A trial opened today into an alleged murder on Harrogate’s Mayfield Grove.
Daniel Ainsley, 24, of no fixed address, appeared before Leeds Crown Court charged with the murder of Mark Wolsey on March 5.
Mr Wolsey, 48, died at the scene after police arrived at 38 Mayfield Grove at around 10pm.
Ainsley was arrested on suspicion of murder the same day. He denies the charge on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to an “abnormality of mental functioning”.
He appeared before the court this afternoon and spoke only to confirm his name.
Daniel Ainsley
In his opening statement this morning, prosecutor Mark McKone QC told the court that Mr Ainsley had murdered Mr Wolsey by “stabbing him many times with a large knife”.
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The court heard how the two men had been living in Mr Wolsey’s bedsit and had known each other for three years.
Mr McKone said Mr Ainsley had lived in the bedsit after “losing his accommodation”.
The prosecution said that at around 8.40pm on March 5, neighbours “heard arguing” coming from Flat 4 of 38 Mayfield Grove.
A 13-minute 999 phone call made by Mr Wolsey on the night was played to the court. In it, Mr Wolsey was heard asking for officers to come and remove Mr Ainsley from his bedsit.
After officers arrived, Mr Ainsley told them that he “just wanted his medication” and that Mr Wolsey was keeping it from him. Police later took him to Harrogate District Hospital to get some, Mr McKone said.
CCTV footage played by the prosecution showed Mr Ainsley leaving the hospital at 9.21pm and heading to Asda supermarket on Bower Road.
Footage from the supermarket then showed Mr Ainsley going to the kitchenware aisle and purchasing a box of knives before disposing of all but one.
Leeds Crown Court. Picture: The Stray Ferret.
The court was then shown footage of Mr Ainsley returning to Mayfield Grove. The prosecution then played a phone call made by Mr Ainsley at 10.06pm to the police where he told the call handler he had “killed someone”.
The prosecution alleges that Mr Ainsley was able to make “rational choices” and had murdered Mr Wolsey.
Mr McKone said:
“The defendant could and did make a rational judgement and rational decision.”
The prosecution will give further evidence tomorrow.
‘Deep shame and regret’ at former Harrogate vicar’s child sex offencesThe Diocese of Leeds has spoken of its “deep shame and regret” after a former Harrogate vicar was jailed for child sex offences.
Gordon Newton, who was a team vicar at St Wilfrid’s Church on Duchy Road until 2016 when he moved to his recent position in Batley, pleaded guilty to 12 charges at Leeds Crown Court on Friday.
Six of the charges were for sexual assault of a child aged under 13, three were for engaging in sexual activity with a child aged under 13 and three were for making indecent photos of a child.
He was sentenced to nine years and seven months in prison.
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The Diocese of Leeds oversees five episcopal areas, one of which is Ripon, which includes churches in Harrogate.
The Stray Ferret asked the diocese whether any investigation was being undertaken regarding Newton’s time in Harrogate, but it said it would not be offering any comment on St Wilfrid’s, which is an Anglican parish church.
However, the Stray Ferret understands there is no previous or ongoing North Yorkshire Police investigation into Newton.
In response to the sentencing, a spokesperson for the diocese said:
“It is a matter of deep shame and regret that Gordon Newton has been sentenced for offences of child sexual abuse.
“Child sexual abuse is a terrible crime and a grievous breach of trust, which has life-long effects.
“This is deeply shocking and of course, the victims of any such crimes must be foremost in our thoughts and prayers.
“The Anglican Diocese of Leeds safeguarding team has worked closely with all concerned since it was made aware of these allegations and has offered pastoral care and support.
“The Diocese of Leeds is committed to making the church a safer place for all and has clear safeguarding procedures in place, but we are aware we can never be complacent.”
The Stray Ferret has approached St Wilfrid’s Church for comment but has not received a response.
According to an annual report published by the church, which is on Duchy Road, Newton joined as assistant curate in May 2012 before being licensed as team vicar in April 2013.
He was also member of the management team at the Jennyfield Styan Community Centre and a chaplain with the Harrogate and District Sea Cadets.
Former Harrogate vicar jailed for sexual abuse of three-year-old girlA former Harrogate vicar has been jailed for sexually abusing a three-year-old girl.
Gordon Newton, 40, of Cross Church Street, Huddersfield, was team vicar at St Wilfrid’s Church before he moved to be vicar at Staincliffe and Carlinghow, Batley, in 2016.
According to an annual report published by the church, which is on Duchy Road, Newton joined as assistant curate in May 2012 before being licensed as team vicar in April 2013.
He was also member of the management team at the Jennyfield Styan Community Centre and a chaplain with the Harrogate and District Sea Cadets.
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Newton pleaded guilty to 12 charges at Leeds Crown Court on Friday (September 3).
Six of the charges were for sexual assault on a child aged under 13, three were for engaging in sexual activity with a child aged under 13 and three were for making indecent photos of a child.
He was jailed for nine years and seven months.
The Stray Ferret contacted St Wilfrid’s Church for comment, but did not receive a response by time of publication.
Ex-guest house owner from Harrogate, 73, jailed for three-and-a-half yearsAn Albanian drug gang who ran a half-a-million-pound skunk-cannabis factory in quiet residential streets in Harrogate have been jailed for a combined 22 years.
Their “facilitator” was 73-year-old former guest-house owner Yoko Banks, who rented out her properties for “industrial” cannabis production “in the expectation of significant” profit”, Leeds Crown Court heard.
The disgraced businesswoman, who owns a string of “highly marketable” properties in some of Harrogate’s most desirable areas, is now starting a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence.
She and the six Albanian gangsters appeared for sentence on Friday after they each admitted playing a part in the audacious drugs plot worth at least half a million pounds.
Prosecutor Martin Bosomworth said the “professional”, London-based gang had invested tens of thousands into the three cannabis factories at Banks’s properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre.
The brazen criminals had even dug a trench outside the three-storey Edwardian villa on Alexandra Road through which they fed electricity cables to the house to power the “highly sophisticated” cultivation system and bypass the electricity grid.
On one occasion, neighbours in the affluent street spotted the gang digging the ditch underneath a pavement and up the driveway. When they asked them what they were doing, they were told they were laying cables “for a fast-fibre broadband connection”.
The gang’s audacious plot finally unravelled when police were called to the five-bedroom villa at about 8.30pm on September 26 last year after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the mega-money cannabis farm.
Crossbow found in house
Officers found 283 plants in the four growing rooms inside the mock-Tudor house, which was fitted with CCTV cameras. Chillingly, police also found “large” crossbow and arrows next to the front door. The plants had a potential yield of up to 21 kilos.
Mr Bosomworth said the “organised” gang had operated the lighting, electrical and “security” systems remotely through broadband technology and were even able to watch a “live feed” of the drugs bust over the internet.
There were other large grows at two of Banks’s other properties which had the “capability of producing industrial amounts” of the highly potent skunk.
She had rented the properties to the Albanians through an “unidentified individual who goes by the name of Francesco”, who sub-let the houses to the gang’s ringleader Visar Sellaj, 33, in the spring or summer of 2020.
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Sellaj, Kujtim Brahaj, 50, Indrit Brahaj, 27, Bledar Elezaj, 36, Andi Kokaj, 23, and 31-year-old Erblin Elezaj, an illegal immigrant, admitted various charges relating to the production and supply of cannabis but only at the Alexandra Road property.
Banks, of Scargill Road, admitted three counts of being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
Cannabis worth £300,000 found in van
Mr Bosomworth said that just before the “disturbance” on September 26, two unidentified men turned up at the property in a Citroen van and forced the door open. They left the property “carrying bundles of vegetation to the van”. He added:
“An Audi was (then) seen to arrive in the street from which five males exited – these being the Albanian defendants.
“They chased the Citroen through the street, but the van made off.”
Following the run-in with what appeared to be a rival gang, and realising they’d been rumbled, the six Albanians went into the property and “made a hasty clearance of such mature cannabis plants as they could find”.
They loaded the plants into a rented Transit van which was then driven, along with the Audi, back down south.
Police found the remaining 283 plants in the growing rooms and a “large, loaded crossbow” next to the front door.
The Transit van and the Audi were “trapped” on the M1 by police in Hertfordshire and were finally stopped on the M25 just after midnight.
Police found 30kg of “saleable”, harvested cannabis plants inside the van worth about £300,000.
Inside the £26,000 Audi SQ5, which belonged to Sellaj, police found £3,675 cash and an 18-carat-gold Rolex watch worth £28,000.
‘Industrial’ operation
The court heard that on September 22, four days before the drugs bust, Sellaj — who had a “large amount of money” in his bank account — booked a four-star B&B at the historic Arden House on the quiet, tree-lined Franklin Road.
As well as the 283 plants at the Alexandra Road factory, there were also 143 “root balls” from previous harvests and 6kg of cannabis flower buds. The “industrial” operation would have yielded between 11kg and 33 kilos worth up to £330,000.
A total of 59 cannabis plants, worth up to £83,000, were found at Banks’ Somerset Road property and 86 plants, with a “bulk value” of up to £62,000, were discovered at the house on Woodlands Road.
The total potential yield of the 395 plants was 45 kilos, with a combined value of up to £456,000. This was in addition to the 30 kilos found in the vans and did not include previous harvests.
Although Banks was not involved in the cultivation, she had played a “facilitating” or advisory role in the plot. She was in “regular communication” with ‘Francesco’ and Sellaj through Whatsapp messages and constantly “pressing to be paid by them”.
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 the three properties and was also receiving “high” deposits.
‘Supplementing her pension’
Benjamin Whittingham, for Banks, said she had let out the properties to “supplement” her weekly pension due to financial pressures.
Indrit Brahaj, of Whitings Road, Barnet; Kokaj, of no fixed address; Sellaj, of Newnham Road, London; and Erblin Elezaj, of no fixed abode, all admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis and possessing a Class B drug with intent to supply.
Kujtim Brahaj, of Wellington Road, Enfield, and Bledar Elezaj, of no fixed address, each admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis.
Defence counsel for the Albanian men said they had each been working in construction or “odd jobs” in the south.
Importing crime to Harrogate
Judge Tom Bayliss QC said the “organised crime group” had “cynically chosen to import a criminal enterprise to Harrogate.”
Sellaj, who had been “directing operations”, was for six years and nine months.
Erblin Elizaj was jailed for five years and two months and Indrit Brahaj was jailed for four years and four months. Kujtim Brahaj and Bledar Elezaj were each jailed for three years for their lesser roles.
Jailing Banks for three-and-a-half years, Mr Bayliss told her:
“You have in your time been a successful businesswoman.
“You were, at the time, in some financial difficulties (which) may explain why you were – a woman in your seventies, a widow with a number of health problems – prepared to get involved with a gang from London.
“You knew that by doing that you were bringing drugs and criminality to Harrogate, a town where you have lived and worked for many years.”
Andi Kokaj, the last remaining defendant to be sentenced, will learn his fate on Monday, August 16.
Harrogate man pleads not guilty to Mayfield Grove alleged murderA Harrogate man has denied murder following the discovery of a man’s body at a flat near the town centre.
Daniel Ainsley, 24, was arrested in the street on the same evening that police found 48-year-old Mark Wolsey with fatal injuries at the flat in Mayfield Grove.
Mr Wolsey was pronounced dead at the scene after police arrived at the property at about 10pm on March 5.
Ainsley, of no fixed address, was arrested on suspicion of murder and today (Thursday, August 5) he appeared at Leeds Crown Court when he pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Judge Geoffrey Marson QC remanded Ainsley in custody until the trial on October 18.
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‘Predatory paedophile’ Knaresborough owner of Queen Ethelburga’s School jailed
A Knaresborough man and the owner of Queen Ethelburga’s School near York will go to prison for more than three years for two incidents of non-recent child sexual abuse.
Brian Richard Martin, 71, from Ferrensby near Knaresborough, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court today following a retrial.
He was originally on trial in 2018 for sexually assaulting of a boy in the late 2000s. This trial also acquitted him of six other child sexual abuse offences.
At another retrial in 2019, he was found guilty of indecent assault on a girl in the early-to-mid-1990s.
Martin has been jailed for three years and three months and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Detective Sergeant Graeme Bevington, who led the North Yorkshire Police investigation, said:
“Despite significant investment being made in the school, all this served to do was to create an environment that Martin could exploit for his own sinister gains.
“He preyed on the vulnerability of the students and was able to manipulate circumstances which allowed him to sexually abuse two children who were boarding students.”
The police said his success in business meant he could buy the school and move it from Harrogate to the Thorpe Underwood Estate, where he living with his family.
DS Bevington added the school was supposed to be safe for young students but instead they were “harmed so significantly by someone in a position of trust”.
He praised the bravery of the victims who spoke out:
“They have had to give evidence in open court about the most vulnerable and traumatic experiences of their lives and re-live the dreadful abuse that was forced upon them many years ago when they were just children.
“The courage and conviction behind their evidence has led to Brian Martin being publicly exposed as the predatory paedophile that he really is.
“They have finally had justice for what they have had to endure for so long.”
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To seek advice and further support, or report child abuse, you can contact one of these organisations:
- North Yorkshire Police on 101. If you are in immediate danger, always dial 999 for an emergency response
- Victims who would prefer not to go direct to the police, and are not in immediate danger, can contact Bridge House, North Yorkshire’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC), on 0330 223 0362, email sarc@nhs.net or go to www.bridgehousesarc.org/
- Supporting Victims at supportingvictims.org or call 01609 643100
- NSPCC Helplines: Adults concerned about a child should call 0808 800 5000; Children and young people should call Childline on 0800 1111. Or go to www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse
A 23-year-old murder suspect from Harrogate did not enter a plea today when he appeared at Leeds Crown Court.
Daniel Ainsley is accused of murdering Mark Wolsey, 48, who was found dead inside a flat in Mayfield Grove, Harrogate on March 5.
The case was adjourned for a further case management hearing on July 1, at which Ainsley, of no fixed abode, may enter a plea.
The trial was confirmed to take place on 18 October. Ainsley was remanded in custody until then.
Mr Wolsey was found with serious injuries after police were called to Mayfield Grove just after 10pm on a Friday night. He was certified dead at the scene by ambulance staff.
Extra police patrols were deployed in the area following the incident “to reassure those living and working nearby”.
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Harrogate murder trial set for October
A murder trial following the death of Harrogate man Mark Wolsey will take place at Leeds Crown Court from October 18.
The date was set at a hearing at Leeds Crown Court this afternoon.
Daniel Liam Ainsley, 23, of no fixed abode, has been charged with the murder and is remanded in custody.
He spoke at the hearing only to confirm his name.
A pre-trial preparation hearing will take place in early April.
Mark Wolsey died on Friday at a flat on Mayfield Grove, Harrogate after sustaining serious injuries.
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