fractures to his leg while a passenger in Spencer’s car also received serious injuries and spent time in hospital. The defendant was found to be twice the legal limit for ketamine

A number of victim impact statements, made by Ms Muirden’s family and who were in court for the sentencing hearing, were read to the court. In them they told how she had suffered a number of medical issues since she was young but despite them was “very intelligent, very courageous and had a wicked sense of humour”. They told how she was independent, loved her family, was car mad and had spent 10 years restoring a Land Rover with her father which was almost ready to be driven.

Spencer, of Laund Hill, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, two counts of causing serious injury though dangerous driving and possession of ketamine. He has no previous convictions.

Zach Spencer killed Shirley Muirden in the collision (Image: Derbyshire Live / Family handout)

Michael Harrison

In May, child killer Michael Harrison was jailed for life for beating his 11-year-old son to death at their Derbyshire home. The 41-year-old attacked Mikey, punching him repeatedly to the body and causing a laceration to the youngster’s liver.

The killer then drove them both to a street close to Shipley Park and called an ambulance to say his victim had fallen out of a tree while they were playing hide and seek. He then cleared the property of all its belongings to cover his tracks. But a witness then came forward and told police a different version of how Mikey may have come to his death and a murder investigation was launched.

Jailing Harrison for life and telling him it would be 21-and-a-half years before he is eligible to apply for parole, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “

Peter Joyce KC, prosecuting, said shortly before 1.20pm on Saturday June 18, 2022 the defendant made an emergency 999 call to EMAS to report his son had fallen from a tree in Shipley Park, in Heanor. He said when emergency services arrived they found Mikey sitting in the front passenger seat of the defendant’s van. The prosecutor said: ” The little boy was struggling with his breathing.

He was taken to the QMC where, despite the best efforts, he was pronounced dead at 2.39pm. He was 11 years old and weighed three stone 11lbs.” A post-mortem examination concluded there was “multiple blunt force trauma and injuries to his face, head, arms, back and neck.” Harrison, who was living in Heanor at the time but is of Eaton Terrace in Mapperley, Nottingham, pleaded guilty to murder at a hearing on April 3 at the same court.

Michael Harrison has been sentenced for the murder of his son Mikey (Image: Derbyshire police)

Stephen Boden and Shannon Marsden

Also in May, a couple who murdered their 10-month-old baby boy by what the prosecutor said were “vicious assaults against a background of violence” were both jailed for life.

Stephen Boden and Shannon Marsden inflicted what a judge called “brutal assaults” on tiny Finley Boden in their “unsafe and unhygienic” Derbyshire home. The tiny youngster suffered 130 separate injuries, including 71 bruises and cuts, 57 bone fractures and two burns in the three weeks prior to his death, some up to two weeks old. And in hugely moving victim impact statements, one family member even described them as “monsters” saying “when Finley died, part of us died too”.

Jailing both for life and telling Boden it will be 29 years until he will be eligible to apply for parole and Marsden 27 years, Mrs Justice Tipples said: “What happened could only have been achieved by two people acting together.

“From all the evidence I am sure the fractures occurred on two separate occasions by sustained, brutal, assaults. By the evening of December 23 he was plainly dying. There was no subtlety, it was totally obvious to both of you.

“The last moments of his life were harrowing. Finley died in the early hours of Christmas Day, 2020, in his cot in the bedroom of your home. You both knew he was dying as a result of what you did to him.

You deliberately made sure he was not seen by anyone who could help him and I am sure you both knew Finley was dead when you called 999.” A five-month trial at Derby Crown Court heard how the murder took place at the couple’s home in Holland Road, Old Whittington, Derbyshire[5] , while Finley was in the sole care of the two defendants during the winter Covid lockdown in December 2020, 39 days after the tot was returned to their care. During it, neither defendant gave any plausible explanation as to how their son came by the injuries that led to his death and then tried to cover their tracks with lies in an attempt to avoid detection.

But after hearing all of the evidence, a jury unanimously found both Boden, 30, and Marsden, 22, guilty of Finley’s murder. Speaking after sentencing, Detective Inspector Steve Shaw said: “We have seen a mother and father jailed for what is, quite simply, an incomprehensible crime. The heart-breaking reality is that Finley’s last days would have been spent in immense pain – a fact that would have been abundantly clear to both his parents.

They knew that they were responsible for those injuries – and instead of doing the right thing and taking Finley to seek the urgent medical attention that he required – they took him shopping in Chesterfield town centre as though nothing were wrong. “I hope that for Finley’s wider family today brings a degree of closure – and that they can now focus on the happier times with Finley who was clearly a much loved, and very happy young boy, before those fateful days in December 2020.”

Finley Boden’s parents, Shannon Marsden and Stephen Boden, of Derbyshire, have been found guilty of the baby’s murder

Conrad Iyayi

In August, Conrad Iyayi was hailed for life after admitting to murdering his wife Katy Harris in Littleover in what the judge called “a brutal, frenzied killing and a needless death”. The 46-year-old plunged a knife seven times into the chest of the mum-of-three and has never offered an explanation as to why he chose to carry out the brutal slaying.

The body of the 52-year-old victim, an art teacher at a special school in Mickleover, was discovered half naked and face down in a pool of blood at the home she shared with the defendant and their young son Theo in Oak Crescent.

Tragically poor Theo, who has since disowned his father and taken his mother’s name, was asleep upstairs as his father murdered his mother. Jailing him for life and telling him it would be 18 years until he will be eligible to apply for parole, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “At the time of her violent death in February last year Kathryn was 52-years-old. She was a wife, the mother of your 11-year-old son, Theo, and a mother to Phoebe and Alexa.

“She was a loving daughter, a sister and a friend to many and was also a much-loved special needs teacher. You stabbed her to death, it was a brutal and frenzied killing and a needless death. “In truth only two people know what happened.

Kathryn is dead and can’t tell us and you have never really told the truth although it is possible drugs and alcohol may have played some part. “Death was not immediate, one stab wound divided her first rib consistent with moderate to severe force being used. There was a stab wound to her liver and slashing wounds to her neck.

“She had multiple wounds to her hands consistent with her trying, unsuccessfully, to fend you off. It appears she had been fighting for her life. What you did in the early hours of that morning ended the life of a much-loved woman and emptied the lives of many others.

Whatever happened she did not deserve to lose her life.” The killing took place during the night of February 5, 2022, into the early hours of February 6. Prosecutor Gordon Aspden KC said at the police station, after he was arrested, Iyayi gave a prepared statement in which he said he had bought methadone (a heroin substitute opiate) on the dark web around two-to-three weeks before the killing and had ingested some of it some time after 10.30pm on the night he murdered his wife.

He said as soon as he took it he realised it wasn’t methadone and instead was something else.

Conrad Iyayi murdered Katy Harris (Image: Derbyshire Police)

Craig Crouch and Emma Barton

Also in August, step-father Craig Crouch, who murdered a 10-month-old baby, was told he had shown “no remorse, no explanation and no apology” as he was jailed for life for killing his tiny victim. The 39-year-old was told what he did to little Jacob Crouch was “an abuse of trust of the most gross kind” as he was told it would be 28 years before he would be eligible to apply for parole. His then partner, and Jacob’s mother, Gemma Barton was jailed for 10 years for allowing her child to die at the hands of the defendant, who carried out “a cruelty of culture” against the newborn in the first part of his life.

When his lifeless body was discovered on the morning of December 30, 2020, at the couple’s then home near Swadlincote, he had suffered 39 rib fractures from a violent assault by his controlling tormentor.

Sentencing the pair, Mr Justice Kerr said: “Jacob was a small baby that had not yet learned to walk and talk. He could not defend himself. This was an abuse of trust of the most gross kind.

Over seven months you inflicted bruising then fractured ribs on this little baby. “It is profoundly depressing to say but you are something of an unlikely murderer. You have shown no remorse for what you did, no explanation and no apology.” A seven-week trial at Derby Crown Court heard how Barton, 33, and Crouch, met on a dating website in September 2019.

At the time she was four months pregnant with Jacob by another man – Andrew Smith – who never got to meet his son before he died. Within a short space of time Crouch – a forklift driver at JCB – had moved Barton away from her family and friends in Amber Valley to South Derbyshire and after Jacob was born the physical abuse of him began. A jury found Crouch, of Donisthorpe Lane, Moira, Swadlincote guilty of murder and Barton, of Ray Street, Heanor, guilty of a lesser charge causing or allowing the death of a child.

Jailing Barton, Mr Justice Kerr said: “You are widely considered to be a loving, thoughtful and considerate person. You did not act in that way. I am sure that during the evening of December 29/30, 2020 you became aware that Jacob had been seriously assaulted by Mr Crouch and you must have been aware some of the bruising went beyond accidental knocks and scrapes.

In my judgement, you allowed his death but you did not cause it which is more serious. You joined in a deliberate cover-up.”

Gemma Barton and Craig Crouch have been sentenced at Derby Crown Court this afternoon (Friday, August 4) (Image: Derbyshire police)

Finn Broderick

Finn Broderick tragically killed 85-year-old Margaret Wedd when “a momentary lapse in concentration” caused his silver Vauxhall Corsa to collide with a car the victim was a passenger in, in Acorn Way. A court heard how the 23-year-old had only passed his driving test two weeks before the incident which happened when he was driving down from his family home in Oakwood.

Mrs Wedd, also of Oakwood, was on her way home from a family meal in Nottingham with her son Paul in the driving seat. The defendant, who was not speeding and had no drugs or alcohol in his system, clipped a kerb which sent his vehicle across the white line and into the silver Suzuki Mr Wedd was driving.

In a victim impact statement Rachel Pickering, Mrs Wedd’s daughter, said she has “no ill feelings” towards Broderick and that she did not want him to be sent to prison as it “will not bring mum back”. Mrs Pickering said: “When I found out the young man had pleaded guilty to the charges I was so relieved.

I do not hold a grudge or bear any ill feelings towards the other driver. I don’t feel a prison sentence will make me feel any better or bring mum back.” Handing Broderick, now of Leeds, a six-month sentence, suspended for a year, District Judge Jonathan Taaffe said he recognised that the defendant was genuinely remorseful for what he had done and “probably wishes he could turn the clock back”.

He said: “This is a young man who asks himself every day ‘how and why?’ and what purpose would a sentence of immediate prison serve? It would punish and further devastate the Broderick family.” Broderick, formerly of Oakwood and now of Hadden Avenue, Burley, Leeds, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving and causing serious injury by careless driving.

He has no previous convictions. As part of the suspended sentence order, Judge Taaffe ordered Broderick to carry out 200 hours unpaid work. He also ordered him to pay GBP85 costs, a GBP154 victim surcharge and disqualified him from driving for three years.”

Finn Broderick leaving Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court (Image: Derbyshire Live)

Omar Moumeche

In November, 18-year-old Omar Moumeche was sent to a young offender’s institute for two years for killing a “much-loved” 82-year-old former soldier with a single punch at the bus station.

In a victim impact statement, Derby Crown Court heard how the family of victim Dennis Clarke “have just been left with a feeling of emptiness” since his death which was caused by then 16-year-old defendant. The teenager, of James Close, felled the pensioner in May, 2021, following an altercation in the former Eagle Market. Mr Clarke was on his way home from shopping when he was struck in the bus station, hit his head in the fall, and died nine days later in hospital.

Sending the defendant to youth custody for two years, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “On May 6, 2021, the worlds of three young people and Dennis Clarke collided at what is now the Derbion centre directly opposite this crown court.

Dennis Clarke lost his life and that he did, the jury decided Omar Moumeche, was as a result of a deliberate punch delivered in anger albeit momentarily.

POLL: Is the government doing enough to help with the cost of living?[6]

“You could have walked away but you decided to get involved and shortly before you delivered the blow an 82-year-old man was surrounded by three youngsters and you struck him with a deliberate blow.”

Omar Moumeche has been jailed (Image: Derbyshire Police)

References

1. ^ Derbyshire (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
2. ^ Chesterfield (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
3. ^ Derby Crown Court (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
4. ^ Emergency services (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
5. ^ Holland Road, Old Whittington, Derbyshire (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
6. ^ POLL: Is the government doing enough to help with the cost of living? (xd.wayin.com)