A MAN who sent indecent images to who he thought was an underage girl, two drug dealers and a man who stabbed his friend to death are among criminals who were jailed in December.
Here is a look at four court cases the Star has covered in December which saw defendants sent to prison.
Ronald Howard
A MAN who pretended to be a woman sent indecent images to a girl he believed was 13 years old.
However, Ronald Howard was actually communicating with an under-cover police officer which led to his arrest.
Howard contacted the fake profile of ‘Milly’ a 13-year-old girl on the Rando Chat app and the conversation moved to Snapchat.
Howard sent a picture to her which he claimed was of ‘her boyfriend’s” penis and encouraged her to send him photographs of herself.
Howard, 26, of Grange Park Road, Thatto Heath, pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
He was jailed for 15 months at Liverpool Crown Court and ordered to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years. A Sexual Harm Prevention Order was imposed for the same length of time.
Read the full story here.
Vincent Hagan
A MAN was jailed following an investigation into the supply of Class A drugs in St Helens.
Vincent Hagan, 35, of Friar Street, Windlehurst, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, December 5 where he was sentenced to four years and four months in prison for the supply of heroin and crack cocaine.
Hagan was also handed a five-year Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO). Under the CBO, Hagan has been banned from owning or having with him more than one mobile telephone or phone SIM card.
Detectives from Operation Toxic, Merseyside’s County Lines Team, launched an investigation into the 35-year-old and executed a warrant at his address last month.
Read the full story here.
Anthony Taylor
A St Helens man involved in an organised crime group responsible for bringing cocaine and cannabis into north Wales was jailed.
The group was responsible for moving the drugs between Merseyside and Wrexham, Caernarfon Crown Court heard.
Among them was Anthony Taylor, 40, of Knowles House Avenue, Eccleston, St Helens, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply a class A drug (cocaine).
Taylor head of the gang’s Merseyside operation.
the organised crime group's activity eventually came to light thanks to 'Operation Blue Bounty', which was conducted by North Wales Police.
The operation was described in court as 'large scale industrial drug dealing'.
The cocaine operation lasted a period of five months between September 2022 and February 2023 and the cannabis operation lasted a month between September and October 2022.
The street value of the cocaine operation - overseen by Taylor and another of the gang - was between £480,000 and £600,000, with around 8kg of adulterated cocaine supplied in all.
Judge Nicola Saffman sentenced Taylor to 12 years and nine months in prison at Caenarfon Crown Court.
Read the full story here.
James Preston
A MAN who stabbed a “loving and loyal man” to death in a brutal attack was jailed after a jury convicted him of murder as they dismissed his claims of self-defence.
Joseph Holland, 25, who had previously lived in St Helens, had been found dead inside a house on Huyton House Road on June 8 this year after suffering multiple stab wounds after being attacked by the “ketamine-fuelled” James Preston.
Preston, 21, and Joseph had been out with friends at the Jumbo Chinese Restaurant in Dovecot, Liverpool on the evening of June 7, before heading to the Deysbrook Pub and then going back to Preston’s parents’ house where the fatal stabbing took place.
A judge said to Preston: “I’m satisfied that this was a ferocious attack and that you had certainly an intention to kill.
“You did so in a transient drugged haze which is an aggravating factor.”
Preston left a note saying “it was me or him”, which the judge called “a deliberate attempt to attempt to conceal what you had done.”
In a victim impact statement by Joseph’s mother Brenda, read out by prosecuting barrister Mark Ford KC it was said: “James Preston is an evil cowardly monster, I hope he rots in hell.
“We can never forget the monster that is James Preston for what he has done to our family and for putting us through hell in two weeks of a trial.”
Preston, from Huyton, was given a life sentence at Liverpool Crown Court on December 21, and must serve at least 17 years in custody before being eligible for parole.
Read the full report here.
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