HERE is a look at some of the most shocking court cases we have reported on in October.
Liam Duffy
A dangerous driver who smashed a Range Rover into an elderly couple’s car was jailed.
Victim Patricia Saxon was in the front passenger seat of a Volkswagen being driven by her husband, as she was on her way to meet a friend, when the vehicle smashed into the car at more than 80 mph.
She was forced to live her last few months in “incredible pain” because of Duffy’s actions.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the crash happened on the morning of September 9, 2022, at around 10.30am around the area of Birchley Road, Billinge.
Duffy had hired the blue Range Rover that morning.
The court heard he was reported driving at around “85 to 90 mph” and “overtaking on the wrong side of the road”.
The crash took place as the Range Rover was “overtaking” on a “blind corner on the wrong side of the road at speed and collided into a vehicle which was indicating to turn right across his path from Martindale Road.
A judge said "this was a protracted dangerous driving of the worst imaginable kind” and said the speed at which he drove was “frankly terrifying”.
The judge added “it is absolutely astonishing there were not casualties”.
Duffy, of Sherdley Road, St Helens, a 28-month prison sentence of which he must serve half in custody before being released on licence.
Read the full report here.
Jason Bainbridge
A drug dealer caught with wraps of heroin and cocaine hidden in his groin during a police strip search has been sent to jail.
Jason Bainbridge, who sold drugs to friends to “fund his own habit", appeared before Liverpool Crown Court for sentencing on Friday, October 25.
The 48-year-old had pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply.
Police had caught Bainbridge with 41 wraps of drugs, which were heroin and cocaine, on him after they had witnessed him involved in transactions in Newton-le-Willows last year.
On April 18, 2023 police officers spotted Bainbridge in a Ford Focus on King Street, Newton-le-Willows.
The officers observed two suspected transactions and then “stopped” the defendant and “searched him”.
They found £131.90 in cash and during a “strip search” found “41 small packages hidden within his groin area”.
Bainbridge, of Pond Green Way, Parr, was given concurrent jail sentences of 32 months for the drugs supply offences of which he must serve half in custody.
Read the full report here.
Darren Barr
A man who pretended to be a kindly Good Samaritan while helping a distressed young woman and went on to launch a terrifying sex attack on her was jailed.
Darren Barr took the woman to his Billinge home while his parents were away, and pretended to be getting her a taxi home. After locking her in he sexually assaulted her, strangled her and warned that he could rape her.
He was, however, convicted of five offences by a jury after a trial and on Monday was sentenced by a judge on Monday, October 28.
Five years earlier, in 2017 Barr had pretended to help another young woman and sexually molested her too.
Barr, of Holt Crescent, Billinge, Judge Andrew Menary, KC, the Recorder of Liverpool said that the second incident in the early hours of November 20 last year “must have been a nightmare ordeal for this woman.
Barr, 49, was given an eight-year jail sentence.
Read the full report here.
Kevin and Ben Hughes
TWO men who admitted to a charge of affray in connection with a disturbance at a pub have been sentenced.
Ben Hughes, 20, and Kevin Hughes, 58, both of Rainhill Road, Rainhill, appeared before Liverpool, Knowsley and St Helens Magistrates' Court for sentencing on Wednesday, October 23.
Both defendants had indicated a guilty plea to affray in an earlier hearing on September 13.
They admitted to having used or threatened unlawful violence towards another at the Commercial pub in Rainhill on July 9, 2023.
Both defendants were given a sentence of 17 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months.
They were also made to do unpaid work for 160 hours within 12 months.
Both men were also given an exclusion order not to enter the Commercial Hotel, on Station Street, for 12 months.
Read the report here.
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