From murderers to sex offenders, it has been a busy month for the crown courts which deal with north Essex cases.
Among the criminals to appear before judges are the leaders of a drug dealing syndicate and a man who strangled his relative to death.
Here is a round-up of the cases heard so far this month.
Leighton Snook and Tyler Love
A KILLER who strangled his uncle and stole firearms in a “brutal” burglary was sentenced to life imprisonment and will serve a minimum of 30 years behind bars.
Leighton Snook, 28, strangled and beat 83-year-old Donald Ralph at the victim’s Aldham home in December last year.
He enlisted the help of 17-year-old Tyler Love.
Snook had hatched a plan to steal firearms from his relative Mr Ralph, hoping to sell them on to clear a debt he claimed he had accrued with drug dealers.
Ipswich Crown Court heard Snook was “the confidence trickster”, who used the fact he was known to Mr Ralph to gain entry to his bungalow, where he lived alone.
At a sentencing hearing, Judge Martyn Levett said: “Once inside, you lowered your face mask and within a matter of moments you grabbed hold of him, punched him and strangled him to death.”
Love’s role in the burglary was to “act as a lookout, provide backup for the violence if necessary, or to reinforce any threat of violence by showing a knife if needs be”.
Two guns, a Ruger selfloading .22 calibre rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun, were stolen from Mr Ralph’s house and the pair fled the scene in their victim’s Volvo.
Despite Judge Levett’s plea for both defendants to reveal information which could help to trace the weapons, both remained silent.
Snook was convicted of murder and burglary after a trial, while Love was cleared of murder, but convicted of manslaughter. He admitted burglary ahead of the trial.
Snook was also sentenced for two counts of theft of a motor vehicle after he stole cars from dealerships in Colchester and Kesgrave, in Suffolk, as well as for possession of a knife found on him upon his arrest.
Isabella Forshall QC, for Snook, described the events as a “horribly gone wrong burglary where an old man bravely put up a fight”.
She said Snook had used cocaine from a “young age”.
Christopher Paxton QC, for Love, said a report described the boy as “easily led”.
He said the youngster played a “minor role” in the incident.
Sentencing Snook, of Albrighton Croft, Colchester, to life with a minimum of 30 years before he can be considered for parole, the judge said: “It was a brutal way to kill another human being, he was an elderly man in his 80s, who lived on his own and was obviously vulnerable, but in good health and had every prospect of living until he was 100 years old.”
Love, of Darien Way, Leicester, was sentenced to eight years detention in a young offenders’ institution, taking into account strict sentencing guidelines for sentencing youths and for manslaughter.
Shannon O'Boyle and Donovan Core
DRUG dealers ran an operation bringing crack cocaine and heroin into Colchester by taking over a vulnerable woman’s home.
The leader of the drug line, Shannon O’Boyle, ran the operation alongside right-hand man Donovan Core.
The pair, both from Northampton, took over the home of a woman in Colchester to serve as a base of operations.
They made her feel unsafe and even told her to tell police they were relatives who were visiting if she was ever asked.
But on March 31 this year, specialist officers from Essex Police’s Operation Raptor North team attended the woman’s home and found them in possession of a known “County Line” phone number.
They also found more than £1,000 in cash and £2,350 worth of drugs hidden in the home, including in the woman’s toilet.
When tested, the drugs proved to be 199 wraps of cocaine and 85 wraps of heroin.
When questioned, O’Boyle denied having any connection to the drugs line while Donovan replied “no comment” to all questions.
O’Boyle, 27, of Townsend Close, Wellingborough, was charged with being concerned in the supply of heroin, concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and possession of cannabis.
Core, 26, of The Rylstone, Wellingborough, was charged with being concerned in the supply of heroin amd concerned in the supply of crack cocaine.
The pair admitted all counts and were sentenced at Northampton Crown Court on September 30.
O’Boyle was handed four years and six months in prison, while Core, 26, of The Rylstone, Wellingborough, was sentenced to 33 months behind bars.
Police say the vulnerable woman has been safeguarded.
Det Sgt Tom Coppin, of Op Raptor North, said: “These two men were playing a significant part in Class A drug supply in Colchester and in doing so, they preyed upon a vulnerable woman and took over her home, as and when they wanted to use it, as a base to run their operation in the town.
“But they were found out.
“Drugs wreck the lives of those who take them and those who sell them – and their families.”
Sheldon McKay and Phoenix Lee
MURDERERS who stabbed an aspiring rapper to death after kicking down his front door have been handed life sentences.
Alinjavwa Siwale, 22, also known as Mr Essex and Swizzino, died in the kitchen of his Colchester home on December 11 last year after suffering stab wounds.
Mr Siwale’s brother Suwi was also at the home, in Affleck Road, and suffered a stab wound to his head.
Sheldon Kay, 25, and Phoenix Lee, 20, both of no fixed address, had denied murder, but were found guilty by a jury.
At a sentencing hearing, Judge Christopher Morgan passed life sentences on both defendants.
Lee will serve a minimum of 24 years and McKay a minimum of 23 years before either can be considered for parole.
Judge Morgan said: “These violent offences took place in the victim’s home address.
“It is undisputed that from that address Jav Siwale was from time-to-time dealing drugs, but that is no justification for what was to happen in the early hours of December 11 last year.”
He added: “The CCTV material makes plain Sheldon McKay, a person unknown to Jav and Suwi, was tasked with knocking on the front door to establish the presence of Jav.
“Once that presence was established by Jav looking through the upstairs front window, it was Mr Lee who then kicked the door open.
“McKay followed within seconds and I’m satisfied from viewing CCTV material that moments before entry he removed an article from his waistband, I’m satisfied that was a knife.”
Judge Morgan added: “In less than two minutes the two of you had entered the house and inflicted multiple slash and stab injuries, including the two deep penetrating stab wounds to Jav’s chest and one through his armpit and through his chest.
“I recognise at the time he had a home-made shank in his hand.
“However, in the circumstances of two men forcing their way into his house, his possession can only have been to fight off the intruders, not as a weapon of aggression.
“The wounds he inflicted on each of you were inflicted in a desperate attempt to fight off the attack, the knife blade broke in his desperate attempt to survive those blows from the knife or knives you were carrying.”
The court heard during the trial the two assailants booted their way into the property in Affleck Road and carried out a swift attack spanning less than three minutes.
Suwi jumped over a neighbouring fence to get help.
When police arrived on the scene, officers established the front door had been forced open and a search of the Greenstead area began.
Just after 3am, a call was made to the police from a house in Teal Close, reporting someone had been knocking at the back door of the property for several hours.
An officer from the Essex Police Dog Unit was first on scene, and he detained McKay in the garden of the property.
His bloody clothes were seized and he was arrested on suspicion of murder.
McKay was later forensically linked via his clothing to the DNA of the victim Alinjavwa.
Further inquiries with McKay’s associates led to the arrest of Lee.
Both men, of no fixed address, were charged with murder and committing grievous bodily harm with intent.
They were found guilty on all charges following a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, despite claiming they acted in self defence.
CCTV showed the pair forcing open the front door, which was unsecure following a previous police raid.
Glen Luckhurst, Sean Middler and Manuel Clark
MASKED robbers armed with a crowbar and screwdriver who stole a samurai sword in a violent raid have been locked up for a combined 17 years.
Armed trio Glen Luckhurst, 39, Sean Middler, 38, and Manuel Clark, 32, burst through the front door of a home in Hawthorn Avenue, Colchester, in February last year. They pounced while two occupants were letting themselves into the property between 2.15am and 2.30am.
Ipswich Crown Court heard once inside, the trio “instilled fear” in the two men, shouting ‘Where’s the money?’.
One of the men was punched and struck with a crowbar, causing him to lose consciousness.
The other had a screwdriver held to his face.
After the three robbers fled, they jumped into a car driven by 47-year-old Francis Ward.
The car was later stopped on Greenstead Road, Colchester, at 3.10am, with police finding stolen items, including a samurai sword and mobile phones.
Judge Emma Peters said while the motive behind the raid remained unclear, she was in little doubt it was “all about drugs”.
“It does seem to have at its root the misery of Class A drugs,” she said.
She said victim impact statements “described the fear and anxiety, the tears and the flashbacks” each man suffered following the robbery.
Luckhurst, of Greenstead Road, Colchester, Middler, of Wilkin Court, Colchester, and Clark, of Poplar Hall Close, Colchester, admitted robbery.
Ward, of Wilkin Court, admitted assisting an offender, on the basis he only realised a serious offence had been committed once the three thugs bundled back into his car and ordered him to drive.
The court heard in mitigation the three robbers had remained in custody throughout the coronavirus pandemic, enduring tough conditions.
Jack Talbot, for Clark, said his client was working as a receptionist greeting other prisoners while in custody and retained the support of his family.
Kevin Toomey, for Middler, said his client had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2016, with medication now working well.
The court heard he is now clean from drugs.
In a letter to the judge, Ward apologised, adding he was “devastated he could be so stupid”.
Ward said the incident had “kick started” a desire to get clean from drugs.
Luckhurst was jailed for six years and four months, Middler for five years and six months and Clark for five years.
Ward was sentenced to 20 months suspended for two years, with conditions to complete a drug rehabilitation programme and a 40-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
He was excluded from the Greenstead area of Colchester.
Tyler Menzies
A TEENAGER who took a knife into Colchester town centre to rob someone “just for the thrill of it”
has been judged a dangerous offender after he stabbed a stranger.
Tyler Menzies, 18, stabbed 63-year-old Paul Fairweather in Crouch Street, Colchester, in May.
Ipswich Crown Court heard the victim had been out on the town with a friend and had ended the night at Rubix nightclub.
He emerged from the club in the early hours of the morning, before heading across the road to get some food.
David Baird, prosecuting, said: “Their mood was very good because they came out of the nightclub singing an 80s song.”
Menzies, sitting with two other youngsters near a kebab shop, “did not take very kindly to the singing or activities of Mr Fairweather”.
A verbal confrontation ensued, before Menzies drew a knife and lunged at Mr Fairweather.
The teenager fled the scene and was found a short distance away in a car park by a police officer.
The five-inch blade with a serrated edge, was found nearby. In hospital, Mr Fairweather received stitches to a single puncture wound to his chest.
The court heard Menzies carried out the stabbing while under a youth referral order, after he was found to be carrying a nineinch blade in public in November last year.
He admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon.
Sasha Bailey, mitigating, said Menzies was open to undertaking therapy to deal with the trauma he suffers following a difficult childhood.
She said Menzies, of Walsingham Road, Colchester, had “found solace” in Islam while in prison.
“He explained to me eloquently he finds peace now,” she said.
Judge Martyn Levett called the stabbing “just one more case in a catalogue of violent incidents which blight the streets of our towns”.
He said Menzies had taken a knife out that night “to rob someone just for the thrill”.
“You stabbed Paul Fairweather for no apparent reason at all, apart from his singing,” he said.
Judge Levett said in police interview, Menzies accepted he had been “caught red-handed”.
He added: “But all you could do was laugh and say you didn’t have any regrets for what you did”.
Menzies received a prison sentence of four years and four months, with an extended five years licence period.
Arjun Jadeja, Joshua Walpole and Benjamin Gosbell
LEADERS of a drugs gang which took over the homes of vulnerable users and covered for a killer who stabbed a man to death have been jailed for a total of ten years.
Arjun Jadeja, 20, Joshua Walpole, 26, and Benjamin Gosbell, 23, headed a drug-dealing operation across a four-month period in 2018.
A court heard the trio were responsible for running the ‘Rico and Frank’ drug syndicate in Colchester and Ipswich.
Their involvement in the operation was unravelled over the course of a series of raids.
The searches led to the seizure of drugs valued at £11,000, alongside £7,000 in cash.
The first seizure was made in September 2018, when a Ford Transit van was stopped in Spring Lane, Colchester.
The van was driven by Gosbell and Jadeja was a passenger. Inside, officers found 149g of cannabis, as well as a Rambo-style knife.
In October 2018, a housing association reported a property in Brook Street, Colchester, had been taken over by members of the group and the occupant forced out.
Police officers went on to recover heroin and crack cocaine in a raid.
The court heard the property was “replete” with weapons, including machetes, tear gas and a submachine gun-style BB gun, as well as stab vests, balaclavas and cash.
The fingerprints of Jadeja and Walpole were recovered from a board used to cut drugs with caffeine and paracetamol.
In December 2019, Gosbell and Jadeja helped fellow gang member Kieran Hayward after he knifed 32-year-old Daniel Saunders to death in Ipswich in December 2018.
Prosecutor Matthew SorelCameron said: “During the conspiracy the drug line was a profitable and highly-organised operation.”
Jadeja and Gosbell, both of HMP Norwich, and Walpole, of Orchard Way, Chigwell, each admitted conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.
Jadeja admitted possession of cannabis with intent to supply.
Walpole also admitted possession with intent to supply cannabis and cocaine in relation to a separate incident in Tower Hamlets, London.
Gosbell and Jadeja received prison sentences of two years and nine months, while Walpole was jailed for five years and three months.
Joseph Gamble
A PERVERT who discussed engaging in sex acts with a doll he pretended was a child hoped to meet and abuse a 12-year-old girl while her mother watched.
In an adult chatroom, Joseph Gamble, 42, chatted with a woman he knew as “Becky”, who was in truth an undercover police officer.
She pretended to be the mother of a 12-year-old girl named “Lizzie” and over the course of a number of conversations, Gamble spoke of his desire to engage in sex acts with the child while “Becky” watched.
Conversations took place during late May and early June 2019, first in the internet chatroom before progressing to Skype and telephone contact.
Sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court, Judge Timothy Walker said: “You thought the person you were talking to was the mother of a 12-year-old girl.
“You sought sexual contact with that child, indeed you thought you were communicating with the child.
“You discussed engaging in sexual acts with a sex doll, you said you pretended that was a child.
“You then engaged in sexual conversation with the person you thought was the child, the 12-year-old.”
On arrest, Gamble, who has three convictions for three offences of an unrelated nature, was found to have two indecent images of children, at Category B and C, on his phone.
In interview, he said he believed “it was all a fantasy” on the part of “Becky” and denied he had any sexual interest in children.
After a trial, Gamble, of Parkside Quarter, Colchester, was convicted of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, publishing an obscene article and two counts of making an indecent image of a child.
Jerry Hayes, mitigating, described his client as a “tragic” figure.
He added: “He’s estranged from his children, he’s lost just about everything as a result of these acts, which he bitterly regrets.”
He was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment.
He will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order and will remain on the sex offender’s register for life.
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