Leeds Crown Court Archives - Page 2 of 7

Court allows media to name Harrogate boy murderer

A judge lifted reporting restrictions today to allow the media to name a Harrogate boy murderer in the hope it will serve as a warning to other young people about the dangers of knives.

Dylan Cranfield, 17, was found guilty of murdering Seb Mitchell, 17, at Leeds Crown Court by a verdict of 10 to 2 after the jury deliberated for almost 15 hours.

There were gasps in the public gallery when the verdict was announced.

Afterwards, Judge Guy Kearl, the Recorder of Leeds, allowed Cranfield to be named.

He said:

“It’s important getting young people to understand that knives kill. Not just knives that are carried around with them for so-called protection.

“Young people must know that all knives are lethal weapons and can in dreadful circumstances lead to death.”

Cranfield, who was 16 at the time of the incident in February, was not named in reports from the trial until today.

He is due to be sentenced on October 4.

Seb Mitchell. Picture: Sam Mitchell.

Courts have discretionary powers to prevent the media from naming children to protect their welfare. Such orders remain in place until the child reaches 18.

Judge Kearl said the welfare of children had to be balanced against the open justice principle that says the media should be able to report cases “fully and contemporaneously”.

He said the public interest of highlighting the dangers of knife crime meant it was therefore “in the interests of justice to lift reporting restrictions”.

Harrogate Grammar School pupil Seb was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife after a row over a broken mirror at a property on Claro Road in Harrogate.

A police officer outside the home on Claro Road after the incident.

Cranfield pleaded not guilty – he accepted he stabbed Seb, but said he did not intend to kill him.

A teenage girl who witnessed the incident told police Cranfield pointed the knife at Seb and said “I’m going to wet you up”, which the court heard was “London slang” for a stabbing.

Judge Kearl told the court:

“This is not a case in which he took the knife to the scene, but nevertheless a case in which it was picked up and then used, not with a great deal of force.

“But as we know in these courts, you don’t have to use a great deal of force in order to inflict a great deal of injury.”

Seb was taken to Harrogate District Hospital by ambulance, but his condition was so critical he was transferred to Leeds General Infirmary where he underwent emergency surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma.

He died two days after the incident.

Seb Mitchell trial: Murder accused stabbed victim after row

WARNING: The following report contains details which some people may find upsetting.

Harrogate knife victim Seb Mitchell was stabbed to death after a row over a broken mirror, a court has heard.

The incident occurred at a house in Harrogate where the two teenagers became embroiled in a row, a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told yesterday.

The boy accused of Seb’s murder, who can’t be named for legal reasons, stabbed Seb in the chest with a kitchen knife which led to a fatal loss of blood and cardiac arrest.

He appeared for the first day of his trial, expected to last six-to-seven-days, yesterday after pleading not guilty to murder.

Three teenagers who witnessed the horrific incident in the early hours of February 19 this year went to Seb’s aid and called police and an ambulance as he lay barely conscious on a sofa.

Prosecutor Peter Moulson KC said a broken mirror and pane of glass in the kitchen appeared to be the “catalyst” for the fatal stabbing after the boys started arguing and scuffling.

When police arrived, Seb, who was 17, was unresponsive and falling deeper into unconsciousness. Officers found blood stains in the kitchen, living room and a settee, and a red stain on one of the knives from the kitchen block.

Despite the best efforts of doctors, he died two days later.

Police launched a murder investigation and spoke to two girls and a teenage boy who were at the house that night where drinks had been consumed.

The murder suspect, from Harrogate, was brought in for questioning but refused to answer police questions during three separate interviews. He also refused to provide blood and urine samples.

However, he did provide a prepared, legally assisted statement claiming initially that the stabbing was in self-defence and that Seb was the aggressor.

Grabbed knife during argument

The two girls told police that the defendant grabbed a knife from the kitchen and confronted Seb with it during the argument which led to scuffling.

One of the girls said the defendant pushed her away before grabbing the knife and “pointing it at Seb”.

She said:

“We were all trying to hold [the defendant] back.”

She said he seemed “fixated with the [victim]” and that the defendant told Seb: “I’m going to wet you up.”

Mr Moulson said the expression “wet you up” was “London slang” for a stabbing.

Leeds Crown Court

She said she heard the defendant repeatedly saying to the victim: “I’m gonna kill you.”

She saw Seb and the defendant “on the floor, in the corner of the kitchen, with glass smashed around them”.

They ended up “face to face” while the others tried to pull them apart, but the teenager wielding the knife was “still not listening” and was pushing her away.

She said he pointed the knife towards Seb’s stomach. She tried to grab the knife from the defendant, but he told her: “Don’t touch my f****** knife.”

The two boys were still shouting at each other as the fight spilled over into the living room, but then Seb fell silent and was laid out, grasping his chest which was bleeding.

‘Fell on the knife’

The girl called 999 and was told by the teenage defendant to tell the ambulance operator that Seb had fallen onto the knife on the floor and that it was an accident. The two other teenage witnesses went along with this because they thought the defendant “could kill them” too.

The girl, who was “too scared to say what actually happened”, told the call-handler:

“Please be quick. He’s dying. Please. He’s 17. He’s going. He’s just about [breathing] but he’s going.”

In the 999 call – an audio recording of which was played to the jury – the defendant could be heard telling the girl to tell the operator that Seb “fell on the knife”.

Screaming, groans and desperate shouts of “Please, help” could be heard in the background.

The girl told the call-handler:

“He fell on the floor. There was a knife on the floor. We all had a drink. We need an ambulance. He’s bleeding seriously. He’s not responding.”

A male voice can then be heard saying:

“We need [an ambulance] now or he’s gonna die. He’s unconscious; he’s not responding in the slightest. He’s breathing but he’s not there.”

The girl later told police that Seb was backing away from the defendant who was “getting a bit closer” with the knife and “getting louder and louder”.

She said the defendant was acting “like he wanted to hurt all of us in there”, which was “very scary”.

The other girl said she saw the defendant “making jabbing motions” with the blade before stabbing Seb.

She added:

“We were all trying to stop it.

“We were like, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do this, it’s not worth it’.”

She said the defendant was “waving the knife around, putting the knife to [Seb’s] stomach, jabbing [the blade]”.

“That’s when I looked away and when I walked round the corner there was like a silence… with [the defendant] saying, ‘I’m going to wet you up, it doesn’t take much to put it in you.”

She then heard her male friend shouting: “You actually just stabbed him.”

She said Seb was “really drunk”.

The defendant and another teenager were giving Seb chest compressions in an attempt to revive him.

When police arrived, the defendant told them:

“It was me. I was scared. Really sorry. Everyone here are witnesses. I promise I was just trying to defend myself. You can arrest me. This wasn’t meant to happen.”

Mr Moulson said this was a key part of the prosecution evidence as the boy was no longer saying the victim fell on the knife and claiming it was an accident.

The male teenage witness told police that Seb, a black belt in karate who also played football, was the aggressor initially and that the stabbing was an accident.

He said he saw the two boys wrestling in the kitchen following an argument about the broken glass and then the defendant grabbed a knife and told Seb he would “poke him”.

‘Didn’t intend to kill’

The defendant, who admitted manslaughter at a previous hearing, accepts that he deliberately stabbed Seb but denies murder. He claims he didn’t intend to kill or do really serious harm to the teenager.

The prosecution now has to prove that he intended to kill or cause Seb really serious harm to prove murder.

Mohammed Nawaz KC, for the defendant, said:

“We do not say he acted in self-defence. We accept it was not responsible or proportionate for [the defendant] to pick up a knife in response to what was going on.”

He added, however, that it was the defence’s contention that it was not a deliberate stabbing with intent to kill Seb or cause him really serious harm.

A paramedic who arrived at the scene at about 12.20am said that Seb’s clothes were covered in blood. He was laid on a sofa with a 3cm-long puncture wound to his chest.

The trial continues.

Harrogate cocaine and cannabis ring jailed for 31 years

Four members of an organised crime group involved in county lines drug dealing in Harrogate and surrounding areas have been jailed for a total of 31 years.

Ermal Biba, 39 of Trafalgar Court, Harrogate, Allaman Tatariku, 26 of Chatsworth Grove, Harrogate, Klajid Lleshi, 23 of Kinloss Court, Barnet, and Adam Sarkowski, 41 of Wedderburn Close, Harrogate, appeared for sentencing at Leeds Crown Court this morning.

Their activities were uncovered by Operation Logic, a police investigation into the supply of cocaine and cannabis in Harrogate and Rochdale, Greater Manchester, which commenced in September 2021.

The operation led police to Ashfield Road, Harrogate on May 5, 2022. where suspects Biba, Tatariku and Lleshi were discovered.

After attempting to escape and assaulting officers, they were all arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs. Drugs and related items were seized along with cash and cannabis growing equipment.

A search of Sarkowski’s home resulted in mobile phones and sim cards being seized.

These revealed information about county lines, drug-dealing activity and vehicles used, as well as many messages with customers relating to purchasing drugs. Forensic tests on cash found at the property also revealed cocaine traces.

Evidence uncovered by Operation Logic also connected Biba, Lleshi and Woodley to a large-scale cannabis production facility at Sherwood Business Park, Queensway, Rochdale.

The site, uncovered by Greater Manchester Police, grew cannabis with a street value of £1,440,000.

In court this morning, Biba, who was described as the ring leader, was jailed for 13 years and six months.

Tatariku was jailed for seven years and one month and Lleshi was jailed for six years and three months.

Sarkowski was jailed for four years and seven months.

Biba, Tatariku, Lleshi and Sarkowski pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A and class B drugs.

A fifth man, Gavin Woodley, 45, of Fairfax Avenue in Harrogate, was given a suspended sentence in March after pleading guilty to allowing a premises to be used under the Misuse of Drugs act.

Speaking after sentencing at Leeds Crown Court, Sinead Brocken, detective constable at North Yorkshire Police, said:

“We are delighted to have put a stop to this organised crime group, headed by Biba, who were responsible for supplying cocaine and cannabis to Harrogate and the surrounding areas for a period spanning between 2019 to 2022.

“Drug rings such as this have a ruinous effect on our society leaving a trail of misery. These individuals acted out of pure selfishness, disregarding the damage caused by drugs to both our communities and those addicted to them.”

Harrogate dominatrix ordered to pay £1 in £100,000 sex-trafficking racket

A Portuguese dominatrix who ran an international sex-trafficking and prostitution racket, earning over £100,000 in the process, has been made to repay just £1 to the public purse.

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 trafficking sex workers from Brazil and Portugal and running a brothel in Harrogate, where many of the sex workers were based after being flown in from abroad.

Jessica Strange, prosecuting at today’s financial confiscation hearing at Leeds Crown Court, said that De Souza, who was excused attendance at court, had made £136,484 from the human-trafficking plot but had just £1 available in her accounts.

She said the prosecution’s financial investigator found that she had no hidden assets.

Derby, who appeared via video link from Moorland prison, had made profits of £28,288 and had £1,045 in cash or assets available.

Mr Recorder R Ward ordered him to pay £1,045 into the public purse but De Souza was ordered to pay a solitary pound.

The former dominatrix was given one month to pay or face a further four weeks in prison. The former sex worker is due to be deported from the UK when she’s released from jail.

De Souza’s barrister Michael Fullerton said she was due to be deported on August 21.

He claimed that some of her financial gains during the trafficking racket 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”.

Women treated like ‘commodities’

During the 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 services to people 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 sending them 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”, said Mr Lumley.

The prostitutes 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 brothel and two properties in Norfolk between April 2017 and August 2018.

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”.

De Souza and Derby would pay for sex adverts within hours of picking the women up from airports around the country and would “set them up” at the flat on Bower Road.

The adverts were placed on escort websites and included descriptions of the women.

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.

Thousands in bank transfers

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”.

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”.

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

An undercover officer posed as a client to make appointments for the brothel 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.

De Souza and Derby, of Town Street, Upwell, south-west Norfolk, were each jailed for five years in February 2022.

Woman jailed for 22 years for attempting to murder ex-lover’s partner in Bilton

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 incident on Byland Road in Bilton.

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”.

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.

Pioneering young Harrogate barrister appointed judge

A Harrogate barrister has been announced as the youngest ever black and minority ethnic crown court judge in the UK.

Ayesha Smart, 34, can now sit as a Recorder in crown courts across the north east of England.

As well as being the youngest non-white person to take up the role, she will be the third youngest person from any background to be selected.

The process of becoming a judge is complex, involving two sets of exams, a role play exercise and an interview – and the final approval has to be given by the King.

Ayesha told the Stray Ferret:

“Everybody says it takes several goes at the process to get through, so I thought I would give it a go and at least I know what it’s like.

“I anticipated I might be one of the youngest ones in the exams, so I assumed I wouldn’t get anywhere. It was a bit of a nice surprise when I got it!”

Ayesha, who lives near Killinghall, attended Ashville College when she moved to Nidderdale with her family when she was 14.

She went on to study A levels in biology, chemistry and maths, as well as music which she sat early, at St Aidan’s and St John Fisher Associated Sixth Form, before completing an undergraduate degree in medical sciences at the University of Leeds.

Her first professional job was as a pathologist at Harrogate District Hospital, but she decided to turn to the law and completed a conversion course in Leeds.

Quickly securing a pupilage place to complete her training, she was called to the bar in 2014, and has since been working in crown courts around Yorkshire.

Her appointment as Recorder, confirmed on Wednesday this week, means she will undertake an induction before sitting in the role for at least 30 days a year.

Ayesha says she is not nervous about the appointment, adding:

“I come from a science background before I went into law. For me, analysing things and coming to a decision is the bit I find easier.

“For the induction course, we get packed up in a group of other Recorders. Having to do it all in front of them will be slightly nerve-wracking!

“I’m kind of excited – I just want to get going.”

To begin with, Ayesha will continue to work as a barrister part-time. She can then decide whether to continue the dual role or move to be a full-time judge.

She hopes she will help the justice service to tackle a huge backlog of cases that has built up in recent years. She added:

“One of the two-day trials I’m working on, the earliest date we could get for the trial was next October. That’s how backlogged everything is at the moment.

“If one of my trials [as a barrister] collapses and I end up with a bunch of dates free, they may say, ‘we’ve got some cases you can hear’.”

And that is not the only way in which Ayesha hopes to make a difference.

As a pioneering BAME woman, she is aware that her presence will be noticed by the people in front of her.

She said:

“The bar, as a profession, is all old, white, posh people. At least with people like me coming through, it’s a bit more representative of society.

“So many defendants aren’t white. If they see people more like them, it just helps in giving a better perception of fairness.

“Having somebody slightly younger probably helps as well – a more modern way of thinking rather than an old-fashioned approach to everything.

“The drug sentencing guidelines, they’ve had to put a reminder to judges that Blacks and Asians typically get a harsher sentence and ask them to remember that.

“Having someone who appreciates cultural differences and biases, you are a bit more alive to making sure people are treated equally.”

Harrogate dominatrix who ran international sex trafficking racket to be deported

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”.

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

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”.

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.

Beckwithshaw man found guilty of attempted murder

A man has been found guilty of attempted murder in Beckwithshaw.

The accused, who is in his 40s, denied attempting to murder both children, one of whom had his throat slit, on June 20 last year.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court returned a guilty verdict this morning.

The man was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on June 16.

The trial heard prosecuting barrister Robert Stevenson say the man slit the boy’s throat with a 10-inch serrated knife during the incident in June last year.

He told the boy “this needs to happen”, the court heard.

Neither of the children can be named for legal reasons.

The defence told the court that the man had paranoia and deteriorating mental health.

He initially admitted wounding the boy with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and attempting to cause the girl serious harm but denied two counts of attempted murder.

Beckwithshaw attempted murder accused ‘strung bow and arrow’ before attack

A Beckwithshaw man accused of trying to kill two young children had strung a bow-and-arrow in the hours leading up to the attacks, a court heard.

The weapon was discovered at his home, along with several knives, following the horrific incident on June 20 last year.

The accused, who is in his 40s, appeared at Leeds Crown Court today for the second week of his trial. He is accused of attempting to murder both children, one of whom had his throat slit.

In her closing speech this afternoon, defence barrister Kama Louise Melly said the discovery of the weapons was indicative of the accused’s paranoia and deteriorating mental health.

Ms Melly said it was clear that her client’s “thought processes” were “completely consumed” by a delusional belief that he was under threat and that people were “out to get him”.

She said he was “genuinely paranoid about a significant, far-ranging risk to his life”.

Me Melly added that in the past, her client had sought help from his doctor about his paranoia, although there was no diagnosis of paranoid psychosis.

She said the defendant had once asked for a brain scan because he was “concerned his brain was not working right”. He was convinced his house and car had been bugged and that his phone had been hacked.

Ms Melly said the accused had long-standing “paranoid beliefs” including that people were following him in his car.

She said the fact that her client had strung a bow-and-arrow and left it lying around his house, along with several knives, suggested he was “utterly preoccupied” with his delusional beliefs that people were out to get him and were conspiring against him.

Ms Melly said the evidence suggested it was “absolutely plain” that the defendant had no intention to kill the children.

‘Like a horror film’

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard harrowing evidence about how one of the children had his throat cut by the accused who also allegedly tried to kill a young girl.

The accused is alleged to have told them “this needs to happen”, before attacking them.

Two workmen went to the aid of the children, one of whom was holding his neck to stem the bleeding and the other who had blood on her shirt and was described as “hysterical”.

They said the scene resembled a “horror film” and that at first they thought it was a Halloween prank.

They described the boy’s injuries as “horrific, like (in) a horror film”.

One of the named witnesses said:

“He had his throat cut open and I could see inside the cut.

“He had his hands across his throat. There was blood everywhere. He seemed in shock and really distraught.”

They called the emergency services and an ambulance took the children to hospital, where the boy, who suffered life-threatening injuries, was taken straight to an emergency operating theatre.

He suffered a “large neck laceration”, severed jugular veins and nerve and muscle damage, as well as damage to his Adam’s Apple. His neck wound was closed with deep sutures.

He was expected to make a good recovery, but doctors said it was very likely he would continue to suffer from complications including scarring and nerve damage.

‘Paranoia and drinking’

A female witness for the prosecution who knew the accused man said he had mental-health problems including bouts of paranoia and that his drinking made this worse.

The accused is alleged to have slit the boy’s throat with a 10-inch serrated knife.

Prosecutor Laura Addy said police found numerous knives at the defendant’s home, as well as a home-made petrol incendiary device and a bottle of morphine on the kitchen table.

Two psychiatrists who assessed him following his arrest deemed him fit to stand trial and said he was not insane.

The defendant admitted wounding the boy with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and attempting to cause the girl serious harm but denies two counts of attempted murder.

The trial continues.

Guilty plea ends trial into alleged Harrogate cocaine racket

The trial of three men allegedly involved in a cocaine-and-cannabis racket potentially worth millions has ended prematurely after one entered guilty pleas to conspiracy and two others were acquitted.

Kole Lleshi, 54, of Hargrove Road, Harrogate, Allaman Tatariku, 25, from Hampshire, and Gavin Woodley, 44, of Ashfield Road, Harrogate, were on trial for their alleged part in the lucrative narcotics conspiracy run by an Albanian organised-crime group.

The trial began at Leeds Crown Court on Monday when the prosecution told the jury how “kilo blocks” of cannabis and cocaine were being transported between London and Harrogate where they were sold on the street.

However, on the second day of the trial, Kole Lleshi and Woodley, who both admitted involvement in the supply of Class A and B drugs but denied being part of the wider conspiracy, were acquitted of the more serious charge after the prosecution decided to offer no evidence against them.

Tatariku, of Penhale Road, Portsmouth, ultimately admitted two counts of conspiring to supply Class A and B drugs and will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.

The gang’s ringleader, former Harrogate restaurant worker Ermal Biba, 38, is also due to be sentenced after already admitting his part in the mega-money drug plot, along with Kladji Lleshi, 23, of Kinloss Court, London, and Adam Sarkowski, 41, formerly of Wedderburn Close, Harrogate.

Dritan Lleshaj, 53, formerly of Spring Mount, Harrogate, had already been jailed and deported for possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis.

Biba, of Trafalgar Court, Harrogate, admitted conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis between June 2019 and May 2022.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson said the conspirators, mostly Albanian nationals, were also involved in a £1.5 million cannabis farm in Rochdale which was connected to the Harrogate operation.

Biba was the lynchpin between two distinct conspiracies in which, after his first foot soldiers were arrested, he recruited others, incliuding Kladji Lleshi, Tatariku, Woodley and Sarkowski.

Biba was released under investigation following his initial arrest in May 2020 for the first conspiracy, which involved Kole Lleshi and Dritan Lleshaj, but continued operating “dealer lines” in Harrogate run by an “organised-crime group”.

Kole Lleshi admitted his part in the drug operation by transporting a kilo of cocaine from London to Harrogate in September 2019.

However, he denied being involved in the wider conspiracy.

Harrogate ‘drug run’

In September 2019, Biba arranged a “drug run” which involved Kole Lleshi driving to London and bringing back Class A drugs to Harrogate.

Biba was in contact with an unknown man in London from whom Lleshi was ostensibly to collect the drugs. A few weeks later, Biba sent Kole Lleshi a text message saying: “We go tomorrow.”

The following day, Lleshi set off for London again in a Kia vehicle, ostensibly for a drug pick-up, and returned to Yorkshire where he was stopped by police on the A1 near Doncaster. During a search of his car, officers found a kilo block of high-purity cocaine in a plastic bag. The drugs had a “wholesale” value of £25,000.

The following day, Lleshaj was arrested after meeting Biba in a Harrogate restaurant. Lleshaj was found with £419 in cash and five wraps of cocaine.

He told police he was homeless, but they found the keys to his house in Spring Mount and searched it. They found “various quantities” of cocaine and about £2,000 cash.

Woodley played the role of “facilitator” by allowing the gang to supply drugs from his rented house in Ashfield Road, where they found 264g of high-purity cocaine and two large “vacuum packages” of cannabis worth up to £11,000.

Biba, Lleshaj, Tatariku and Kladji Leshi were said to be regular visitors to this property where police also found “debt lists”, cash, digital weighing scales and hydroponic equipment.

Woodley was subsequently arrested at his then home in Fairfax Avenue, Harrogate, where police found a small amount of cocaine and cannabis and a torch-like stun gun.

Ms Robinson said Greater Manchester Police raided an industrial unit in Rochdale in March last year when they arrested two Albanian men after they found a large cannabis grow on an “industrial” scale.

Those two men admitted cultivating cannabis at the factory which had a harvest of 144 kilos with an estimated “street value” of £1.5 million.

Ms Robinson said:

“(Police) surveillance had been carried out and members of the organised crime group in Harrogate regularly visited this industrial estate in Rochdale.

“ANPR (cameras) showed Mr Biba’s vehicle travelling in that direction and Kladji Lleshi and Allaman Tatariku’s phones showed they travelled down the M62 from Harrogate to Rochdale.”

Biba, Kladji Lleshi and Sarkowski all admitted their part in that cannabis conspiracy.

Kole Lleshi admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply and had already served a 40-month prison sentence for that, but denied having knowledge of the wider conspiracy, claiming he was “simply on an errand” to collect something from London in September 2019 but that he didn’t know what that was.

Woodley, who was said to have worked in Harrogate restaurants with Biba, admitted possessing a prohibited weapon, namely the stun gun, and allowing his premises to be used for the supply of drugs, but was acquitted of all other charges including conspiracy in the wider drug plot.

He was given a 23-week suspended prison sentence.

Biba, Sarkowski, Kladji Lleshi and now Tatariku will be sentenced at a later date.

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Grabbed knife during argument

‘Fell on the knife’

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‘Didn’t intend to kill’

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Women treated like ‘commodities’

Thousands in bank transfers

Arrested in Birmingham

Charged with attempted murder

Needs wheelchair

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‘Flying in’ sex workers

Bower Road brothel

Undercover officer

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‘Like a horror film’

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‘Paranoia and drinking’

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Harrogate ‘drug run’

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