A man involved in recruiting lorry drivers to assist in people smuggling was placed behind bars.
Nicusor Lacatus, 53, from Romania, worked on behalf of a UK-based criminal network to find hauliers willing to move migrants between Dover and Calais.
A picture of Nicusor Lacatus was locked up for six years. Picture: NCA
He was arrested by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers in November at Folkestone’s Stop 24 service station on the M20 as he prepared to leave the UK.
Lacatus was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting facilitating illegal immigration at Canterbury Crown Court.
One of the drivers he recruited was stopped by officers in Dover in September, where 22 migrants were discovered in the back of an HGV.
The driver, Iosif Sebastian Haprian, 40, was jailed for three years in December for people smuggling offences.
A bundle of cash totalling £3,600 was also found in his truck, believed to be payment for the journey.
Phone evidence later revealed Haprian had been in contact with Lacatus in the lead-up to the incident.
Martin Creed
A domestic abuser who threatened to kill the mother of three of his children and burn her family’s house down was jailed.
But the father of Martin Creed’s victim said “justice has not been served”, after he admitted abusing his partner of eight years in a caravan in Shurland Holiday Park on Sheppey.
Martin Creed who threatened to kill the mother of three of his children, was jailed. Picture: Kent Police
The 33-year-old, of Musgrave Road, Sittingbourne, was sentenced for his “horrendous” crimes at Maidstone Crown Court, which heard how he isolated his victim from her family for more than three years, leaving her mother to fear she would never see her again.
Then, in a chance encounter on May 9 last year, the victim saw her brother and dad in Eastchurch as they had been searching for her since contact. Her father later told KentOnline that his daughter and her children were “dirty, starving and riddled with lice”, so he gave her £50 to buy them some food and asked her to meet her mother on May 12.
She agreed to meet her mum, but when she told Creed on May 11, he unleashed a “torrent of abuse” on her, and told her: “Over my dead body are you meeting your mum, and threatened to kill her and burn the caravan and her family’s home down.
The court also heard his attack included dragging her by the hair across the living room, leaving bald patches on her scalp, slapping her and assaulting her in the garden. It all took place while the three children, now aged six, four and one, were in the caravan.
Creed was later arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, threatening to kill with children present and stalking involving serious alarm or distress and he admitted the offences on the first day of his trial and was jailed for two years and two months.
He was also made subject to a restraining order, which bans him from contacting the victim and her family directly or indirectly for an indefinite period and he is not allowed to contact his children until they have turned 18.
Gary Fishlock
A “desperate” stonemason who tried to rob a bank with a vape to “put a roof over his head” after losing his job, home and long-term partner was jailed for two years.
Gary Fishlock was said to be in a “personal crisis” when he walked into the HSBC branch at Westwood Cross shopping centre in Broadstairs, handed over a note demanding money and gestured that he had a gun in his jacket pocket.
Gary Fishlock attempted to rob an HSBC branch with a vape disguised as a gun. Picture: Kent Police
It was following his arrest that his “melancholy tale” was revealed, Canterbury Crown Court heard, and Fishlock, of Shottendane Road, Birchington, later admitted charges of attempted robbery and possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
At the wannabe raider’s sentencing hearing earlier this month, prosecutor Paul Valder explained how bank clerk Eleanor Gater was confronted at about 2.30pm on the day in question and her role was to greet customers at her “podium” near the automatic entrance doors and deal with their initial enquiries, passing them on to colleagues seated behind screens.
But, having asked the bespectacled gentleman dressed in blue trousers and a green jacket how she could help him, he promptly handed over a piece of paper on which he had written “I have a gun, put the money in the bag.”
“It was clear from CCTV that his right hand was in the pocket of his jacket and it would appear to be within that pocket that he was holding the vape,” explained Mr Valder, “It could have been mistaken for the muzzle of some sort of firearm, although it was never actually produced during the attempted robbery.”
Describing the clerk as “understandably taken aback” by the demand, the prosecutor said she sent a message via her laptop to colleague Tanya Pinn and pressed her personal attack alarm.
The court heard that despite Fishlock’s criminal record of 13 previous convictions for 29 offences, including ones for robbery in 1981, wounding in 1984, and causing grievous bodily harm in 1989, he had led a law-abiding life since 2003, but his life came crashing down last year following the sudden breakdown of his 14-year relationship, making him homeless. He then lost his job.
Mario Pascoal
Dramatic footage showed the moment a violent drug dealer was arrested after chasing a person with a knife through a town centre.
Police detained Mario Pascoal after being called to Maidstone High Street to reports of a man armed with a weapon at 8.43pm on December 27.
Drug dealer Mario Pascoal, 35, was jailed. Picture: Kent Police
Officers arrived but the 35-year-old had already fled. The police control room reviewed CCTV, which showed the direction the suspect had gone, and it was passed to the responding officers, who continued their pursuit.
They spotted a brave member of the public who had chased after the offender and was signalling to the police where he had gone. He directed them to Broadway underpass, where officers chased Pascoal on foot.
In the video, released by police, an officer can be seen wielding a taser and heard shouting “police officer! Taser!” and “stay where you are,” and Pascoal was then tackled to the floor and arrested near Maidstone Crown Court, where he would later be jailed.
The arrest was made four minutes after the initial 999 call, but before he was put in handcuffs, Pascoal was spotted throwing a weapon and a duffel bag into the river.
Officers used a broom to retrieve the bag, which contained class A and class B drugs, two mobile phones, cash and a leather holder used to store a weapon, and a review of the phones revealed a number of messages consistent with drug supply.
Pascoal of Cranbrook Road in Thorton Heath, London, was charged and admitted supplying class A drugs, affray, possession of an offensive weapon and possession with intent to supply class B drugs. He was jailed for two years and nine months.
Tyla Wanstall
A violent thug who found his mum and teenage sister dead in his burger van was jailed after a judge said the trauma he experienced did not excuse a sustained campaign of abuse against his girlfriend.
Tyla Wanstall subjected his partner to months of threats, violence and controlling behaviour, leaving her with physical injuries and at one point fearing she would be thrown from a bridge.
Tyla Wanstall was locked up earlier this month after a sustained campaign of abuse against his girlfriend
Canterbury Crown Court heard he had struggled with PTSD after discovering his loved ones’ lifeless bodies after they died of carbon monoxide poisoning at his Whitstable snack wagon in February 2023.
But while accepting he had “suffered considerably”, Judge Simon James said it was “difficult to equate” his mental health problems with the “protracted and serious abuse” he went on to inflict and the court heard that over a prolonged period from September 2024, Wanstall subjected his victim to “regular and methodical” attempts to control her life, as well as death threats and acts of violence peppered with “a degree of degradation and humiliation.”
These included spitting in her face, calling her a slag, punching her in the arm, face and stomach, striking her with a stool, repeatedly accusing her of cheating and bombarding her with calls from an unknown number after she blocked him.
On one occasion, he was said to be “beside himself with rage” when he threatened to “snap her jaw” and kill their pet and during another temper outburst, he dragged the terrified woman by her hair to the edge of a bridge,leaving her fearing she would be thrown over railings before he retorted she “wasn’t worth going to jail for” and pushed her away.
Wanstall, of Thanet Way, was arrested in August last year and initially gave a ‘no comment’ interview. He was later charged and admitted multiple charges, including assault by beating, controlling/coercive behaviour, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and making a threat to kill.
However, on jailing Wanstall for three years, Judge Simon James said he was “unconvinced” that his conduct was entirely attributable to his poor mental health.
Keith Cranley, Darren Adams, D’Quan Samuel, Tyresse Johnson, Ainsley Louis-Jean and Solomon Howard
Six men who took part in a violent and terrifying house raid two days before Christmas, which left brothers seriously injured from a “savage” beating, were jailed for a total of 67 years.
Keith Cranley and Darren Adams provided transport to and from the targeted property in Coxheath, near Maidstone, while D’Quan Samuel, Ainsley Louis-Jean, Solomon Howard and Tyresse Johnson were among five masked intruders who forced their way in armed with weapons, including a machete and crowbar.
Clockwise from top left, Keith Cranley, Darren Adams, D’Quan Samuel, Tyresse Johnson, Ainsley Louis-Jean and Solomon Howard. Pictures: Kent Police
Ring doorbell footage captured the mob piling into the property to the sound of breaking glass, followed by the screams and shouts as two occupants, Dean and Ben Sharp, came under ferocious attack.
Ben Sharp’s partner and six-month-old baby were also in the house at the time. The brothers bravely fought back, leaving three of the raiders sporting injuries as they fled with their loot – an Amazon-labelled cardboard box containing 2-3kg of cannabis and a Tissot watch.
Five of those involved later denied a charge of aggravated burglary but were unanimously convicted in October last year after a five-week trial at Maidstone Crown Court. Johnson had pleaded guilty to the same offence as long ago as May last year.
Two of the offenders – Cranley and Louis-Jean – appeared in the dock with the remaining four via prison video link to learn their fates for what was described as “active participation in a significantly well-planned, well-organised joint venture” that left their victims’ lives “changed forever”.
Cranley, 42, Adams, 28, and 25-year-old Samuel – all of Shipwrights Avenue, Chatham – were each jailed for 12 years and Louis-Jean, also 25, of Wiltshire Close, Chatham, was jailed for 11 years and three months, while Howard, 24, of Meresborough Road, Gillingham, was jailed for 11 years.
Johnson, also 24, of Challenger Close, Rainham, was jailed for nine years, having been given credit for his guilty plea.
To read more of our in-depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates’ courts across the county, click here.
To see who was locked up in March, click here.
Michelle Sutcliffe
CCTV caught the moment an arsonist started a rubbish fire beneath a block of flats, causing several cars to go up in flames, before walking away.
Michelle Sutcliffe entered the parking area below Carton House in New Road, Chatham, just after midnight on December 13.
Michelle Sutcliffe, 40, of Lester Road, Chatham, was jailed for two years and two months. Picture: Kent Police
The 40-year-old deliberately set a pile of rubbish alight between two parked cars, before walking away as the fire spread. Video footage captured at the time showed a Jaguar engulfed in flames, along with other parked cars.
Residents living in the block of flats feared there had been an explosion below their homes, and were said to have screamed and banged on doors to raise the alarm.
The fire caused extensive damage to the vehicles and also led to light fixtures falling from the ceiling of the parking area.
Following a review of CCTV footage, Sutcliffe was clearly identified as the offender and was arrested on December 19.
She was later charged with arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered.
Sutcliffe, of Lester Road, Chatham, pleaded guilty and was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court for two years and two months.
Sabinson Selimaj
Body-worn footage captured the moment a drug dealer attempted to flush his mobile phone down the toilet as police raided his home.
Asylum seeker Sabinson Selimaj was found locked in a room by police at a Tunbridge Wells property and wrapping cocaine.
Sabinson Selimaj, 28, was jailed for his part in a drugs operation. Picture: Kent Police
The 28-year-old was one of four men charged with drug offences after a bust at a property in Scotts Way, Tunbridge Wells, on October 2.
Selimaj, who is originally from Albania, was found with 171g of high-purity cocaine, as well as a fake Romanian driving licence and £19,745 in cash. During a sentencing hearing at Maidstone Crown Court, the court heard how officers spotted a drug deal in the town’s Quarry Road, before raiding the Scotts Way house.
Selimaj was in a locked room at the property trying to break and flush his phone down the toilet and was later charged with possession of cocaine with the intent to supply and possession of criminal property and pleaded guilty to the offences in court the following day.
Selimaj claimed he was offered a place to stay and locked in the room by others and told to store and wrap cocaine, as well as hold onto the money until it was collected. The court heard he was someone of previous good character who was vulnerable.
Recorder Deanna Heer KC was told how Selimaj’s application for asylum had recently been rejected, and he had no right to remain in the UK. Addressing him before sentence, she said: “You must have had an awareness of the scale of the operation you were involved in.”
Selimaj was sentenced to 28 months in prison and he will serve half in custody and the rest on licence. A POCA application was made for the cash, and the drugs were ordered to be forfeited and destroyed.
Shaun Cloke and Rio Cox
Dramatic footage showed the moment police arrested two men following a high-speed pursuit after jewellery and a Porsche were stolen during a burglary.
Shaun Cloke, 35 and Rio Cox, 22, were jailed after they broke into the property in Cliff Road, Birchington, on January 14.
Shaun Cloke and Rio Cox were both locked up. Pictures Kent Police
Police were alerted to the theft, and the stolen Porsche Macan was soon located by patrols on the A299 Thanet Way, where officers flagged the vehicle to stop.
The Porsche continued travelling erratically and at speed, pursued by patrols, and collided with a Tesla in a failed attempt to undertake.
Shortly after the collision, the stolen car came to a halt on a slip-road and Cox and Cloke fled on foot. They were swiftly detained, and both were charged the following day.
The vehicle was returned to its owner, as were items of stolen jewellery recovered from the vehicle. Cloke and Cox pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court to burglary and aggravated vehicle taking, and Cox also admitted dangerous driving.
Earlier this month, Cloke, formerly of Lark Row in Hackney, was jailed for two years and two months.
Cox, formerly of Guerin Square in Bow, was imprisoned for two years, and his sentence took into account two burglaries he carried out in Sussex in August and December 2025.
Michelle Sanna
A former Kent Police detective sergeant who plotted with her two children to delay her son’s arrest for his involvement in a head-on crash with an ambulance was jailed.
Disgraced cop Michelle Sanna threw away her 29-year career when, together with Macauley Sanna and his sister Mollie Sanna, she made concerted efforts to impede the then 18-year-old boy’s apprehension.
Michelle Sanna was jailed for perverting the course of justice
These included spinning a web of lies about not having contact with the teenager or knowing of his whereabouts, even when he was at the family home, and switching off phones for several hours to avoid detection. Maidstone Crown Court heard police had launched a manhunt for Macauley after his driving led to a collision in Badsell Road, Paddock Wood, in the early hours of March 5, 2022.
The crash caused significant damage to both vehicles and injured the two-man ambulance crew. Instead of staying at the scene, he fled on foot, leaving behind his girlfriend, and immediately sought help from his mum and sister – actions which led to Michelle being fired by Kent Police for gross misconduct and landed all three in the court dock.
At the heart of their offending, said the prosecution, was an ultimately successful attempt to prevent the teen, who had been drinking beer and spirits prior to the crash, from being subjected to alcohol testing and potential drink-driving related charges, and it was not until 16 hours after the collision that he was finally detained with the assistance of his father, himself a serving officer with the Metropolitan Police.
Michelle, Macauley, 22, and Mollie, 19, who all live in Five Oak Green, Tonbridge, subsequently admitted conspiracy to pervert the course of justice – an offence carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and at their sentencing hearing on April 8, the single mum of two was described by her lawyer as having made “a stupid decision motivated by misguided protectiveness.”
However, Judge Daniel Stevenson told the 51-year-old that she had not only played a leading role in the conspiracy – one that she “could have ended before it began” – but had also “influenced” her children, “co-ordinated” what was happening between them and used her “knowledge and experience” of collision investigations.
The court heard Macauley, now 22, had been drinking up to less than 30 minutes before he decided to set off for a drive, and he was finally arrested at Pembury Hospital after being taken there, seriously unwell from a back injury, by his dad, Mark Sanna.
Judge Daniel Stevenson jailed Michelle for 15 months and Macauley was given an 11-month jail term suspended for 18 months with 160 hours of unpaid work, 20 rehabilitation sessions and an alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement for 120 days. Mollie was handed a nine-month prison sentence, also suspended for 18 months and with 160 hours of unpaid work.
Thomas Douglas
A man who swung a hammer in the street, threatened neighbours and stole shopping bags from a car was jailed.
Thomas Douglas, 37, admitted a string of offences including threatening behaviour, shoplifting, cocaine possession, racially abusing a police officer and failing to surrender to custody.
Thomas Douglas was jailed for a year. Picture Kent Police
Folkestone Magistrates’ Court heard his first spate of offending began on July 23, 2024, when he targeted parked vehicles in Canterbury. Douglas, of The Hyde, Bolts Hill, Chartham, stole a reel of string and shopping bags from one car before later taking a set of keys from another unlocked vehicle.
He was also seen interfering with an Audi and a Mercedes later the same day. He had denied the vehicle-related offences but was convicted after trial. His sentencing was adjourned so the case could be dealt with alongside further offences he had admitted the previous month.
Magistrates heard that a separate incident on August 14, 2024, saw Douglas walking along The Hyde in Chartham swinging a hammer and behaving aggressively. When officers arrived, he had to be restrained and racially abused one PC, leaving the victim alarmed.
Magistrates were also told how, on October 28, 2024, Douglas threatened a neighbour and her son at Chartham railway station in Station Road while drinking vodka from an open bottle
The court also heard Douglas stole £35.55 worth of washing products from the Co-op in Oxford Street, Whitstable, on July 24 and he also failed to show up for court hearings on September 15 and 25. He was later arrested in Herne Bay with cocaine.
He was jailed for 12 months for possessing the hammer, with concurrent 26-week sentences for the threatening behaviour offences and received no separate penalties for the remaining offences, but was made to pay compensation to the Co-op.
Sarah Cooper
A drunk bus passenger who verbally abused a police officer with highly offensive racial slurs, including “chocolate face” and the ‘N’ word, was jailed.
Sarah Cooper, described as “a chronic alcoholic and pathetic figure likely to kill herself” through drink, targeted the female constable after she and a colleague responded to a disturbance in Brompton, near Gillingham, on March 3 this year.
Sarah Cooper was jailed after verbally abusing a police officer. Photo: Kent Police
Maidstone Crown Court heard that a bus driver was forced to pull over and call for help to deal with the disruptive, threatening and aggressive 47-year-old on board his vehicle, but when a police constable and a fellow officer arrived, they were soon met with a torrent of vile and lewd remarks as they tried to arrest Cooper.
The many racist insults made at the roadside, en route to custody and then once at North Kent police station included a reference to “darkies” as well as repeatedly calling her a “f***ing black c**t” and “black bitch”, and the court heard the racially abused police constable, who was just six weeks into her job, was “deeply wounded” by Cooper’s behaviour.
However, despite assertions that the defendant was now “desperately embarrassed, full of remorse and regret” and ready to tackle her drink misuse, Judge Julian Smith decided immediate imprisonment was the only option.
Speaking to Cooper in the dock, he told her that not only had her foul language been “dredged up from the pit where it is confined and should remain,” but it could not be blamed on her intoxication.
Although Cooper, of Ramsgate Road, Broadstairs, admitted an offence of racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress, the court heard she has no recollection of the incident and did not know why she was on that particular bus, other than she may have been going to see her mum.
Cooper, who has 19 previous convictions for 44 offences including assaults on emergency workers, criminal damage, battery and exposure, was jailed for 12 months and will searve 40% of the term before being released.
David Whitehall
A prolific child sex abuser punched an officer in the face after police discovered he had bought a new phone and started sending explicit images to young victims online.
David Whitehall, from Dover, was subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order after being convicted for possession of indecent pictures of children at Canterbury Crown Court in September 2016.
Prolific child sex offender David Whitehall, from Dover, was jailed. Picture: Kent Police
But after officers found he had bought a new smartphone and had started communicating with children online, they visited his home on January 16. He was arrested and punched an officer in the face and attempted to kick and shove additional officers who arrived to assist.
The 37-year-old’s internet-enabled devices were later examined, and it was found that he was sending explicit photos of himself while speaking to young people.
The paedophile was also requesting inappropriate images in return and investigators also located multiple indecent images of children and 27 videos of the most serious category.
Whitehall was charged with eight offences, including making an indecent photograph of a child and assaulting an emergency worker.
He was remanded in custody and pleaded guilty during his first hearing at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court the following day.
Whitehall appeared at Canterbury Crown Court earlier this month, where he was jailed for three years and two months.
Ryan Whitehead
Dramatic footage captured the moment police found a man hiding in a garden box after a high-speed chase.
Officers were first alerted when a vehicle drove off from the Port of Dover as the driver was being spoken to about a road traffic offence.
Ryan Whitehead, of Blaenavon, Gwent, was jailed for a year. Picture: Kent Police
Patrols then pursued the car on the M20 when it reached speeds of more than 100mph – before it crashed into a traffic island.
And while being driven, it had narrowly avoided a head-on collision with an on-coming car, before it then ploughed into a hedge in Seal, Sevenoaks.
The driver ran away but was soon found hiding nearby in a garden box and arrested.
Ryan Whitehead, of Blaenavon, Gwent, was later charged with assaulting an emergency worker, dangerous driving and driving without insurance and whilst disqualified.
The 32-year-old admitted all four charges, which he committed on Sunday, February 8, and was jailed for a year at Canterbury Crown Court earlier this month.
He was also disqualified from driving for four-and-a-half years and ordered to take an extended retest after that period.
Roland Duffield and Timothy Gearing
Two “brazen” dealers were jailed after 13 kilos of vacuum-packed drugs were found in a Land Rover, which led to the discovery of a cannabis farm.
Roland Duffield and Timothy Gearing, dubbed Exotic Painter and Special Filter on encrypted phone network, EncroChat, were identified after sending messages on the platform in 2020.
Roland Duffield, 56, and Timothy Gearing, 63, were both jailed for drug offences. Picture: Kent Police
The service, used by criminals to communicate, was infiltrated by international law enforcement agencies, who passed the information to Kent Police and an investigation by the force found Duffield would buy cocaine, usually by the kilo, while Gearing would arrange for the delivery of the drugs to come from further afield suppliers.
Messages showed that Gearing, of Alexander Grove, Kings Hill, was also producing cannabis to sell, and the pair would meet up to split drugs and exchange money. On November 23, 2020, police found a Land Rover Discovery in Snodland, which had been reported stolen from the London area the year before.
In the vehicle, which had cloned plates and was registered to Gearing, were 13 kilos of vacuum-packed cannabis and a set of house keys. The 63-year-old was then arrested at a property in West Kingsdown on July 5, 2022, where cannabis was being grown in two bedrooms and the basement.
The keys found in the stolen vehicle were confirmed to be the house keys to Gearing’s own home, and the following day, Duffield, 56, was arrested at his home in Heron Hill Lane, Gravesend and the men were each charged with drugs found on them at the time of arrest, while Gearing was further charged for the cannabis cultivation and the drugs found in the vehicle.
Gearing admitted to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis, being concerned in the production of cannabis, producing cannabis, and possession of criminal property and Duffield denied the charges, but following a trial, he was found guilty of being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
Duffield was found not guilty of possessing cocaine with intent to supply and possession of criminal property, and both were sentenced on April 16 when Gearing was jailed for nine years and four months and Duffield was jailed for nine years.
Jason Hartley
A “predatorial” child rapist was jailed for more than 16 years.
Jason Hartley of Palmerston Road, Chatham, was sentenced after admitting multiple charges – including raping a child under 13.
Jason Hartley, 55, was jailed for more than 16 years after admitting multiple charges. Picture: Kent Police
Police launched an investigation in July 2022 following a report regarding the 55-year-old committing multiple sex offences against a child between 2001 and 2007 and a second young victim also reported Hartley had exposed himself to them on at least two occasions.
He was arrested and charged with 15 sexual offences and at Maidstone Crown Court, he admitted multiple offences, including counts of rape, raping a child under 13 and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
A further five charges will lie on file, and on April 10, he was sentenced to 16-and-a-half years in prison with a further year on licence.
An indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) was also issued and he was made subject to the notification requirement of the sex offenders’ register.
Investigating officer DC Emma Davies said: “Hartley’s predatorial behaviour has resulted in significant harm for his young victims, and this sentence and SHPO will ensure he cannot harm anyone else.
“I commend the bravery of his victim for coming forward and reliving their experiences in order to secure this outcome.”
Lee McLoughlin
Footage revealed the moment a sex offender who built a 6ft fence around his home in an attempt to evade police checks was snared.
Lee McLoughlin, of Wood Avenue, Folkestone, was originally given a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) after being convicted of possessing indecent images of children in 2016.
Lee McLoughlin was locked up. Picture: Kent Police
The order, which contained limitations around his use of the internet, saw officers carry out regular home visits to check the 49-year-old’s online behaviour and devices; however, McLoughlin became increasingly obstructive and uncooperative – something which led detectives to suspect he was concealing internet-enabled devices.
In attempts to disrupt police from enforcing the SHPO, he erected a 6ft fence around the property, installed multiple cameras, and fitted an alarm to his front door handle.
But due to concerns he would destroy evidence, officers secured a warrant and arrested him on April 23 last year, and a search of his home found seven undeclared devices used to access the internet.
He was charged with a total of 12 breaches of his SHPO by repeatedly failing to notify police about internet-enabled devices in his possession between October 2024 and April 2025.
McLoughlin was also accused of three counts of making indecent images of children following a previous search warrant in September 2023.
Despite pleading not guilty to all charges, he was found guilty on all counts by a jury following a two-week tria. He was sentenced to two years and eight months imprisonment at Woolwich Crown Court earlier this month.
Temesgen Desta
A prison officer who suffered multiple burns after being attacked with a kettle heating element at ajail named last month as the worst in the country warned that inmates had “upped the ante” in their violent assaults.
The officer voiced his concerns after he and a colleague were set upon by lifer Temesgen Desta at HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey in June 2024.
Temesgen Desta was jailed in 2019 at Birmingham Crown Court for rape and false imprisonment. Picture: West Midlands Police
The 38-year-old convicted rapist was said to be “unhappy” about his food when he pushed electrical flex into their skin, causing facial, arm, ear and neck injuries.
One of the victims, who was left with what was described as a “large nasty scar” to his face, subsequently gave a statement to police saying prisoners were resorting to “more inventive” ways to carry out attacks.
Read out during a hearing at Maidstone Crown Court on April 21, the guard revealed that he had been assaulted numerous times during his then 19-year career, at times suffering broken bones as a result.
But explaining that prison violence appeared to be increasing in severity, he added: “I didn’t think a prisoner would try to burn someone with a heating element and someone is going to get seriously injured, we give them a kettle and now it’s being used as a weapon, it has upped the ante.”
Desta, of no fixed address, later pleaded guilty to two offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but at the time of his attack, he was five years into a life sentence with a minimum 10-year term imposed at Birmingham Crown Court in October 2019 for two stranger rapes.
Judge Daniel Stevenson jailed Desta for 12 months for the latest offences.
Frederik Brandt
A brave shop worker grabbed from behind and dragged off the street “found the courage” to fight her attacker, a court heard.
Frederik Brandt ambushed the woman during a “ferocious” early-morning assault as she walked to work in Dover.
Frederik Brandt attacked a stranger while drunk in Dover. Picture: Facebook
But despite being forced to the ground, she resisted and managed to repel him by forcefully squeezing his testicles. Brandt, 30, has now been jailed for two and a half years after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Canterbury Crown Court heard how the victim was on her way to work shortly before 7am when Brandt targeted her on October 20, 2020. He was then aged 25 and drunk. He approached the woman and asked if she wanted to have a drink at his house.
When she declined, he followed her along Folkestone Road before launching an attack from behind, grabbing her neck and hauling her onto a nearby driveway, where he forced her to the floor as she struggled, with her fall only broken by the large hood on her coat.
Brandt then sat on top of her and tried to kiss her, but the victim covered her mouth and fought back and in a desperate attempt to escape,she grabbed his testicles, forcing him to flee, and she then made her way to her workplace, where police were called.
The woman, described as middle-aged, was left with cuts, bruises and swelling to her face, a bloodshot eye and a cut lip and Brandt was finally charged last year and initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea on the day his trial was due to start.
Brandt must serve at least two-thirds of his sentence before he is considered for release, and he was also made subject to an indefinite restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim.
Kevin Swaisland
A sex offender who abused five children and an adult over a four-decade period was locked up for 24 years.
Kevin Swaisland, from Swancombe, admitted a number of sexual offences which took place between 1979 and 2025.
Kevin Swaisland, 67, from Swancombe admitted to a number of sexual offences. Picture: Kent Police
Having denied several other offences, the 67-year-old was found guilty following a trial after an investigation was launched into Swaisland after multiple victims came forward to report his crimes.
He was arrested at his home on May 15 and pleaded guilty to 22 offences but denied 11 charges and he was remanded in custody until a trial at Woolwich Crown Court in December.
The jury found Swaisland guilty of all charges, and in total, he was jailed for 33 crimes, including 20 counts of indecent assault of a child under 14, six counts of gross indecency with a child under 14, two of sexually assaulting a child under 13, two of child cruelty and three counts of making indecent images.
Liam Sanders
A pub boss stole more than £100,000 from the business over two years by repeatedly failing to deposit all the weekend takings at the bank.
It was not until discrepancies were uncovered for the first four weeks of January 2019 that Liam Sanders was caught by his employers.
Liam Sanders was locked up
The former general manager at The Clipper in Dartford High Street was confronted by head office staff over the differences, and he admitted to siphoning off £9,734.84 from the takings.
The 33-year-old paid back the full amount within two weeks, but it was then discovered that money had been going missing since 2017, totalling £102,862.45.
Sanders, of Port Rise, Chatham, denied any further involvement, but following a retrial at Woolwich Crown Court in March this year, he was convicted by the jury for fraud by abuse of position.
The former Northfleet Technology College pupil had previously pleaded guilty in 2022 to one count of fraud for the missing £9,734.84, but had denied the other count for the remaining £93,127.61.
MFA Properties, which owned the pub, suffered “significant” financial loss and the firm was only able to survive due to its other profitable premises being able to “bail out” The Clipper.
At his sentencing hearing on Friday, April 24, at Maidstone Crown Court, Sanders was handed a two-and-a-half-year stint in prison.
Bobby Turner and Ajay Sharp
Masked raiders stole motorcycles worth £140,000 from a warehouse after a loading bay shutter was left open by an employee.
Wearing balaclavas and dark clothing, the 12-strong gang targeted Noatum Logistics on the Isle of Grain in the early hours of July 5 last year.
Bobby Turner and Ajay Sharp were locked up
Having arrived in a Nissan X-Trail, a Mercedes van and a Vauxhall Vivaro, the thieves clambered under the half-open shutter and headed directly to where a number of Stark Future branded boxes, each containing two bikes worth a total of £20,000, were stored.
Seven boxes were then loaded into the waiting vehicles before the looters made their getaway, and Maidstone Crown Court heard that the thieves’ easy access to the warehouse and their immediate location of the high-value motorcycles suggested an inside man was involved.
But, of the dozen intruders that night, only two were in the dock on Tuesday, April 21, to be sentenced for their roles in the break-in, they were Bobby Turner, of Beckenham Road, Beckenham, and Ajay Sharp, of Hazel Grove, Lewisham, who were arrested after a high-speed chase of the Nissan to the Dartford Crossing followed by a dog handler pursuit on foot.
As well as finding discarded balaclavas on their detention, police also discovered several incriminating videos on Sharp’s phone, some recorded within Noatum Logistics itself and there was also a message demanding “many vans and men” for the job at hand.
Sharp, 22, who has five convictions for 14 offences to his name, later admitted conspiracy to burgle, his basis of plea that he simply acted as a “middle man” was rejected by the court and Turner, who at 23 has notched up 25 convictions for 49 offences, including theft, burglary, fraud and shoplifting, pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Sharp was sentenced to a total of 19 months’ imprisonment, comprising 13 months for the burglary and six months for the breach of a suspended sentence order, while Turner was handed eight months’ jail.
Jason Wokeh
A violent thief screamed and hid under his duvet when police officers arrived at his home to arrest him.
Jason Wokeh had threatened a man in Maidstone with a knife and stolen a luxury watch worth more than £10,000, after responding to an online sales advert.
Jason Wokeh was locked up. Picture: Kent Police
He admitted the robbery and threatening a person with an offensive weapon at Maidstone Crown Court back in October, and earlier this month, he was jailed for seven years and six months.
The robbery happened at around 9pm on August 19, after Wokeh arranged to view a Rolex watch at the seller’s address in Shepway, but once inside, he asked questions about the timepiece to gain the victim’s trust.
Then, after being handed the watch and accompanying paperwork, Wokeh pulled a 10‑inch knife from his waistband, threatened the owner and fled with the item.
Officers attended the scene, reviewed CCTV and identified Wokeh, 20, as the suspect.
He was arrested at his home in Maxey Road, Woolwich, where the stolen watch was recovered.
During the arrest, Wokeh initially attempted to conceal himself under the bedding, but he later silently pointed towards the stolen watch when officers informed him that they would be searching for it.
Samet Duman
A lorry driver who raped a teenage girl in his cab has been jailed for almost nine years.
Samet Duman, 35, of St Hilda’s Way, Gravesend, was convicted by a jury of raping the girl following a two-week trial at the Old Bailey.
Samet Duman jailed after raping a girl in lorry in Greenhithe
Police said they received a report the teenager had been raped by an unknown man in a lorry parked in London Road, Greenhithe, on August 30, 2023.
Detectives reviewed CCTV footage which helped identify a foreign-registered lorry later traced to Turkey.
Duman, a Turkish national, denied the offence but was convicted by a jury following a two-week trial at the Old Bailey.
He was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison on April 21.
