Beckwithshaw attempted murder accused told boy ‘this needs to happen’

Warning: this article contains information some people may find upsetting.

A man accused of slitting a boy’s throat told the youngster “this needs to happen” before cutting his neck, a trial has heard.

The man from Beckwithshaw tried to do the same to a young girl who was “hysterical” and had blood on her shirt and cuts on her fingers, a jury at Leeds Crown Court heard.

The accused, who is in his 40s, is charged with two counts of attempted murder. 

He appeared for the second day of his trial yesterday when jurors heard harrowing testimony from two workmen who found the children, one of whom had a gaping neck wound and the other bloodied fingers.

One of the workmen said the seriously injured boy’s neck wound was so wide “it was like a Cheshire- cat smile”.

His colleague said he initially thought it was a “Halloween prank” at first but he “quickly realised it wasn’t” when he saw the extent of the boy’s injury.

The witness said:

“His injuries were horrific, like a horror film.

“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. I couldn’t believe what was happening; it was struggling to register with me and I was also in shock.

“I was standing on the street. I was worried for my own safety.”

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The workman called to his colleague to get something to stem the child’s bleeding and he wrapped a hoodie around the boy’s neck.

The witness called an ambulance and told them:

“I thought it needed police as well as it slowly started to sink in what had happened.

“I was really worried about the situation and wanted the emergency services to get there as quickly as possible.”

He said the young girl who was also bleeding was “very distraught and upset”.

Alleged victims ‘really distraught’

Police arrived, followed shortly afterwards by an ambulance crew. The children were put in the ambulance and taken to hospital.

The witness’ colleague, who was also named in court, said he heard “what seemed like a kid’s scream or shout”.

He said he saw the young boy holding his neck to stem the flow of blood.

He added:

“The wound looked really bad.

“It was like a Cheshire-cat smile and went wide across his neck and I could see inside the wound. I ran to get my hoodie. I put the hoodie on the boy’s cut and he held it there around his neck. 

“He was a bit teary before I put the hoodie on his neck but that seemed to calm him down a bit.”

He said he saw a young girl “with blood on her…top”.

He added:

“She was crying her eyes out; she was really distraught.”

She told the witness that the man who had cut the boy’s throat had also “tried to get at her as well”.

He added:

“She was obviously really scared and she was hysterical.

“I reassured her that he wouldn’t hurt her as I was there to protect her. I put my arm around the girl…to reassure her that she was safe now.”

He added:

“I felt so annoyed and shocked.

“I couldn’t believe what was happening. The little girl was hysterical. I put my arm around her.”

He said the children seemed “petrified” and that the girl told him she heard the man say “this needs to happen” before launching the alleged attack.

He said that the street seemed eerily quiet at the time and that he and his colleague were the only ones who went to help.

‘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. 

Prosecuting barrister Robert Stevenson alleged that the accused slit the boy’s throat with a 10-inch serrated knife during the incident in June last year.

Neither of the children can be named for legal reasons. 

The trial continues. 

Albanian crime group ran huge cocaine racket in Harrogate, court hears

An Albanian organised crime group ran a cocaine and cannabis racket in Harrogate potentially worth millions, a court heard.

The mega-money conspiracy involved “kilo blocks” of cocaine and cannabis being transported between London and Harrogate where the drugs were sold on the street, a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told yesterday.

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

Yesterday, Kole Lleshi, 54, of Hargrove Road, Harrogate, Gavin Woodley, 44, of Ashfield Road, Harrogate and Allaman Tatariku, 25, of Penhale Road, Portsmouth appeared for the first day of their trial after they each denied playing a part in the wider conspiracy.

The gang’s ringleader, former Harrogate restaurant worker Ermal Biba, 38, had already admitted his part in the lucrative drug plot, along with Kladji Lleshi, 23, of Kinloss Court, London, Dritan Lleshaj, 53, formerly of Spring Mount, Harrogate, and Adam Sarkowski, 41, formerly of Wedderburn Close, Harrogate.

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

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

She said the first conspiracy involved Biba, Kole Lleshi and Dritan Lleshaj, who had also admitted, and been jailed for, possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis. Lleshaj was deported to his homeland.

‘Dealer lines’

Biba was released under investigation following his initial arrest in May 2020 for the first conspiracy but then recruited another group of conspirators and continued operating “dealer lines” in Harrogate run by an “organised-crime group”, added the prosecuting barrister.

Kole Lleshi was arrested and 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.

Ms Robinson said police surveillance officers had been tracking Biba, Lleshaj and Kole Lleshi during the first conspiracy in 2019.

They recorded Biba and Lleshaj “meeting regularly” and were monitoring their whereabouts when, in September 2019, Biba arranged a “drug run” which involved Kole Lleshi driving to London and bringing back Class A drugs to Harrogate.

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Biba was in contact with an unknown man in London from whom Lleshi was ostensibly to collect the drugs, added Ms Robinson.

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 wrapped in a sock. 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.

High-purity cocaine

She said Woodley played the role of “facilitator” in the conspiracy 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 for growing cannabis.

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 an estimated harvest of 144 kilos with an estimated “street value” of £1.5 million. Ms Robinson added:

“(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.”

Woodley’s red Transit van also made journeys to Rochdale, said Ms Robinson.

Biba, Kladji Lleshi and Sarkowski all admitted their part in that cannabis conspiracy. Tatariku said he was involved in the supply of cocaine and cannabis but that he was not involved in a conspiracy with other people.

Woodley said although he was the tenant at the Ashfield Road property, he “couldn’t remember” the name of the landlord and “knew nothing” about the drugs found there. He denied playing any part in drug supply but said he knew Biba, with whom he worked in Harrogate restaurants.

The trial continues.

Trial begins into man charged with attempted murder in Beckwithshaw

The trial has begun of a man accused of the attempted murder of two children in a village near Harrogate.

The man, who is in his 40s, appeared at Leeds Crown Court yesterday when barrister Robert Stevenson opened the case for the prosecution.

The defendant, of Otley Road, Beckwithshaw, denies two counts of attempted murder. He was arrested following an incident on June 20 last year.

The alleged victims cannot be named for legal reasons.

The trial is expected to last five days. 

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Teenager pleads not guilty to murder of Seb Mitchell in Harrogate

A 16-year-old boy has pleaded not guilty after being charged with the murder of Seb Mitchell in Harrogate.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied the charge at a hearing at Leeds Crown Court this morning.

It follows an incident on Claro Road in the early hours of Sunday, February 19, where Seb Mitchell, 17, was found at a property on the street with injuries.

He died at Leeds General Infirmary two days later. He would have turned 18 on February 28.

The 16-year-old is due to reappear before Leeds Crown Court on July 7 this year.

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Police officer cleared of sexual assault in Harrogate

A police officer has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at a cemetery in Harrogate.

Christopher Hudson, 32, a Harrogate police constable, was accused of assaulting the woman in a car park at Stonefall Cemetery on Wetherby Road.

However, following a trial at Leeds Crown Court, a jury today unanimously acquitted Mr Hudson of the allegation.

The prosecution had alleged that Mr Hudson had stroked the woman on the back of the neck and ear and “pulled her…towards him” before kissing her.

Prosecuting barrister Gerald Hendron alleged that Mr Hudson then took hold of her hand and placed it on an intimate part of his body despite her telling him “no” repeatedly.

He alleged that Mr Hudson then put his hand on the woman’s inner thigh and that she was “shocked and confused”.

Mr Hendron said the woman had sought help from a counsellor about stress which was brought on by the alleged incident in February 2021.

‘Inconsistencies’

However, defence barrister Rebecca Hadgett said there were “inconsistencies” in the woman’s account of events and that Mr Hudson “never touched her in the way she alleges”.

Mr Hudson, of Hollin Terrace, Huddersfield, was arrested in March 2021 when he denied sexually assaulting the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

He was suspended from his job pending the outcome of the trial.

Mr Hudson, who worked for West Yorkshire Police before joining the North Yorkshire force in 2020, walked free from the dock when the jury returned its verdict a short time after retiring to deliberate.

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Man denies two counts of attempted murder in Beckwithshaw

A man will face trial accused of two counts of attempted murder following an incident in a village near Harrogate.

The man, in his 40s, appeared at Leeds Crown Court today when he pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempted murder. The alleged victims cannot be named for legal reasons.

The defendant, of Otley Road, Beckwithsaw, was arrested following an incident in the village on June 20 last year.

Mrs Justice Lambert adjourned the case for a trial at the same court on March 27. It’s expected to last five days.

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Ripon man jailed for stabbing and biting police during ‘horrifying’ scenes

A man has been jailed for nearly five years for stabbing a young soldier in a “horrifying” attack in Ripon and biting police officers following his arrest.

Kyle Harpin, 34, went ballistic after a woman rejected his advances in a bar in the city centre and turned her attention to the victim instead, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Aggrieved by this rejection, Harpin crept up on the victim outside in the street and pulled out a 19-inch blade from the waistband of his trousers, said prosecutor Ben Campbell.

He pressed the knife against the victim’s throat, causing a cut to the front of his neck.

The victim walked away but Harpin, who was drunk, followed him down the street. He then stabbed the young man in the side of his stomach, causing a four-centimetre puncture wound.

The victim thought he had been punched but later realised he had been stabbed after noticing blood trickling from a wound to the side of his body, said Mr Campbell.

He was taken to Harrogate District Hospital and was discharged the following day after scans revealed no serious or life-threatening injuries.

Ripon night out

Mr Campbell said the victim had been out with friends for a night out in Ripon. By the end of the night, at about 4am on October 16 last year, he got talking to, and then kissed, the woman whom Harpin had tried to chat up in the bar earlier in the evening.

Unbeknown to the victim, Harpin was watching them while concealing a knife inside his waistband. Mr Campbell said:

“(Harpin) approached (the victim) from behind and put the knife to his throat.”

When the victim tried to walk away, Harpin plunged the knife into his side and then jogged off.

Leeds Crown Court. Picture: the Stray Ferret.

Harpin was was jailed for four years at Leeds Crown Court.

The victim, who was also drunk, said it felt “like a punch to the left side of his ribs” but then “looked down and could see he was bleeding”.

His friends took him to his army camp nearby where he was treated in the guard room before being taken to hospital where medical staff applied steri strips to his neck and a puncture dressing to the torso wound.

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Harpin, of Priest Lane, Ripon, was arrested and became “agitated and aggressive” with officers as they escorted him to custody, repeatedly banging his head against the police van and swearing at them.

He was taken to Harrogate hospital due to his repeated butting of the police vehicle. His handcuffs were removed to allow staff to check his blood pressure, but Harpin then threatened to punch the officers, before lunging at one of them and grabbing an officer by the throat in a chokehold. Mr Campbell added:

“He then shouted repeatedly that he was going to bite the nose from her face.”

He then tried to headbutt another officer before biting him on the hand. Harpin was arrested again and continued to hurl abuse at officers, including racial slurs. Mr Campbell said:

“He was making other threats that he would rape the wives of a police officer.”

Police found the knife, which was encased in a black sheath, in an alleyway in Ripon.

Charged with attempted murder

Harpin was initially charged with attempted murder of the stab victim but denied this and ultimately offered a plea to an alternative charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. This plea was accepted by the prosecution and the attempted-murder charge was dropped.

He was also charged with carrying a blade, threatening a person with a knife, two counts of assaulting a police officer and racially aggravated threatening behaviour towards one of the constables. He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence via video link yesterday.

The court heard he had 23 previous convictions for over 30 offences dating back 20 years including theft, assaulting and resisting police officers, public disorder and battery.

Defence barrister Robert Mochrie said Harpin had drug and alcohol issues in the past and been diagnosed with mental health problems following a troubled upbringing, but conceded that the incident in Ripon was a “horrifying scene”.

Judge Tom Bayliss KC said although Harpin was “no stranger to trouble with the police”, his latest offences were “of a different order” to those he had committed in the past. He added:

“Because what you have now demonstrated is that you are perfectly prepared to go out at night on the streets of Ripon armed with a knife and to threaten people with it and to use it to inflict injury or serious injury.”

He said the young soldier “must have been terrified” when Harpin drew out the blade and noted that Harpin had “already threatened others with it”. Mr Bayliss said:

“It’s purely good fortune that he did not suffer more serious injuries.”

He said he was “quite satisfied” Harpin posed a risk of harm to the public and therefore found him to be a dangerous offender in the eyes of the law.

Harpin, who clutched Rosary beads during his court appearance from a custody suite, was jailed for four years and nine months and was told he would only become eligible for parole two-thirds the way through that sentence, and only then if the parole board deemed him fit to be released.

As a dangerous offender, Harpin was also ordered to serve an extended three-year period on prison licence.

 

 

Ex-Harrogate guest house owner ordered to repay £140,000 for role in cannabis racket

An elderly Harrogate guest house owner who played the role of “facilitator” in a half-a-million-pound cannabis racket has been ordered to repay over £140,000 to the public purse.

Yoko Banks, 72, rented out three properties to a London-based Albanian drug gang, which set up large-scale cannabis factories harvesting “industrial” amounts of the highly potent skunk variety in some of Harrogate’s most desirable and affluent residential streets.

Banks, who was constantly in touch with the drug conspirators during their operation but played no active part in the cultivation process, was jailed for three-and-a-half years in August 2021 after she admitted three counts of being concerned in the supply of cannabis.

Her six co-conspirators Andi Kokaj, 23, Visar Sellaj, 33, Kujtim Brahaj, 50, Indrit Brahaj, 27, Bledar Elezaj, 36, and 31-year-old Erblin Elezaj, were jailed for a combined 22 years for various offences including drug supply and cannabis production.

Today, the disgraced former guest-house owner appeared for the final confiscation hearing at Leeds Crown Court under the Proceeds of Crime Act following a protracted case due in large part to Banks’s own “complex web” of properties and assets and what the prosecution described as her reluctance to co-operate with the financial investigation. 

Cannabis farms

Prosecutor Martin Bosomworth said that it was agreed by both the prosecution and defence that Banks had benefited from the drug racket to the tune of £142,330. 

He said it was agreed by both parties that the amount available to her was £565,347 – essentially half a million in assets or properties.

Judge Rachim Singh ordered Banks, of Scargill Road, to pay back the full benefit amount of £142,330 and gave her three months to pay on pain of 12 months in prison.

It comes just two months after one of Banks’s co-conspirators, Andi Kokaj, was made to pay back just £1 at the same court. The nominal fee was ordered due to the Albanian national’s apparent lack of means, his relatively “minor” role in the audacious drug plot and his limited financial gain.

Mr Bosomworth said the gang had converted three of Banks’ properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre into cannabis farms with potential yields of up to £456,000. 

They made an estimated £345,000 from the highly sophisticated enterprise in which they dug a trench outside one of the properties to install high-speed broadband so they could keep a check on the premises on internet-enabled security cameras. 

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Their hugely lucrative plot finally unravelled when police were called to a five-bedroom villa owned by Banks in September 2020 after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the cannabis farm.

The gang were able to watch the police drug raid live on the internet after rigging up a superfast broadband connection linked to cameras at the property, where officers found a crossbow at the front door.

‘Complicated accounts’

Last year, Banks failed in her bid to have her conviction quashed after earlier admitting her guilt. 

At a previous adjourned confiscation hearing, Mr Bosomworth said that Banks owned a string of “highly marketable” properties in some of Harrogate’s most desirable areas.

He added, however, that her “complicated accounts and property empire” were proving to be a major sticking point in the ongoing financial investigation.

Leeds Crown Court. Picture: the Stray Ferret.

Leeds Crown Court. Picture: the Stray Ferret.

On that occasion, Banks – who was due to be released from New Hall women’s prison on New Year’s Eve, halfway through her jail sentence – claimed she had no money because it had been frozen in her bank account. 

Mr Bosomworth said that Sellaj, the gang’s ringleader, had made £438,000 from the cannabis-cultivation enterprise and that he had £76,000 in the bank which he could pay back into public coffers.

At a contested financial confiscation hearing in May last year, it was found that Indrit Brahaj had jointly benefited from the criminal enterprise to the tune of £133,328. In his case, a confiscation order of £24,082 was made.

Kujtim Brahaj was found to have benefited to the tune of £1,194. The judge made a nominal confiscation order of £1 in his case due to limited financial means. 

Banks, who had previous convictions for health-and-safety offences through her work, was due to be paid at least £12,000 a month in rent for allowing the gang to use the three properties and was also receiving “high” deposits, said Mr Bosomworth.

Ringleader Sellaj’s financial confiscation proceedings have been adjourned for a full-day hearing on a date to be fixed. This will determine the amount of cash available to him and how much he must pay back.

Ripon man appears in court charged with attempted murder

A Ripon man appeared in court today charged with attempted murder.

Kyle Harpin, 33, of Priest Lane, was charged with attempting to murder Ben Mintcher on North Street on October 16 last year.

He pleaded not guilty at Leeds Crown Court, where the case was adjourned.

Harpin today pleaded guilty to six other charges, including possessing a knife on North Street in Ripon, two charges of threatening a person with a blade or sharply pointed article in public, two charges of assaulting a police constable at Harrogate District Hospital, and racially aggravated harassment of another police officer at Harrogate Police Station.

He will be sentenced for these crimes on February 21.

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Man ordered to pay £1 for role in £500,000 Harrogate cannabis racket

An Albanian drug conspirator involved in a half-a-million-pound cannabis racket in Harrogate has been made to pay back just £1 to the public purse and is apparently “nowhere to be found”.

Andi Kokaj, 23, was part of a London-based gang which conspired with former Harrogate guest-house owner Yoko Banks to set up three lucrative cannabis factories in affluent streets.

He was jailed for three years in August last year for being concerned in the production of cannabis.

At a financial confiscation hearing today at Leeds Crown Court, judge Tom Bayliss KC ruled that Kokaj would pay a nominal fee of £1 after the prosecution said he played a “minor” role in the criminal enterprise.

Prosecutor Michael Bosomworth said the gang had converted three of Banks’ properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre into cannabis farms with potential yields of up to £456,000. The gang made an estimated £345,000 from the drug plot.

However, Kokaj, played a “lesser role” and was paid just £80 a day for his part in the conspiracy and so made a financial gain of £1,120, added Mr Bosomworth.

He said that Kokaj, from London but of no fixed address, had no assets.

Mr Bayliss KC duly made the nominal £1 order due to Kokaj’s limited financial means.

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Kokaj didn’t attend the confiscation hearing and the court heard he was “probably nowhere to be found”.

When he was sentenced last summer, he was told he would only have to serve half of the three-year sentence behind bars, less the time he had spent on remand, which means he is likely to have been released from jail.

Yoko Banks case adjourned again

Banks, 74, of Scargill Road, Harrogate, was also due to face financial confiscation today but her case was adjourned yet again for the service of financial documents setting out her complex web of assets and properties.

Earlier this year, the former B&B boss and property tycoon failed in her bid to have her conviction quashed after being convicted of three counts of being concerned in the production of cannabis.

Yoko Banks

Yoko Banks

The court heard the disgraced pensioner was the “facilitator” for the Albanian gang’s cannabis-cultivation enterprise.

Her six co-conspirators, Kokaj, Visar Sellaj, 33, Kujtim Brahaj, 50, Indrit Brahaj, 27, Bledar Elezaj, 36, and 31-year-old Erblin Elezaj, were jailed for a combined 22 years for various offences including drug supply and production of the highly potent skunk cannabis in August 2021.

Banks, who rented out her three properties to the gang to convert into cannabis farms, was jailed for three-and-a-half years and is due to be released from New Hall women’s prison in West Yorkshire on December 31, halfway through her sentence.

At a previous adjourned confiscation hearing, Mr Bosomworth said that Banks owned a string of “highly marketable” properties in some of Harrogate’s most desirable areas.

He added, however, that her “complicated accounts and property empire” were proving to be a major sticking point in the ongoing financial investigation.

On that occasion, Banks claimed she had no money because it had been frozen in her bank account. She said, however, that she had “a lot” of assets.

Ringleader made £438,000

Mr Bosomworth said that Sellaj, the gang’s ringleader, had made £438,000 from the cannabis-cultivation enterprise and that he had £76,000 in the bank which he could pay back into public coffers.

At a contested financial confiscation hearing in May, it was found that Indrit Brahaj had jointly benefited from the criminal enterprise to the tune of £133,328. In his case, a confiscation order of £24,082 was made.

Kujtim Brahaj was found to have benefited to the tune of £1,194. The judge made a nominal confiscation order of £1 in his case due to limited financial means.

The prosecution said that Banks rented out her properties to the “professional” drug gang for “industrial” cannabis production “in the expectation of significant profit”, though she had no part in the actual cultivation process.

Their mega-money plot finally unravelled when police were called to a five-bedroom villa owned by Banks in September 2020 after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the cannabis farm.

Banks, who had previous convictions for health-and-safety offences through her work, was due to be paid at least £12,000 a month in rent for use of the three properties and was also receiving “high” deposits, said Mr Bosomworth.

Her final confiscation hearing was adjourned to January 6 next year to give her defence counsel time to provide evidence that some of the bank transfers to her account were “legitimate”.

Ringleader Sellaj’s financial confiscation proceedings were adjourned for a full-day hearing to determine the amount of cash available to him.