Two prolific burglars have been jailed for stealing over £6,000 of tobacco from a Co-op store in Starbeck.

Brazen duo John Barnes, 34, and Ryan Mulvaney, 48, hauled a duvet down the street to help them break into the shop on the High Street.

They forced their way in by smashing rear fire doors and reportedly used the duvet to avoid treading on broken glass, York Crown Court heard.

They then bagged £6,220 of cigarettes and tobacco and £627 cash, carrying the loot in two large boxes but leaving the duvet behind.

Prosecutor Lydia Pearce said police were alerted to the store’s burglar alarm going off at about 4.30am on May 23.

They retrieved CCTV from the area around the shop which showed two men walking towards the store with a duvet about five minutes before the break-in.

The same two men are then seen leaving the store carrying two large boxes and returning to a nearby flat. 

The video footage then shows them leaving the flat with an unnamed woman and getting into a taxi which took them to Tewit Well Road.

At 9am on the same day, police were alerted to “suspicious activity” in Victoria Avenue by a member of the public who heard “somebody talking about getting rid of some gear”.

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A police constable stopped Mulvaney and Barnes, who gave a false name but was identified by his fingerprints. Both men were identified on CCTV.

During a subsequent search, officers seized the cigarette boxes and other items such as scratch cards stolen in the burglary. 

They also found a man bag at a flat in Spa Lane which Mulvaney had been wearing at the time of the raid. He was also found in possession of heroin and police seized cannabis from Barnes. 

Officers also seized £627 cash from the property, said Ms Pearce.

Both men were arrested and charged with burglary which they admitted. Mulvaney also admitted possessing heroin and Barnes admitted possessing cannabis and obstructing a police officer by giving a false name.

111 previous offences

The two career criminals appeared for sentence today after being remanded in custody.

Barnes, from Harrogate but of no fixed address, had 33 previous convictions for 64 offences including 25 thefts. He was most recently convicted of two burglaries in March 2022 for which he received a five-month prison sentence.

Mulvaney, also from Harrogate but of no fixed abode, had a criminal record comprising 111 previous offences including 55 thefts. His most recent burglary conviction was in October 2020 when he was jailed for three years and four months.

In that incident, Mulvaney broke into the Harrogate home of a poorly man who was resting in bed. He climbed through an open window at the house in Stonefall Avenue and stole an envelope containing £1,000 from the living room.

Mulvaney was still on prison licence for that offence when he burgled the Co-op which resulted in him being recalled to jail.

Defence barrister David Ward, for Barnes, said his client was a homeless crack-cocaine and cannabis addict and spent his time “just wandering, aimless”.

Kevin Blount, for Mulvaney, said his client had been recalled to prison until February next year and knew he would be given further jail time for the Co-op burglary.

Recorder Ian Mullarkey said it was clear that the duvet had been used to “facilitate” the break-in, probably to protect the burglars from broken glass. 

He said that both men had “extensive records” and there was “significant loss” to the Co-op.

Mulvaney and Barnes were each jailed for eight months.

A woman turned up at her ex-lover’s home, forced her way in and stabbed his wife repeatedly with a large carving knife as she lay helpless in the hallway.

Clare Bailey, 44, a secondary-school maths teacher and mother-of-two, was wearing a red wig, blue covid mask and sunglasses when she rang the doorbell at her former lover Christopher Russell’s home on Byland Road in Harrogate intent on murder on June 23 last year.

When Mr Russell’s wife Emma, a senior hospital technician, answered the door, Bailey — holding a bunch of flowers in front of her face to disguise herself — told her the bouquet was “for her”, then barged into the hallway brandishing a large carving knife and began “stabbing, hacking and slashing” her all over her body, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Rupert Dodsworth said Ms Russell was stabbed repeatedly in the neck, chest, stomach and arms. 

Mr Dodsworth said:

“Emma Russell could be heard screaming for help and was in considerable distress.

She tried desperately to fend off Bailey, who remained silent during the ferocious attack, but this only caused more deep wounds to her hands.

“It was a sustained attack (with) repeated stabbing of the victim while she was lying helpless on the ground.”

Within seconds of the attack, Mrs Russell’s teenage daughter came downstairs and witnessed the horror unfolding in the doorway. 

She tried to get Bailey off her mother, only for the deranged attacker to turn to her still brandishing the carving knife, forcing her to flee upstairs, calling for help. 

Video footage of the attack captured Bailey continuing to stab and slash Ms Russell while bending over the stricken victim. 

Police at the scene of the attempted murder on Byland Road in Bilton on June 23, 2022.

Neighbours and passers-by saw Bailey walking calmly down the street. One neighbour described her as looking “super casual and smartly dressed”.

It was only when he noticed the front door to Ms Russell’s house was slightly ajar that he realised the full horror of what had occurred, but when he ran back up the street to look for Bailey, she had disappeared.

Another witness said he saw Bailey walking off serenely with what appeared to be a 30cm-long carving knife.

As she lay bleeding on the floor surrounded by paramedics, Mrs Russell, whose face was ashen, said to one of her neighbours: “Please don’t let me die.”

She had suffered multiple stab and slash wounds all over her body, including to her neck, chest and arms, and a puncture wound to her stomach. She also suffered a liver laceration, a colon injury, bleeding to the bowel and multiple tendon injuries.

She was taken to Leeds General Infirmary by ambulance and rushed into intensive care. She underwent emergency surgery to her stomach and had a stoma inserted for bowel leakage.

She remained in intensive care for four days and was kept in hospital for a month for further exploratory surgery. An MRI scan revealed she had suffered a seizure and a brain syndrome which required anti-epilepsy medication.

She discharged herself on July 27 against doctors’ advice because of her “life-changing” injuries. 

An LGI doctor said the stab wounds to Ms Russell’s neck and stomach were “within millimetres of being a threat to life”.

Arrested in Birmingham

Bailey was arrested the following morning at her home in Dudley, near Birmingham. 

She claimed she was not at the scene and when presented with video footage of her being on the Russells’ doorstep at the time in question, she claimed to have amnesia and claimed it wasn’t her.

Police searched her home and found her blood-stained clothes in the washing machine, a bloodied tissue, the covid mask, and the red wig, the bunch of flowers and gloves in a bin bag. 

Footage from a Sainsbury’s supermarket near the Russells’ home showed she had bought the accoutrements, including Dettol hand wipes and a box of gloves, at the store just before launching her savage attack at about 4.50pm. She went into the supermarket’s toilets to change her leggings and footwear before the attack.

Examination of her mobile phone showed that she had sent seven text messages to Mr Russell on the morning of the attack.

Mr Dodsworth said:

“She told him she didn’t understand why he wasn’t speaking to her.

“She asked why he had blocked her on Facebook and repeatedly told him how much she loved him.”

At about 10.20am that day, she sent a message to her school saying she couldn’t make it into work that day because of a medical mishap and was “having problems” with her poorly son. 

But police ANPR cameras showed that she was driving up the motorway northwards, bound for the Russells’ home in Harrogate. When the school called her in the afternoon, she said she was in her kitchen “getting a doctor’s appointment and would be back in the following day”. 

An hour later, she was at Sainsbury’s in Harrogate getting prepared to carry out the act. 

When distraught Mr Russell sent her a text message following the attack asking her where she had been at time of the stabbing, Bailey told him: “Is everything okay? Why would you think I’d be up there?”

When she told him his wife had been stabbed, Bailey “feigned a lack of knowledge and offered sympathy”.

Charged with attempted murder

Bailey, of The Riddings, Pedmore, was charged with attempted murder but initially denied the offence. A trial was scheduled but she ultimately changed her plea to guilty. She appeared for sentence today after being remanded in custody.

Mr Dodsworth said that Bailey and Mr Russell had known each other since childhood in the area where they grew up and he was the best friend of her brother.

A sexual relationship began in 2019 when they were reunited after 20 years at her brother’s wedding and continued over the course of a few years during which Bailey and Mr Russell met up on a “handful” of occasions, mainly at hotels.

Mr Dodsworth said:

“It was clear to Mr Russell that (Bailey) wanted him to leave his wife.

“He accepted he may have given her the (wrong) impression he might (leave his wife).”

Leeds Crown Court. Picture: the Stray Ferret.

At Christmas 2019, Mr Russell answered a knock on the door at about midnight to find a bunch of flowers and cardboard love notes on the doorstep. No-one was at the door, but a woman was seen running up the street.

The handwritten notes were intended to suggest that Ms Russell was having an affair and the flowers had been left by a lover to try to cause a rift in the marriage.

One of the notes read: ‘I’ll keep on waiting until I can spend (time) with you.’

Ms Russell, who worked as a sterile-services hospital technician, also received a call at her workplace from someone telling her: “I know what he’s up to.”

Despite Bailey’s wicked machinations, the marriage remained intact and in March last year, Mr Russell told her the affair was over.

Mr Dodsworth said:

“He said (his children) were (his) priority (but) she seemed unwilling to accept the decision.”

Mr Russell blocked Bailey on Facebook but in May 2022 he went out for a walk for a lunchtime break from work and felt a “tap on the shoulder”.

Mr Dodsworth said:

“He turned around to see the defendant.

“When he asked her why she was there, she said she was there to see him. He told her the relationship was over and that this couldn’t keep happening. That was the last time that Christopher Russell had contact with her.”

Needs wheelchair

In a statement read out in court, Ms Russell said she had since lost her job at the hospital due to the severity of her injuries which had severely restricted her mobility to the extent that she now relied on a wheelchair to go out, had to sleep downstairs and was unable to carry out even the most basic household chores.

She had to use crutches in her home, couldn’t cook, relied on the care of her husband and daughter, couldn’t sleep and suffered flashbacks, panic attacks and nightmares about the gruesome attack. She had no feeling in her right leg or hands, had suffered nerve damage and had been told by doctors that the feeling in her limbs may never return.

She was still in severe pain, still having monthly hospital appointments and physiotherapy and receiving counselling to help her deal with the huge trauma and “mental scars”.

Worse still, her husband had had to give up work to look after her and they were both now on benefits. She was now on “constant edge” whenever someone rang the doorbell or walked past the house, she had lost all her independence and she feared she would never be able to work again.

Defence barrister Curtis Myrie said Bailey had a clear understanding of the misery and trauma she had caused the Russell family and was “genuinely remorseful”.

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He said that her problems started in 2019 following the breakdown of her “very difficult” marriage which left her looking after her children on her own and led to a drink problem and mental-health issues. 

He added:

“Nevertheless, she managed to maintain a very respectable job as a teacher at a secondary school, teaching maths.

“She struggled to deal with life, struggled to cope with life…and she turned to alcohol and the extramarital affair with Mr Russell was something which represented…a haven from these very difficult circumstances in her life.

“The end of that relationship with Mr Russell was something she took very badly and (it was) difficult for her to come to terms with.”

He said that Bailey suffered from an emotional and personality disorder, although a doctor’s report noted that there were no underlying serious mental-health problems that could explain such behaviour.

Judge Robin Mairs said it was clear that Bailey had seen Ms Russell as a “stumbling block” to her relationship with Mr Russell and “to your future happiness”.

He said that Bailey had tried to “poison one side against the other” by trying to insinuate that they were both having affairs.

He told Bailey: 

“Emma Russell had done you no harm (and) it would appear that she was largely unaware of your existence. You slashed and stabbed repeatedly at all parts of Emma Russell’s body.

“You remained silent while she frantically called out for help and called out in pain. For a period of about 90 seconds…you hack, slash and stab repeatedly at the prostrate body of Emma Russell.

“Your intention you admit, by your guilty plea, was to murder her.”

He said the effect on Ms Russell and her family had been “extreme” and life-altering.

Bailey was jailed for 22 years and four months and given a lifetime restraining order banning her from contacting Mrs Russell and her family. 

Two Bulgarian martial arts experts have been jailed for peddling cocaine in Harrogate after delving into the UK drug market within a week of arriving in the country.

Emilov Andonov, an expert in the Russian combat sport sambo, and his sidekick Stanislav Stefanov, a professional judo trainer, were stopped by police in the Asda car park where officers suspected a drug deal was taking place, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Rachael Landin said Stefanov, a part-time bouncer in his home country, had been driving an Audi, and Andonov was in a Toyota. Police suspected something was amiss when one of the men got into the other’s car.

Officers searched both vehicles and found 11 wraps of cocaine, worth £550, under the gear stick in the Audi.

They found a further 19 wraps of high-purity cocaine under the covering of the gear stick in the Toyota. Those drugs were worth £950.

They also seized three mobile phones which showed that text messages had been pinging back and forth between the two men in the four days preceding their arrest on January 28.

It appeared that Andonov and Stefanov, both national-level martial artists in their homeland, had been working under orders from people higher up the drug chain who provided them with “post codes and instructions” to deliver their illicit wares.

They were each charged with possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply but initially denied the offence, claiming they had “bought in bulk” for their own personal use.

However, they ultimately changed their pleas to guilty and appeared for sentence yesterday after being remanded in custody. They were assisted by a Bulgarian interpreter.

Just arrived in England

Defence barrister Matthew Harding, for Andonov, said both men, of no fixed address, had only been in the country for a week before they got involved in the drug trade.

He said they had been “sent up to the Yorkshire area” to deal cocaine by their drug overlords in London, adding:

“They are clearly delivering under (instruction).

“At times they don’t know where to go or what they are doing.”

He claimed when the two men arrived in the country on January 20, they had no intention of lurching into crime.

He said Andonov, 21, was a judo expert who studied sambo at the national academy in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. Mr Harding added:

“He and his co-accused have competed in (national) competitions,”

“He will inevitably receive a sentence that means his deportation from this country is automatic.”

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John Batchelor, for Stefanov, said his 21-year-old client was a professional judo trainer and part-time doorman who had studied at the same sports school as Andonov. The barrister added:

“He’s competed at national level and they’ve known each other from school.”

He said the two men arrived in London initially where they were “offered an opportunity” to deal drugs in Yorkshire.

He added Stefanov would go back to judo training and study upon his inevitable deportation to Bulgaria.

Judge Sean Morris told the defendants:

“Within days of arriving in this country you were breaking the law in the most serious way.

“You were being directed where to sell drugs and that meant you were putting the citizens of this country at risk for your own greed.

“I recommend, on the completion of your sentence, (that) you are immediately deported back to Bulgaria.”

Each man was jailed for two years and three months.

A violent drug dealer has been jailed for dealing cannabis – just two months after receiving a long prison term for stabbing a man in Harrogate with a knife.

William Boam, 23, from Harrogate, was driving a Citroen C3 which was stopped by police in Tadcaster in September 2021, York Crown Court heard.

They found six large plastic bags in the glove box containing over 27g of cannabis, along with two mobile phones and cash.

Boam was arrested and bailed, but in March 2022 the fire service was called out to his then home in Knaresborough after neighbours reported smoke coming from the property, said prosecutor Brooke Morrison.

She added:

“When [firefighters] attended they found no fire but found the defendant in his living room with large quantities of cannabis, so they called police.”

Officers arrived and found Boam in the living room surrounded by drug packaging and sheets of “branded stickers”, some of which he had placed on dealer bags. Ms Morrison said:

“Police found a further quantity of cannabis in tubs in the kitchen.”

They found a total 256g of cannabis in the property, worth an estimated £785 if sold on the street. The total amount of drugs seized from both the property and Boam’s vehicle was worth just under £1,000.

Boam was arrested again and, despite the amount of cannabis found at his home, told officers the drugs were for his own personal use.

Ms Morrison said that Boam appeared to be operating a one-man drug enterprise in which he packaged, distributed and sold the drugs on the street.

Boam had 13 previous convictions for 17 offences including drug supply in 2016, producing cannabis in 2017, arson and serious violence.

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In March this year he was jailed for two years and seven months for wounding causing grievous bodily harm, assault, carrying a knife and breaching a suspended prison sentence.

That incident, which can now be reported, occurred in October 2022, when Boam was still at large following his arrest for the drug matters and subject to a two-month suspended sentence for assaulting an emergency worker.

The victim was at his friend’s flat in Harrogate when Boam rang the doorbell asking to be let in. They refused but Boam threatened to kick the door, so they let him in.

He started shouting at the named victim who threw him out of the flat. About 20 minutes later, the two friends went to get some beer from a supermarket and, on their return, they bumped into Boam outside a homeless hostel in Bower Street where he was living at the time.

Boam punched and headbutted the victim’s friend and demanded his beer, then put his hand in his pocket “as if to indicate he was carrying a weapon”.

He then pulled a knife out and the victim’s friend ran away, chased by Boam. The victim came to his friend’s aid but as he tried to intervene, Boam “lunged” at him and thrust the knife into his stomach. He then “swung” the knife at him again and caught the victim on the arm, before running off.

The victim was taken to hospital where he had staples to close the stab wound to his stomach wall and three stitches to the wound on his upper arm.

Defence barrister Natalie Banks said that Boam had a “very difficult” upbringing and mental health problems.

Recorder Dapinder Singh KC jailed Boam for a further 16 months for the drug offences – a reduced sentence for reasons of “totality” because he was already serving a sentence of nearly three years for serious violence.

A Harrogate man has been jailed for six months after he tried to get his ex-partner to drop assault charges against him.

Daniel Berisha, 33, contacted the victim through a third party demanding she withdrew the complaint she had made to police, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Michael Cahill said Berisha and the named victim started a relationship when she came to live in the UK in 2019.

She moved into his then home in Pendragon Way, Harrogate, but by the summer of 2020 the relationship began to break down due to Berisha’s cocaine use.

On November 4 last year, an argument broke out as Berisha pestered her for money to buy drugs. 

The victim refused to give him the £80 but Berisha “followed her around the house, saying: “Give me the money’”.

Berisha told her that if she didn’t give him the money, he would personally transfer the cash from her account into his.

Mr Cahill said:

“He pushed her a few times (and) she fell to the floor.”

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She managed to push Berisha away, but he grabbed her phone and began using it. Knowing that he knew the passcode for her account, she transferred the money into his account and locked the door. Berisha by this stage had moved out of the house. 

The following day, in the early hours of the morning, Berisha bombarded her with text messages telling her he had “nowhere to go”.

She blocked him on WhatsApp and blocked his calls, but then received over 20 calls from an unknown number. 

Shortly after the phone calls, Berisha, who was high on cocaine, got into the house. The victim “screamed for help” and warned him she would call police. 

Furious, Berisha shoved her and put his hand over her mouth to stop her screaming. He then took her phone and told her not to call police. 

The victim, who worked in the care industry, eventually managed to call police when Berisha went downstairs. When officers arrived, they found the victim with scratches to her hand and grazes on the bridge of her nose. 

Berisha was arrested and bailed pending further enquiries. In the meantime, police requested a domestic-violence protection order from magistrates to stop Berisha pestering the victim. The order was granted.

However, on November 12, a week after the second assault, Berisha sent messages to a named third party asking her to tell the victim to drop the charges.

Furthermore, he told the victim through the intermediary that he had a “video of the (victim) at work” and would send it to her employer if she didn’t withdraw her complaint, warning her that she would “never get a job in the UK again”.

Berisha told her through the third party that the video was of “(the victim) with a male she cared for”.

However, the victim, whose work record was impeccable and knowing she had “nothing to hide”, knew that Berisha was bluffing and refused to drop the charges. 

‘I’ve lost everything’

Berisha, lately of Redfern Mews, Harrogate, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and two counts of assault. He ultimately admitted the offences and appeared for sentence today.

In a statement read out in court, the victim, who had since moved out of the area, said she had moved to the UK for a fresh start after a previous abusive relationship. 

The mother-of-two said she had “endured a nightmare” at the hands of Berisha who had initially helped her settle into her adoptive country.

She added:

“I later found out this was too good to be true.

“I’ve lost everything, all my belongings, so he could get money for his drug use.”

Defence barrister Ismael Uddin said that despite the “unsavoury” episode, Berisha was a hard-working man whose employers thought highly of him.

Judge Sean Morris told Berisha: 

“Trying to get (victims) not to turn up in court strikes at the very heart of the criminal justice system and civilised society.

“If these kinds of offences don’t (attract) custodial sentences, then they will become rife. As a matter of policy and as a matter of making sure others are deterred (from trying to pervert the course of justice), only an immediate prison sentence is appropriate.”

Berisha received a six-month jail sentence and was given a five-year restraining order banning him from contacting the victim and going to her home or workplace. 

A former maths teacher has been jailed for 18 years for raping and sexually assaulting a young girl at a boarding school in the 1990s.

John William Renel, 68, pinned the girl down and raped and indecently assaulted her in a locker room at Cundall Manor School near Boroughbridge, prosecutor Rupert Doswell told a jury at York Crown Court.

The victim, who can’t be named for legal reasons, didn’t report the matter to police until 2021, more than 20 years after the alleged sexual abuse.

She said that before the alleged rape at the fee-paying independent school, she and Renel were “joking about something” in the school kitchen when he picked her up and joked that he was going to “throw her in the bin”.

He then carried her out into the corridor and touched her on the thigh near an intimate part of her body, said Mr Doswell.

Mr Doswell added:

“He then took her into a side room – a changing room or locker room – where (pupils) hang their clothing.

“He put her down on the ground on her back. He was on top of her and she remembers him wearing a tweed jacket.”

She said she turned her head “to stare at the wall” as Renel allegedly raped her.

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A family member later noticed that the victim, who was very young at the time of the offences, had become withdrawn and in adult life she had developed post-traumatic stress disorder which led to counselling and therapy.

Mr Doswell said that about five months after the victim’s first police interview, she contacted them again about the incident in the school locker room.

She said she could remember that during the rape, she felt as if Renel’s “body (was) crushing her” and that she was struggling to breathe.

According to the victim, Renel “simply walked away” after the incident, “leaving her on the ground”.

Mr Doswell said:

“She (told police) she had one further memory of another incident (at the school) when she was older.”

She said that before this incident, Renel again picked her up and dropped her on a bed in a dormitory. 

He then laid down next to the victim, sexually assaulted her and then forced her hand onto an intimate part of his body. 

Mr Doswell said:

“Her next memory is of the defendant’s face close up to her.

“She remembers feeling terrified. He was staring at her and scowling. He told her not to tell anyone, before leaving the room.”

Guilty on all counts

Renel, of Main Street, Sessay, near Thirsk, was brought in for questioning in 2021 but denied even knowing the girl. 

He told police he had always taught in a tweed jacket but denied raping or sexually assaulting the girl. 

He was charged with one count of rape and four counts of sexual assault against the girl. He denied all offences but was today found guilty on all counts.

Recorder Anthony Hawks moved straight to sentence and jailed Renel for 18 years.

The former teacher was also placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life and made subject to a sexual-harm prevention order for the protection of children. That order will also run indefinitely.  

Following his sentence, Detective Constable Alison Morris, of North Yorkshire Police’s non-recent abuse investigation team, said:

“John William Renel is a predatory child abuser who has caused unimaginable trauma to the courageous victim in this case.

“I truly hope the outcome at court along with the significant custodial sentence handed to her perpetrator, provides comfort, strength and hope for the future.”

In 1997, a few years after Renel left Cundall Manor, he was convicted of three counts of indecently assaulting a girl at another school in Keighley. 

A man walked out of court after being banned from driving and jumped straight into his car before leading police on a 140mph chase from Harrogate.

Jason Ryder, 45, was so furious at being found guilty of drug-driving and losing his licence at Harrogate Magistrates’ Court in March that he got behind the wheel of his Audi A3 and raced from police at astonishing speeds while weaving in and out of traffic on the A1(M) and bombing down the hard shoulder at speeds of more than 130mph.

Dashcam footage of the hair-raising police chase was shown at York Crown Court today when Ryder appeared for sentence after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and without a licence.

Prosecutor Edward Steele said that Ryder was released from the Harrogate court on March 20 after being convicted of driving under the influence of drugs in a previous incident near Knaresborough and receiving a 12-month motoring ban.

He said that Ryder got into his black Audi “immediately after being released from the court” at about midday. 

Police switched on the blue lights, but Ryder didn’t stop and a 17-minute car chase ensued, firstly along the A658 John Metcalf Way in Harrogate where he overtook vehicles, causing motorists to take evasive action to avoid a collision.

He then “manoeuvred around” a heavy-goods vehicle and sped onto the A1(M)’s northbound carriageway, “moving across all lanes and travelling for long periods of time on the hard shoulder, at times at speeds of over 130mph in a 70mph zone”.

Mr Steele said that at certain sections, the Audi was travelling at over 140mph as it zig-zagged between dense traffic and overtook and undertook vehicles from one side of the road to the other.

You can watch police footage of the chase below.

Ryder then turned onto the A6055 towards Northallerton at 140mph on a wet road surface due to the rainy weather. 

Mr Steele added:

“The driving included overtaking and driving on the opposite side of the carriageway.”

Police laid a stinger on the road which deflated the Audi’s tyres and the car came to a halt. He was arrested and brought before York magistrates the following day, where he pleaded guilty to all three offences. 

The court heard that Ryder had a previous conviction for careless driving and failing to provide a specimen for analysis in 1998, for which he received an 18-month motoring ban.

‘Not thinking straight’

Defence barrister Gabrielle Wilks said that Ryder made a “split-second” decision to speed from police due to “heightened emotions” following the trial which went against him.

She said he was “not thinking straight” and was suffering from “mental angst” on the day in question due to personal problems.

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She added that Ryder, of Wellgarth, Bishop Auckland, had lost his full-time job and could lose his home if he were jailed. 

Recorder Anthony Hawks described Ryder’s driving as “appalling” and said that he could easily have killed someone.

He told Ryder: 

“The circumstances of the dangerous driving are…extremely serious, both as to how it started and the actual driving itself.

“I reject entirely the suggestion put forward (by Ryder’s defence counsel) that you didn’t understand the disqualification ran immediately. You had been disqualified before (and) you must have realised that following your conviction and sentence (for drug-driving) you were a disqualified driver.

“You had no business…in taking your car to the magistrates (court) in the first place.”

Mr Hawks said it was clear that Ryder was “angry” when he got behind the wheel because the trial “had gone against you”.

He added: 

“At any time during the 17-minute police chase, you could have come to your senses and stopped, but you didn’t. 

“The dangerous driving was appalling. There was heavy traffic. You were weaving all over lanes. You were driving at speeds up to 140mph. It’s extraordinary that nobody was seriously injured or killed.”

Ryder was jailed for 10 months and given a 23-month driving ban. 

A Harrogate man has been jailed for over three years after his debauched online chats with young girls led him into a trap set by police.

Benjamin Shutt, 30, “cruised” the internet in search of easy targets and found them on social media apps installed on his phone, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor David Hewitt said police forensic officers downloaded no less than 816 pages of chats which “began innocently and soon became sexualised”.

Shutt, who told one girl she “needed a sugar daddy”, used the KIK messenger app to contact the first under-age child, who told him she was 14 years old.

Mr Hewitt said there were about 220 messages sent between Shutt, of Grove Park View, and the teenager between April 20 and May 16, 2020.

Shutt sent her a picture of his private parts, which he followed up with a request for her to “send me more please, baby”.

Mr Hewitt added:

“He asked for some photos of her body in the bath.”

He told the girl he wanted to have sex with her “so badly” and then they talked about meeting up. 

The girl agreed to meet, but Shutt told her they “probably couldn’t” because he was twice her age.

There were further sexual conversations in which Shutt talked about “the various things he would like to do to her”.

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After the girl sent him a very intimate picture of herself upon request, Shutt asked her if she had photos of herself when she was younger.

He then sent her a link via the KIK app to videos of him performing a sexual act on himself and urged her to watch them. 

Shutt targeted another young girl on the Whisper app in December 2020. He asked how old she was and when she initially told him she was 12, the messages continued regardless.

He asked her if she “enjoyed” the conversations and urged her to send him an intimate photo.

The girl later told him that her real age was 14, to which Shutt replied: “That’s fine with me.”

He said he wanted to have sex with her and “advised” her on how to perform a sexual act on herself. He then sent the girl an image of himself performing a lewd act.

Police trap

On Valentine’s Day 2021, Shutt ran out of luck when the 12-year-old ‘girl’ with whom he thought he was chatting turned out to be an undercover police officer posing as a teenager who posted a message on Whisper asking: “Why are boys so rubbish?”

Mr Hewitt said:

“The defendant replied and invited her to engage in private chat.”

The chats moved to another online platform and lasted about five weeks to the end of March 2021.

Mr Hewitt said:

“He told her that she needed a sugar daddy and explained what this was.”

Shutt asked the ‘girl’ if she had ever performed a sexual act on herself and offered her an “instruction” on how to do so. He then urged her to carry out the act.

Police raided on his home in Harrogate in April 2021 and found him in his bedroom. They seized his mobile phone.

Forensic analysis showed there were seven category C indecent images of children on Shutt’s phone. Mr Hewitt said there was also evidence to suggest Shutt had been chatting with other children, although this didn’t lead to further charges.

Shutt was charged with two counts of attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, two counts of attempted sexual communication with a child, one count of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act and one count of possessing indecent images of children. 

He admitted all the offences and appeared for sentence today.

‘Corrupting young girls’

Defence barrister Andrew Stranex said Shutt had endured a traumatic childhood and had been chatting with the girls during the coronavirus lockdown.

He added that Shutt was an “isolated and marginalised” figure with few friends and that his offending had had a “massive” impact on his family.

Judge Sean Morris told Shutt: 

“You pleaded guilty to a whole series of offences which involved you cruising the internet looking for young girls to corrupt. 

“There were two real victims before you were caught by an undercover officer patrolling the internet. 

“As far as you were aware, that was (an underage) girl. You were obviously sexually aroused by young teenage girls.” 

Shutt was jailed for three years and five months and placed on the sex offenders register for life. 

He was also given an eight-year sexual-harm prevention order mainly to curb his internet activities. 

A Portuguese dominatrix who ran an international sex-trafficking and prostitution racket is to be deported from the UK.

Fabiana De Souza, 43, and her English husband Gareth Derby, 55, were jailed for a combined 10 years in February last year after they were caught running a sex den in Harrogate, where many of the sex workers were based after being flown in from abroad.

Today they appeared at Leeds Crown Court for a financial-confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act. These proceedings will determine how much the former couple has to pay back for their mega-money trafficking scheme, which involved sex workers from Portugal and Brazil.

Defence barrister Michael Fullerton said full analysis of the defendants’ assets and finances had not yet been completed and De Souza had yet to provide her own statements.

He said the defence would be contesting the undisclosed sum being sought by the prosecution.

Mr Fullerton asked for an adjournment in the proceedings to allow time for De Souza to serve the statement but asked for a postponed date no later than August 21 when she would be deported from the country.

He said Derby’s defence team also needed more time to ascertain the value of a car belonging to him which appeared to have ended up in Portugal.

He claimed some of De Souza’s financial gains during the offending period were from her work as a beautician and in the fitness industry.

He said this money was “not…earned by her as a dominatrix with her own website during that period”.

Mr Fullerton claimed that De Souza’s involvement in trafficking six sex workers from abroad was for a “limited period” only.

He claimed Derby had transferred some of the money into De Souza’s account and she had received some legitimately from a family member.

‘Flying in’ sex workers

During their trial at the same court in December 2021, the jury heard that De Souza and Derby, from Norfolk, had been “flying in” sex workers from Europe and South America.

Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley KC said the couple treated the women like “commodities” as they made massive sums from their illicit trade.

De Souza, who provided dominatrix and discipline services to punters in Harrogate, was said to be the ringleader of the “large-scale commercial operation” in which she and Derby, a high-earning engineer and machine specialist, flew in sex workers from Brazil and Portugal, paid for their flights and met them at airports, before whisking them off to sex dens where men paid for “massages” and “full (sex) services”.

They had exploited the “vulnerable” women for “significant” financial gain by “controlling (their) finances (and) choice of clients”.

The sex workers were put at a “significant financial disadvantage” and forced to lie to police to avoid detection.

De Souza and Derby, who ran the lucrative business from their home in East Anglia, were arrested in August 2018 and charged with controlling prostitution for financial gain and human trafficking. They each denied the charges, but the jury found them guilty on both counts following a 10-day trial.

The charges related to six named women who worked at the Harrogate sex den and two properties in Norfolk between April 2017 and August 2018.

Bower Road brothel

Mr Lumley said De Souza rented a two-bed flat in Harrogate town centre through a letting agency “so it could be used for sex…which would be advertised on the internet by these two defendants”. He added:

“There was another (rented) flat in Norfolk put to similar use and when that became unavailable, even the home of these defendants was converted for use by sex workers.

“As soon as the (prostitutes) arrived here, they would be installed in the flat in Harrogate or elsewhere, always with the purpose of being available for sex.”

De Souza and Derby would pay for sex adverts within hours of picking the women up from airport around the country and “setting them up” at the flat on Bower Road in Harrogate. The adverts were placed on the classified escort websites Viva Street and Adult Work.

Bower Street in Harrogate

They took the bookings and “made the arrangements (with the clients)” who would pay various amounts – from £80 for half an hour to over £1,000 for an overnight stay.

The money usually ended up in De Souza’s Halifax, Bank of Scotland and NatWest bank accounts, but on occasions “cash simply changed hands, handed by the sex workers to one of these two”.

Between May 2017 and August 2018, some £38,000 cash was deposited into De Souza’s bank accounts at branches in Harrogate and Norfolk. About £9,000 of bank transfers were then made to accounts in Brazil and Portugal using a money-services bureau.

Mr Lumley said one woman was flown in on an EasyJet flight from Amsterdam and was picked up by the couple who had driven from Norfolk in a 4×4 pick-up. Derby also drove a Mercedes.

They would arrange for a train ticket to be available at the airport as they moved the women around the country “or put them on a bus and sent them up to Harrogate or somewhere else”.

Undercover officer

Following her arrest, De Souza, who is serving her sentence at a women’s prison in Peterborough, told police she had left her husband in September 2017 with the intention of divorcing him and moved to Harrogate “where no-one knew me”.

She had rented the Bower Road flat for over £700 a month and let rooms out to “others”, some of whom were “friends from Portugal”.

Derby said only that he had an “inkling that Fabia worked at the Harrogate flat as a dominatrix”.

In a text sent to a friend in January 2018, he boasted of being a “smuggler of women”.

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Police trawled through the bank accounts of De Souza and her husband and found they had spent “thousands on air fares” and over £2,000 on Viva Street adverts alone.

An undercover officer posed as a client to make appointments for the sex den on Bower Road. De Souza would answer the calls in “broken English” and arrange the appointment.

The officer was offered a “range of services”. On his first visit, dressed in civilian clothes, he was met by a sex worker named ‘Lisa’ who buzzed him into the flats above shops.

He made “numerous” such visits to other women after responding to adverts including one for a “Hot Brazilian, full service”. She was about 57 years old but was advertised as 33.

De Souza and Derby, of Town Street, Upwell, in south-west Norfolk, were each jailed for five years in February 2022. They are still serving those sentences in different parts of the country and had to be transported to Leeds for the confiscation hearing.

Judge Mr Stubbs KC adjourned for a further hearing on June 27 when the case might be resolved but is likely to go to a contested, half-day hearing on July 28, when the prosecution and defence will set out their cases for a greater or lesser financial settlement based on the defendants’ assets and finances.

Former Harrogate Liberal Democrat candidate Anthony Medri has been jailed for over two years for sexually abusing a teenage girl and paying her to send him intimate photos of herself.

Medri, 64, from Knaresborough, sexually assaulted the girl on several occasions and sent her a picture of an intimate part of his body, York Crown Court heard.

The Harrogate Borough Council candidate in 2015 also urged her to send him indecent pictures of herself, said prosecutor Shaun Dodds.

He said that Medri, who is married, had sexually assaulted the youngster by touching her on intimate parts of her body and kissing her on the lips.

Medri asked the girl on social media if she had “ever seen a grown man’s (private parts)”. He then sent her an intimate picture of himself and told her to delete the messages.

Mr Dodds said that in 2017, Medri started transferring money into the girl’s bank account and asking her what she was wearing.

This was followed by a request for a picture of her in her underwear and a promise to pay her £50 if she sent it. Mr Dodds said:

“She sent an image of herself wearing a bra.

“He had previously bought her some underwear…and asked her for photos wearing that underwear.”

The prosecutor said that between 2017 and 2019, £580 of payments were made into the victim’s account for intimate photos of her. Mr Dodds added:

“Sometimes she would also get payments in cash as well.”

Grooming process

Medri – who stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Lib Dems in the 2015 local elections when he contested the Stray ward – initially gave the girl money so she could treat herself, which the prosecution said was part of the grooming process.

He would tell the girl “to get yourself something nice”, said Mr Dodds.

The victim “wasn’t in a good place” at the time and she felt that Medri used this to take advantage of her difficult circumstances.

He bought her treats such as perfume, clothes, tobacco and vodka – along with a sex toy and told her to “try it out”. The victim put the item in a bin.

Mr Dodds said that on the occasions Medri tried to kiss the girl, she would pull away, but he would kiss her again. He once drove her to a remote location where he sexually assaulted her.

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Medri was ultimately brought in for questioning and accepted having asked for pictures of the girl in her underwear and that he had given her money, but initially denied sexually assaulting her.

A trial was due to be held but Medri ultimately admitted one count of intentionally causing a child to look at an image of a person engaging in a sexual act, three counts of sexual assault and three counts of causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child to become a prostitute or be involved in pornography, namely asking the girl for photos of herself in her underwear.

Mr Medri, of Forest Moor Road, appeared for sentence today when the court heard a harrowing statement from the young victim.

She said she had been left with the “overwhelming” feeling that she was somehow at fault for the abuse.

This and the fact that Medri had protested his innocence for so long had caused her “extreme anxiety”. She added:

“I don’t think I will ever get over what has happened. I think about it every single day.”

Carer for disabled wife

Defence barrister Jeremy Barton said there had been a “plethora” of character references provided by friends and family of Medri.

He conceded, however, that Medri’s offences, which occurred over a period of about a year, were “disturbing and worrying”.

He said that Medri, who had worked all his life and was now a carer for his disabled wife, had shown a “degree of remorse”.

Judge Sean Morris told Medri he should have owned up to his offences “a long time ago” and described his protestations of innocence until his belated guilty pleas as “gutless”.

He told Medri:

“For heaven’s sake man, why did you put this girl through all those months of anguish waiting for (what was expected to be) a trial. It’s gutless.”

He said that only an immediate prison sentence was appropriate for inciting a young girl “in a vulnerable position to sell pictures of (herself) for Medri’s “sexual pleasure”.

The judge said that Medri had taken advantage of the girl when she was in a “desperate state” because of her life circumstances.

Medri was jailed for two years and two months, but he will only serve half of that behind bars before being released on prison licence.

Medri was also given a five-year sexual-harm prevention order to protect children and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for 10 years.