More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
We may have just celebrated the ghouls and ghosts of Halloween but we've also had our fair share of real-life villains in Kent this month.
Here's just some of the arsonists, drug dealers and thugs who have been locked up in October.
Howard Harris
A frenzied knifeman stabbed repeatedly at his neighbour’s barricaded door while making threats to kill - after being asked to turn down the stereo.
Howard Harris later admitted he would have killed terrified Ian Sherringham, had he been able to smash his way into the Ramsgate home.
Armed with a kitchen knife, the 30-year-old hacked at Mr Sherringham’s front door, minutes after the noise complaint.
Harris was handed an extended five-year prison sentence at Canterbury Crown Court after a judge deemed him “dangerous”.
He will only be eligible for release when a parole board deems him safe after at least two-thirds of the sentence.
“When Mr Sherringham attended your flat to ask you to turn down the volume a verbal altercation started,” the judge, Recorder Matthew Turner, said.
"You seemingly hacked at his front door with the knife continuing your threats to stab him.
Eventually Harris disappeared and was arrested shortly after, with officers discovering the blade stashed under a pile of washing up in his kitchen, following the ordeal on the afternoon of October 21 last year.
Peter Hemsworth
A banned drug-driver who led police on a late-night car chase in Gillingham had six convictions for dangerous driving.
Peter Hemsworth, 30, who has never held a full driver's licence, has been caught motoring while disqualified nine times, a court heard.
Prosecutor Anne-Marie Critchley told how he drove along narrow streets at up to 60mph in a 30mph limit.
A judge jailed him for 18 months and banned him, again, this time for five years and nine months.
Judge Robert Lazarus told him: "This is the worst list of previous convictions I have ever seen.
"A second conviction for dangerous driving is not that common, a third quite rare, but this is your sixth."
Hemsworth, now of Burnt Island, in Scotland, was spotted by police at the wheel of a Seat Leon and then followed for nearly 10 minutes on December 22, 2019.
Eventually, police officers stopped chasing because of the danger and another police car then saw the Seat before it ploughed into a bollard and Hemsworth was arrested after being tasered by an officer.
Matthew Lewis
A registered sex offender who groped a horrified teenage girl on a train at night was jailed.
Matthew Lewis, of Sittingbourne, attacked his victim after she and a friend boarded the service at Margate station.
The 55-year-old, who has 251 previous offences for 95 convictions, was locked up at Canterbury Crown Court.
The court heard Lewis approached the girls in June last year and persistently made inappropriate comments towards both, asking to take them for a drink and suggesting they run away with him and continued despite both girls insisting they were only 16.
The court also heard Lewis then put her hand on the victim's leg and sexually assaulted her.
Noticing the girls looking uncomfortable, a man who was sat nearby challenged Lewis’ behaviour and a group of passengers invited the girls to sit with them further down the carriage but when they got off the train at Rainham, Lewis followed.
The pair pointed him out to staff and police soon arrived and arrested him.
Lewis’ victim attended his sentencing hearing, where she described the aftermath of his “repellent and frightening” actions, before seeing him jailed for three years.
James Cable
Armed police swooped on a supermarket after a man brandished a knife and was wielding it around the store.
Terrified staff and shoppers looked on as James Cable threatened people with a large blade at the Asda store in Swanley on a Friday night at the end of September.
Cable appeared in court on Monday, October 3 - just three days after the incident - and pleaded guilty to possessing a knife in a public place.
The 33-year-old entered the shop shortly after 10.30pm and took out a knife from a packet on display and when he was challenged told a member of staff to call police and he told a 999 responder he would stab someone if officers did not arrive quickly.
A firearms unit attended the London Road store and Cable was arrested in the store and officers found a craft knife in his shorts when he was searched and the kitchen knife he had been waving around in the store, was found behind a till area.
Cable, of Griff Lane in Nuneaton, Warwickshire was charged with two counts of possessing a knife in a public place and with failing to provide a sample for drug testing while in custody.
He admitted the charges at Medway Magistrates' Court and was jailed for a year.
To see who was locked up in September, click here.
Toby Pierce
A pyromaniac torched 10 cars and a campervan with a family asleep inside - just weeks after leaving custody for a similar rampage.
Toby Pierce, of Ramsgate, caused destruction worth £65,000 by repeatedly sending vehicles up in flames around his hometown in March.
The 20-year-old was locked up a year before for arson attacks on five vehicles, almost igniting a home, in the same town.
Just days after his release from a Young Offenders' Institution in January, Pierce assaulted two police officers and was handed a short spell in custody.
Then, in March this year, Pierce was arrested in possession of a lighter, as fires raged around him and smoke billowed into the sky.
Pierce, who demonstrated fire-setting behaviours from a young age, was handed three years and nine months at Canterbury Crown Court.
Prosecutors described residents waking to a smoke-filled sky in the early hours, as their vehicles burned in Newcastle Hill, Finsbury Road, Broad Street, Anns Road, Church Road and Denmark Hill.
Sohila and Pedram Tamiz
Cruel mother and son landlords who used violence, vandalism and theft to illegally evict tenants during a decade of abuse were locked up.
Sohila and Pedram Tamiz, of Lenham, ordered occupants’ homes to be smashed up, locks to be changed and masked gangs to carry out terrifying threats and attacks.
The pair, 66 and 47 respectively, were jailed for more than eight years at Canterbury Crown Court.
Judge Rupert Lowe branded the duo, of Flint Lane, “cruel and manipulative landlords with no humanity” or “a scintilla of remorse”.
The landlords, alongside Adam McChesney, 40, and Kasem El Darrat, 53, denied all charges relating to conspiracy to unlawfully evict.
But a jury unanimously delivered guilty verdicts on 28 counts in July following a trial at the same court and they were sentenced last month.
McChesney and El Darrat were spared jail after the judge deemed they played lesser roles during the criminality, in which vulnerable residents were targeted between 2011 and 2021.
The trial, believed to be the largest prosecution of its kind, heard harrowing accounts from 10 victims who lived inside the converted hotel in Athelstan Road, Margate, which contains 26 flats.
Daniel Lewington, William Bridge and Kaseem Ibrahim
Three drug dealers were jailed for running a county line between London and Kent towns.
Police discovered crack cocaine and heroin were being brought into the county by a network using the pseudonyms George, Jack and Billy.
Inquiries which stemmed from a quantity of the two drugs being dropped at a petrol station eventually led to a warrant at a caravan park in Hythe.
Daniel Lewington and William Bridge were arrested at the scene in Hythe, and £2,000 in cash, scales, various phones and quantities of heroin and crack cocaine were seized.
Kaseem Ibrahim, who was running drugs for the group, was arrested in Folkestone the same day and all three were later charged in October 2022 with being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine.
At Woolwich Crown Court last month, Lewington was given a three-year, nine-month sentence, Bridge received two years, eight months and Ibrahim two years and four months.
The complex investigation began after drugs were dropped at a petrol station near Maidstone in April 2020.
Examination of CCTV led to them being linked to a car, which had been hired by Lewington.
Robert Shearmur and Harry Darke
A pair of drug dealers who used an encrypted mobile phone to supply others were jailed for more than 12 years.
Between March 26 and June 6, 2020, Robert Shearmur and Harry Darke purchased large amounts of cocaine and ketamine and distributed it for a profit.
Using an encrypted phone, they co-ordinated the movement of drugs using pseudonyms 'Basilowl' and 'Lizardfoot'.
Examination of the transactions mentioned in their messages shows they traded around 20 kilos of cocaine and four kilos of ketamine over a 52-day period.
Shearmur, of Breach Lane, Lower Halstow, was arrested on November 9, 2021, with a compressed block of ketamine seized from the passenger footwell in his van.
His house was later searched and officers recovered a Taser, pepper spray and a machete.
Darke, of Burtons Lane, Claygate, near Marden, was arrested on November 15 and seized documents revealed the two men had a joint bank account which, in 2021, contained £140,000.
Both men were later charged and admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and being concerned in the supply of ketamine at Maidstone Crown Court.
Shearmur, 34,was sentenced to 13 years and six months in jail and Darke 27, was imprisoned for 12 years.
Tommy Dunn
A Tunbridge Wells man who subjected a woman to repeated violent and mental abuse was jailed.
Tommy Dunn left his victim suffering a catalogue of injuries following a period of sustained assaults, which included one incident when he beat her with a tree branch.
Dunn, formerly of Liptraps Lane, Tunbridge Wells, was arrested in January after the woman was left requiring medical treatment for multiple injuries including a broken nose, broken toe and widespread bruising to other parts of her body.
He had subjected her to an unprovoked and brutal assault when he punched and elbowed her in the head and then went outside to fetch a branch which he used to strike her arms and legs. Dunn, 24, also pinned the woman down and choked her with his hands.
The court heard he had been abusive to the woman over a period spanning several months, and had sought to control everything she did including choosing what clothing she wore, She was effectively banned from having a mobile phone and isolated from both friends and family.
Dunn pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court to causing grievous bodily harm and engaging in controlling and coercive behaviour and was jailed for two years and eight months.
He was also made subject to a five-year restraining order.
Stephen Field
A thief who broke into one shop with an angle grinder and stole from other businesses in Canterbury was locked up for six-and-a-half years.
Stephen Field carried out offences in the city between January and May 2022 before being arrested and charged with handling stolen goods and seven counts of burglary.
The 32-year-old, of no fixed address, admitted all of the offences and was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court last month.
An investigation by Canterbury's Victim Based Crime Team showed Field was behind a series of burglaries, which typically took place in the early hours of the morning.
On January 5, he used an angle grinder to enter a store in The Parade, causing £15,000 worth of damage to a window, before stealing a mobile phone from inside.
He also stole an electric bike from the University of Kent and carried out three further overnight break-ins, at a shop in The Parade, a coffee shop in the High Street and a supermarket in Sturry Road.
Field also broke into a shop in St George's Lane and stole a bike and mobile phone shops in The Parade and the High Street stealing phones and vaping equipment.
His sentence also included a term for an aggravated burglary when metal piping was stolen from a building in Harbledown. Field admitted he was in possession of a knife at the time.
Brendan Slepcik, Umair Ashraf and Kabir Ali
Three people operating a county lines drug dealing operation into the county were jailed.
Police on patrol in Gravesend in 2019 had arrested Brendan Slepcik, 21, and Umair Ashraf, 24, after both were seen acting suspiciously.
After being searched, officers uncovered a quantity of heroin and crack cocaine.
A further search of Slepcik's address in Bernard Street in the town, found further evidence of drug dealing.
The police's county lines and gang team probed the duo's phones and established they were working together to supply drugs into Gravesend. Both were charged with possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.
However, while on bail, it emerged Slepcik was continuing to run the county line - known as the Chico line - from his home in Doncaster. As police investigated, Kabir Ali, 34, was found to be sourcing drugs from London to be sold by others.
All three men pleaded guilty to supplying when they appeared at Maidstone Crown Court.
Slepcik was jailed for 48 months, Ashraf, from Norfolk Road, Gravesend was sentenced to 30 months. Ali, from London, was jailed for five years and eight months.
Stephen McCreadie
A thug who invaded a woman's home and punched her in front of her young children leaving her in hospital for 11 days after breaking her ribs was locked up.
Stephen McCreadie also sent "sinister threats" to his victim after the attack after bursting into the house on the Isle of Sheppey.
Once inside, McCreadie repeatedly punched her in an unprovoked attack in front of her young children and she fled the property while he was distracted but he chased her and when he caught up with the victim, he struck her face multiple times while threatening to kill her.
The injured woman went to hospital where she received treatment for three broken ribs, along with bruising and scratches.
Following the incident, McCreadie sent abusive text messages to the victim threatening further violence and targeted members of her family with similar threats and in November the victim made contact with the police.
On January 10, McCreadie of no fixed address, was tracked down, arrested and charged and he later pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court to inflicting grievous bodily harm and harassment.
The 41-year-old was sentenced to a total of three years’ imprisonment and received a 10-year restraining order.
Daniel Haine
A cruel thug shouted "haha, you've just been stabbed" after sneaking behind a stranger and plunging a knife into his back.
Daniel Haine, of Birchington, then “smiled and walked away” as Curtis White bled out, believing he would die after the attack in Ramsgate town centre.
Mr White and his family watched as Haine, 26, was handed a nine-year extended sentence at Canterbury Crown Court last month.
Prosecutors told how Mr White and his friends approached a taxi off the high street moments after a minor row with Haine’s group when Mr White was approached from behind and stabbed with a kitchen knife in the early hours of April 30.
He was airlifted in a critical condition to London’s King College Hospital, where he was treated for a punctured lung, liver and diaphragm damage, and internal bleeding, and had his gallbladder removed during 28 days in hospital.
Haine, of Station Road, ran away from the scene but was arrested two days later and then charged. He admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and possessing a bladed article in August.
Judge Simon Taylor KC branded Haine’s actions “cowardly and brutal” before passing an extended sentence considering his dangerousness.
Haine, who has 20 offences for 15 convictions, will have to serve two-thirds of his sentence before being considered for parole, then a further three years on licence.
Jake Finn
A burglar was jailed after being undone by a milk carton.
Hythe man Jake Finn was tracked down after leaving DNA evidence at the scene of a break-in in east Sussex.
The 22-year-old was charged with three offences after officers found a milk carton at the scene of the burglary at the Cafe Royale in Castle Street, Hastings on September 7, where a tip box containing around £300 was taken from inside.
Officers viewed the cafe’s CCTV and saw him entering the site with a carton of milk, which he put down while trying to remove the till, and then left behind at the scene and it proved a DNA match for Finn, of Dymchurch Road, Hythe.
He was arrested and charged with burglary other than dwelling with intent to steal and also charged with two counts of theft in relation to alcohol being stolen from the Jempson’s supermarket in Peasmarsh on September 10.
Appearing before Brighton Magistrates’ Court he was convicted of all three offences and jailed for 26 weeks for the burglary, and one week for each shoplifting offence to run concurrently.
He was also ordered to pay £300 in compensation.
Ryan Alford
A bully who secretly recorded his girlfriend and him together during intimate moments on a number of occasions was locked up.
Ryan Alford, 26, also started monitoring his partner's home and later threatened her with violence after the pair meet through a mutual friend in Ashford last spring.
And Demi Pryor would soon find herself at the centre of a sustained campaign of control and coercion, secretly filmed during moments of intimacy, with the footage weaponised against her.
Yet, refusing to bow down, Demi, 29, would record enough evidence for the authorities to press charges, and bravely watch from a courtroom’s public gallery as her tormentor was jailed.
But although Alford was handed 20 months at Canterbury Crown Court, Demi says she lives with the “very real fear” the footage could re-emerge.
“At the beginning of this short-lived relationship - 10 weeks or whatever it was - everything seemed absolutely fine, just like any other relationship,” she told KentOnline after the court case.
“But later he would get really, really nasty; that only tended to happen when we were alone.
“Before I knew it he was calling me names, made threats against me, threatened violence and even attacked me."
Ghandi Mallak
A robber who threatened a man with a knife was put behind bars.
Ghandi Mallak was part of a group of men who approached a man standing next to a cash machine in Chatham High Street.
On February 26, the victim, who was in his 20s, was threatened with a knife and pushed against the ATM while the group searched his pockets and stole his phone and bank cards before walking away from the scene.
During the incident, someone tried to intervene but was assaulted by Mallak. He suffered grazing and bruises to his face.
Officers immediately went to the area after the victim reported what happened and Mallak was one of two men identified by CCTV operators and the 22-year-old was found with 17 wraps of Class A drugs in his sock, was arrested and taken into custody.
Mallak, of no fixed address, was later charged with robbery, possession of cocaine with intent to supply, possession of heroin with intent to supply and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court last month and was jailed for six years and six months.
Marcus Towner
An obsessive stalker who subjected his victim to "repeated and sustained psychological abuse" was jailed last month.
Marcus Towner, of Mosquito Road, West Malling, forced the woman to change jobs and her appearance to meet with demands he made.
He would frequently visit the place she was staying and would demand to speak to her, despite her pleas to be left alone and the 30-year-old also left a phone to try to reach her, but then called it to abuse and threaten her.
Towner was initially arrested in February 2021, in connection with the abuse against the woman which included allegations of physical assaults and threats to harm her and her family.
He was then arrested again more than a year later on April 6, this year after a search warrant was executed at an address in Ryarsh, West Malling, where Towner jumped from a balcony and fled carrying a holdall.
The bag contained 12 bags of cocaine with an estimated value of £17k and a further 47 bags containing cannabis were also seized which was worth more than £13k.
Towner pleaded guilty to a charge of stalking involving fear of violence at Maidstone Crown Court where he also admitted to two counts of possessing drugs with intent to supply.
He was jailed for four years and two months and he will be subject to a five-year restraining order upon his release.
Kalvin Stemp
A landscape gardener who scratched, headbutted and bit police officers said he was trying to defend his girlfriend who suffers from epilepsy.
It came after two PCs detained Kalvin Stemp, 25, for a search in a car park in Medway Street, Maidstone on November 6 last year.
As Stemp's girlfriend was pushed away he launched an attack on the officers, with two other men joining in.
Stemp, of Howley Way, Maidstone was jailed for three years two months after he admitted causing grievous bodily harm and assault.
Daniel Colegate, 25, of Addison Close, East Malling admitted assault and received a 12-month community order and a 12-hour curfew for the next four months.
Andrew Smith, 50, of Skinners Way, Langley was given a 15-month community order and carry out 200 hours of unpaid work
Judge Julian Smith told Stemp that he accepted that his main concern had been the welfare of his girlfriend - but the violence which followed was "almost inexplicable".
The judge added: "You are hard-working and a caring individual and there are so many features of your care for her.
"But whatever it was that she was doing that night, she lost control in her anxiety about you, but you didn't do the right things."
Devon McCallum and Nardia Seedat
A couple who used a teenage boy to run heroin and crack cocaine from London to Medway were jailed.
Devon McCallum and Nardia Seedat were sentenced after police stopped their victim at a railway station.
Investigations were launched after BTP officers stopped and engaged the 13-year-old boy at Rochester station in September last year and he was searched and found to be in possession of £1,500 and a Samsung phone.
Suspecting he was being exploited in county lines activity, officers referred him for safeguarding and launched an investigation into his controllers.
The child’s phone showed multiple calls and texts from a contact saved as “SYK” and a text from another number directing the child to take the drugs on the train that day and both numbers were in constant contact with the boy’s phone throughout September.
Detectives were able to link McCallum, also known as “SYKES”, to the “SYK” number and the second number to Seedat and they were later arrested and mobile phones, including the two handsets used to contact the child, and drug were seized from the address.
McCallum, 28, and Seedat 27, later appeared at Inner London Crown Court where they both denied conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine.
Seedat also denied two counts of possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply, but were found guilty at trial. McCallum was jailed for nine years' and Seedat for three years and six months.
Darren Bough and Billy Martin
“Fagin” fraudsters who ripped off Netflix, Disney and cinemas to rake-in more than half-a-million pounds were jailed.
Barman Darren Bough, from Dover, and Billy Martin peddled illegal gadgets to thousands of Kent residents enabling them to by-pass monthly subscription charges.
Users could also watch Sky and BT Sports packages alongside exclusive movies, like Mary Poppins Returns and Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
The pair, who traded under BillsTV and advertised on Facebook, were snared after selling their £120 ‘Diamond Package’ to a council employee in 2019.
They were jailed for a total of three years and nine months at Canterbury Crown Court where details of the hi-tech operation were laid bare.
Working as part of a wider crime syndicate, Bough and Martin “supplied and sourced” USB boxes allowing customers to hack into streaming services between 2016 and 2019, prosecutors said.
During the scam Bough, 35, even joked over text with his then-partner, over where part of his £399,536 ill-gotten gains should be laundered, the court heard.
Martin was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment and Bough sentenced to two years.
Clive Tebu
An armed criminal who was chased through a river by an off-duty officer was jailed.
Clive Tebu, of Jenningtree Road, Bexley, made off from police in Blackheath on April 19 last year when their attention was drawn to a grey Mercedes he was driving.
After trying to signal him to pull over a police chase began through residential areas which involved the 31-year-old weaving in and out of traffic at up to 77mph in a 20mph zone.
Tebu also rammed a member of the public's vehicle before mounting the kerb and fleeing on foot which saw him jump over and into the shallow waters of the River Quaggy.
The off-duty officer caught up to Tebu and detained him and he was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and failing to stop.
It was later discovered during the pursuit he had thrown a 9mm handgun, ammunition and a large sum of money from the car.
Further searches of his property found £75,000 in cash and he was charged with dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, possessing a firearm and ammunition.
Tebu was jailed for five years and 10 months and was disqualified from driving for nearly five years after pleading guilty at Woolwich Crown Court.
Bilaal Farah
A dealer coordinating a county line network was jailed after officers found £2,000 and cocaine at his home.
Bilaal Farah, from London, supplied others with Class A drugs to distribute throughout Medway.
The ‘Monty’ line was controlled by the 22-year-old and who sent multiple texts offering heroin and crack cocaine for sale between January and April last year.
Farah directed others to deliver the drugs and on April 9 two men were arrested in Chatham with 130 wraps of crack cocaine and 75 deals of heroin.
Detectives from Kent Police’s County Lines and Gangs Team proved from examination of their mobile phones that the two men had been working for Farah when they were detained.
On May 20, a search warrant was executed at Farah’s home address in Mulgrave Road, Woolwich, he was not present and 43 wraps of cocaine were seized from underneath some clothing in a wardrobe.
He was tracked down and arrested and officers seized £2,000 and Farah was later charged with possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply, being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin, as well as possessing criminal property.
He pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court and was sentenced to three years and nine months.
Indrit Gaxhenji, Oligert Alija and Arditi Hoxha
Three people were jailed after £4 million of cannabis was found in an abandoned nightclub.
Merlins in Leysdown Road on the Isle of Sheppey was used to grow more than 2,300 cannabis plants.
The "gardeners" Indrit Gaxhenji, 35, Oligert Alija, 20, and Arditi Hoxha, 19, all of no fixed addresses, all received jail sentences after admitting cultivating cannabis.
Maidstone Crown Court heard people living near the two-storey building noticed the smell of cannabis in the area shortly after the nightclub closed in 2018. The building had been left boarded up.
In 2021, the police used a drone to fly over the industrial site which registered "a substantial heat source over Merlins".
Police discovered the cannabis plants, together with 179 transformers and searched a converted roof area, accessible only by a ladder, and found three Albanian nationals hiding.
Rhys Rosser, for Alija and Hoxha, said they had been locked inside the building.
Gaxhenji was given a 21-month jail sentence and Alija and Hoxha was sentenced to prison for 18 months each, two others, who face similar charges, will go on trial in February 2024.
Liam Scott and Lee Owen
Criminals who burgled small businesses and charities were put behind bars following a months-long thieving spree across Kent.
Lee Owen, of Lower Road, Faversham, and Liam Scott, of no fixed address, staged 12 break-ins, making off with cash and electronic goods.
The targeted establishments were spread across several towns in the county, including Whitstable, Seasalter, Faversham, Herne Bay, Aylesham and Ash.
The first offence took place in Church Street, Whitstable, in November last year, where Owen and Scott broke into a small business and took cash, they then next turned to a business in Seasalter, where in December, they stole cash, speakers and headphones.
Then on January 1 this year, they burgled two more businesses in Faversham, again taking cash and the same week burgled two further firms in Herne Bay, and later the same month burgled two more firms in Aylesham, one in Ash, and a takeaway and a charity in Faversham.
Their spree eventually came to an end when police pieced together CCTV footage taken at the crime scenes and arrested them both in February.
Owen, 43, and Scott, 23, were both charged with conspiracy to burgle and appeared in Canterbury Crown Court, Owen was jailed for three years and four months, after trial, while Scott was sentenced to two years and five months after pleading guilty.
