From the killer of primary school teacher, Sabina Nessa who hid his murder weapon in Kent to a prolific paedophile, here are the criminals jailed in April.

Steven Reble

The 45-year-old sexually assaulted an elderly stranger as she screamed for help inside a town centre church.

Reble attacked the woman, who is in her 70s, after throwing her to the ground in St Mary and Eanswythe's Church in Folkestone in July last year.

As one witness rushed to help Reble's victim he threw her to the floor, then flung another against a set of rails, causing cuts and bruises. Thanks to the efforts of the two women, Reble's victim was able to escape.

Reble, a carer for his wife, was under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs and claims to have no recollection of either events but was jailed at Canterbury Crown Court for four years, with a judge branding his actions "bizarre, gratuitous and violent".

Joseph Hilden

Hilden, 20, took a fellow inmate hostage in April 2019 at Cookham Wood, near Rochester, because he was bored and wanted to stab and kill his victim.

He had earlier asked the victim David Spiridon, if he would volunteer to be held captive but he had refused. An hour later, Hilden, of Ashford, armed himself with a plastic knife and seized Spiridon.

As prison staff tried to free the victim, Hilden sunk his teeth into the ear of teenager Spiridon - leaving him needing eight stitches.

Hilden has since been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and is undergoing treatment at a secure psychiatric unit where he will remain until the authorities believe he is safe to be released back into the community.

Neil Jarvis

Jarvis, a former betting shop boss sexually assaulted girls and a woman in a string of terrifying attacks during the school run.

The 46-year-old admitted the three assaults in Ramsgate town centre in the summer last year, including molesting a four-year-old in front of her mother at a bus stop.

The ex-William Hill manager would also sneak behind an unsuspecting woman in her 40s before grabbing her waist and chest. In July, he touched the teenager's thigh in front of other children while under the influence of alcohol and launched an attack on a woman during another school run.

He was handed 32 months' custody and a 10-year restraining order and will be placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years and subject to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

Stefan Crocker

Crocker was given a 30-month prison term for attacking a woman he met on a Tinder date.

The victim met the roofer after the two began talking on the dating website and agreed to meet up in a pub in Tonbridge. She drank a lot of alcohol and vomited twice on the return to her home and it was there she was sexually assaulted by Crocker.

In a strange turn of events in the court, Crocker refused to begin his jail sentence until he had kissed goodbye to his lover. He then embraced his girlfriend, who had watched proceedings from the public gallery.

The incident was also witnessed by his victim, sitting with a police officer just a few feet away.

Curtis Pettman

This thug wielding a machete almost two feet long left a man with life-changing injuries following a dispute over a moped.

Pettman, of no fixed address, was jailed after the "violent attack" in Margate last July.

After the argument over a moped, Pettman returned to victim's property and emerged with a 50cm machete, which he swung at the victim six or seven times.The victim used his hand to protect himself, sustaining a serious injury.

The 23-year-old was jailed for 11 years at Canterbury Crown Court.

Daniel Kiefer

The father-of-five, of Shooters Hill, Dover, throttled and punched a woman in an unprovoked gang attack in Canterbury city centre.

Michelle Winterbourne was helping a drunk friend in the high street when she was approached by Daniel Kiefer and others.

At first Kiefer, 36, offered to help Miss Winterbourne outside the Metro bank, but he soon started levelling unfounded, perverse allegations at her before grabbing her throat and subjecting her to a "prolonged assault with strangulation and suffocation".

Kiefer, who has 13 convictions for 27 offences, pleaded guilty to occasioning actual bodily harm against Miss Winterbourne and three counts of assaulting emergency workers. He was jailed for nine months to run concurrently with three months behind bars for the assault of the emergency workers.

Billy Beck and Shaun Barton

The two men lured a gold dealer from a Maidstone supermarket car park to a nearby housing estate where they robbed him at knifepoint.

Billy Beck, 24, of Anglesey Close, Chatham, and Shaun Barton, 21, of Clare Place, Maidstone were convicted by a jury of robbery, wounding with intent and having knives in public.

Victim Mark Butler had met Beck days earlier at Wayfield shops in Chatham where he bought a motorbike for £200.

Barton - who admitted a second count of wounding with intent – was jailed for a total of six years and three months and Beck was jailed for five.

Dequan Brown and Ricardo Cain

Two County Lines drugs who ran a drug network through Kent have been jailed for a combined 15 years after messages to drug users were uncovered.

Dequan Brown, 24, and Ricardo Cain, 23, had been linked to a network between south London, Folkestone and Tunbridge Wells.

The pair were arrested in 2020 after an investigation by Kent Police's County Lines and Gangs Team found messages offering heroin and crack cocaine being signed off with "Romeo", "Mitch" or "Romeo and Mitch".

Brown was found guilty of being involved in the supply of Class A drugs and possessing a firearm - he was jailed for 12 years. Cain admitted being involved in the supply of Class A drugs and was jailed for three years.

Luke Petty

The 31-year-old businessman has gone to prison after sending a former lover a stream of Bible verses - in defiance of a court order.

Petty, of Sandhurst Road, Tunbridge Wells, had been remanded to prison for breaching a restraining order which the victim, a mum-of-four had requested from a judge.

But within days of getting the order, which forbade him from contacting his vulnerable victim, the ex-lovers began swapping Facebook messages.

He had received a suspended sentence in November 2021 for making threats to firebomb his victim's home - and also sent photographs of a jerry can. He admitted breaching both the suspended sentence and restraining orders and received an immediate 21-month jail sentence.

Koci Selamaj

A sex predator who savagely murdered Sabina Nessa, a young primary school teacher, and ditched the weapon in Kent has been jailed for life.

Koci Selamaj, 36, lurked around Cator Park, Kidbrooke, on September 17 last year to carry out a premeditated attack on a random woman.

The garage worker travelled to London from his seaside home on the south coast before beating 28-year-old Sabina Nessa over the head 34 times with a 2ft long metal traffic triangle.

He then dragged her unconscious body up a grassy bank and out of view, before pulling off her tights and strangling her and covering her body in grass. Selamaj had ditched the weapon in the River Teise in Tunbridge Wells.

He was jailed for life and will serve a minimum term of 36 years for the "savage" sexually motivated attack.

Darryl Addae

Darryl Addae was identified as the county lines dealer behind a line that sold heroin and crack cocaine in Ashford after his texts were tracked.

Police began investigating the 'Alex' line in November after becoming aware of messages being sent to drug users in town offering the drugs and eventually identified a silver Ford Focus which was being used to smuggle the drugs into Kent from east London,

The car was located at a property in Dagenham and, when officers carried out a warrant at the address, Addae ran from the back door and was arrested.

The 28-year-old, of Kensington Avenue, East Ham, was jailed for five years and seven months.

Billy Williams

A pensioner was left tied to a chair for two days, after this thug held her at knifepoint and ransacked her home.

Billy Williams, from Smarden Road in Headcorn, forced his way into his elderly victim's rural property near Maidstone, as he held his hand over the 67-year-old's mouth and a chisel to her neck.

The 29-year-old made repeated demands for money and valuables, before picking up a blade, threatening to kill her and sexually assaulting her. He then bound his victim to a chair, dousing her in alcohol before stealing cash and possessions, including a laptop and other personal items.

Williams was sentenced to life in jail and ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years.

Kai Laing

A "dangerous" young man left a good Samaritan with "horrific injuries" after knifing him in the face at a railway station.

Kai Laing, from Ramsgate, who claimed to get a "buzz" from violence, attacked 19-year-old Nahro Khadi at Ashford International Station leaving him with a 10cm wound when Mr Khadi intervened in an altercation between Laing and three other men.

The 21-year-old thug, of Staner Court, who has been convicted for 33 previous offences, twice shouted his own name in bravado, moments after the attack.

His "brainless" actions led officers to easily identify and arrest him. He has now been jailed for four years and eight months.

Scott Parker

This burglar was jailed after using stolen cash to buy drinks in a Tunbridge Wells pub.

Parker cycled to a house in Birch Close, Sherwood, wearing a high-vis vest and rucksack.

The 46-year-old, of Hornbeam Avenue, Tunbridge Wells, pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

Det Con Dave Evans, of the Chief Constable's Crime Squad, said: "Parker brazenly burgled a house in broad daylight and stopped at a nearby pub to spend his ill-gotten gains.

"Parker had no consideration for the impact his actions would have on the victims and thoroughly deserves his time in prison."

Charles Wood

The former turf farm boss was locked up for 15 years after trying to murder a neighbour following a long-running feud.

Wood deliberately drove his van at a pensioner walking near Sandhurst after an ongoing dispute over access to his home.

The pensioner was thrown into the air and suffered spinal and rib fractures, a bleed on the brain and a bruised aorta.

The 59-year-old, of Rye Road, Sandhurst, claimed he had no recollection of the incident.

Wood will have to serve a minimum of two thirds of his sentence and will also be disqualified from driving for 12 years and six months on his release.

Gabriel Calin

This thug was jailed for more than six years after assaulting a young woman in Maidstone before running to Romania.

Calin smashed his fist into the face of a woman in an unprovoked street attack, which left the terrified victim spitting out teeth.

The anguished 21-year-old woman, with blood pouring from her nose, made her way home in Maidstone before falling into the arms of her brother who raised the alarm.

The 28-year-old Romanian was found guilty of attempting to cause the victim serious bodily harm.

From the witness box, the woman recalled: "I heard footsteps behind me. I was scared and screamed. He grabbed my hands and wrist and said: 'It's alright!'

"Then his face dropped and he hit me in the face with his fist."

Calin is expected to be deported on his release from prison.

Kesshai Clarke and Mohammed Mansary

The two dealers from London were locked up after running county lines drug network in Ashford.

Clarke would transport crack cocaine and heroin from the capital for the 'Tony' line and Mansary would get local drug users to deliver them.

After admitting the offences at an earlier hearing, Mansary, 21, of Cahir Street, Poplar, was jailed for four years at Maidstone Crown Court.

Clarke, 21, of Hillcrest Road, Bromley, was jailed for seven years at the same hearing. His sentence included a term for similar offences committed in Winchester.

Janet Waller

The 33-year-old NHS worker who was locked up for harassing a detective continued her campaign three days after being released from prison in March 2021.

Waller, of Pier Road, Northfleet was jailed in November 2020 for 13 months after admitting offences of harassment and sending malicious communications and just a few days after her release she called British Transport Police and told the call-handler that he had a "dumbass northern accent", swore at another and called 999.

Police did arrive at her address and promptly arrested her but not before she had kicked out injuring three officer's shin and legs. She has now been banned for five years from contacting the BTP, except in an emergency, and also two officers, PC Lee Crook and DC Andrew Humes.

She was jailed for 13 months but as she has been waiting for more than a year to be sentenced she is likely to be freed shortly as she only has to serve half the term before being released on licence.

Naomi Mitchell

A fire-starting gran bent on revenge over a Facebook post tried burning down her rival’s home while children were inside.

Naomi Mitchell, 51, of North Avenue in Ramsgate, ignited a plastic bottle loaded with firecrackers and cloth before posting it through Cheryl Apps' door in Ramsgate at night.

Cheryl Apps' relative had previously 'liked' a picture of a man on the social networking site who Mitchell's daughter was dating and after a clash at The Goose Pub in Harbour Street, Mitchell was recorded on CCTV walking with the cloth which was posted through Apps' door to start the fire.

She was handed a sentence of three years and nine months.

Thuan Dinh

Dinh tried to murder his ex-wife in a "horrific" attack at the VCC Boutique salon nail bar where she was manager - the attack happened a day after he had been given a restraining order to keep away from his terrified victim.

The 53-year-old attacker, of Rowan Mews, Tonbridge, stalked ex-wife Lien, 50, and armed himself with a rope and knife after taking her hostage as she arrived at work in Tonbridge.

The victim revealed how when she arrived he locked her inside before trying to strangle her with a piece of rope. He then gouged her eyes with his thumbs and stabbed her through the neck, damaging muscle and her jugular vein.

The judge ruled that Dinh will have to serve an immediate term of 28 years for what he described as the "horrific" attack which had left the victim with physical and psychological harm and then added another four years, bringing the total to 32 years.

Marcin Jaskula

A 44-year-old remorseless abuser who punched a soft spot on his partner’s skull in attacks he named “break the coconut” was also jailed.

Marta Kosinska, pleaded for years with her tormentor to avoid damaging the area fractured in a childhood trauma. Doctors told her that one more punch could kill her.

Jaskula, a Polish national, previously of Godwin Road in Cliftonville would also throw knives, batteries and food towards Miss Kosinska, and physically restrain her from going to work in case she met another man, the court heard.

Kosinka was handed a 32-month sentence and will be subject to a five-year restraining order on his release. The nine months already spent on remand will be deducted from his overall sentence.

Roy Sinclair

Sinclair threatened to kill a bank worker before stealing discontinued £20 notes and was arrested within 10 minutes of him calling police to confess.

The 43-year-old threatened the Dartford High Street employee with a knife, before helping himself to money from a till back in February.

He handed himself in to Kent Police two days later and went on to admit robbery and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.

He was jailed for five years and four months at Maidstone Crown Court and will be the subject of a two-year extended licence when he is eventually released from prison.

Billy Nutt

Paedophile Nutt, who once supported Shirley Bassey on tour, used his showbiz links to lure his three young victims.

He was jailed in 2015 for abusing a four-year-old boy and again in 2019 for grooming another child.

His third victim, Stuart Anthony, 34, waived his right to anonymity and spoke of his five-year ordeal which started at the age of 10 - Nutt was a family friend and sang in the pub where Mr Anthony's mum worked.

Nutt, now of Week Street, Maidstone, but previously of Northfleet, received an 18-year jail sentence for his vile crimes.