Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Cathy Owen

Locked Up: The criminals justice caught up with in March and what happened to them

Here are the faces of the criminals who have been locked up in the past month. The third month of 2022 has been a busy one for the courts in Wales, with five people given lengthy sentences for three different murders.

Towards the end of the month, Jason Edwards, Lee Strickland and 17-year-old Dionne Timms-Williams were told they showed "the worst traits of humankind" as they were sentenced for the brutal murder of a much-loved doctor in Cardiff's Bute Park. Meanwhile, a pensioner who brutally murdered his wife in her own bed is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars, while another killer shattered his neighbour's skull with a hammer in a brutal attack in the victim's own home.

There were also men jailed for carrying out attacks on their partners, and a woman who attacked an elderly woman in the street when she asked if she could get past a group on a Swansea street. You can get more court and crime news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.

READ MORE: The criminals locked up in February 2022

Here are the faces of the criminals, their crimes and how justice caught up with them:

Jason Edwards, Dionne Timms-Williams and Lee Strickland

(Left to right) Jason Edwards, Dionne Timms-Williams and Lee Strickland have been sentenced for murdering Dr Gary Jenkins in Bute Park (South Wales Police)

These are the faces of the heartless killers who brutally murdered Dr Gary Jenkins in a homophobic attack and left him bleeding and unconscious. The three murderers showed no mercy as Dr Jenkins pleaded for his life.

Edwards, 26, Strickland, 36, and Timms-Williams, 17, were found guilty of murder and showed the "worst traits of humankind" when they savagely beat and kicked father Dr Jenkins to death in Bute Park, Cardiff, on July 20, 2021. Despite the consultant psychiatrist's pleas for help, the three defendants continued their vicious assault which left Dr Jenkins with a bleeding on the brain and multiple fractures among other injuries. He later died as a result of his injuries in hospital on August 5.

David Maggs

(PA)

The pensioner who brutally murdered his wife in her own bed is now behind bars for at least two decades. Maggs stabbed his 74-year-old wife Linda Maggs 15 times at their home in Sebastopol, Pontypool, on February 6 last year - a month before divorce proceedings were finalised. She suffered horrific injuries to her neck, chest, stomach and arms in the brutal attack. The most significant blow was an injury to her chest described as a 15.5cm stab wound.

Maggs had been with his wife for 28 years before their relationship broke down in 2020 and the pair were sleeping in separate bedrooms. Jurors were told that after the attack, Maggs, 71, rang 999 saying: “I’ve just killed the wife”. And when police arrived at the couple’s semi-detached home in Lansdowne, Sebastopol, the defendant was said to have told an officer: “I’ve just had enough, she tried to steal two houses from me, two houses." Read how son stares Maggs down.

Lee Whitlock

Lee Whitlock (South Wales Police)

The killer shattered his neighbour's skull with a hammer in a brutal attack in the victim's own home. The 53-year-old murdered Robert Farley, known as Bobby, at his Barry flat between September 1 and September 3 and later led police to the scene after claiming he was concerned about his friend.

When police arrived at the West Walk flat on September 3 they discovered Mr Farley's body and he appeared to be severely injured. They later established that he was dead. Whitlock, also of West Walk, initially denied killing Mr Farley, 61, but pleaded guilty to murder on the first day of his trial at Newport Crown Court.

Meirion Roberts

Meirion Roberts (Dimitris Legakis/Athena Pictures)

The driver killed his close friend and work colleague after drinking several pints of alcohol and racing at speeds of up to 100mph. Roberts was driving his white Vauxhall Corsa through a Carmarthenshire village on the evening of evening of December 4, 2020, when he lost control, slammed into a telegraph pole and then a wall before flipping the car onto its roof.

The passenger in the car, 20-year Lewis Morgan from Carmarthen, suffered severe head trauma in the crash and died at the scene. Roberts was himself injured and taken to hospital, and was later arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

David Solecki

(South Wales Police)

He strangled his mother and threatened to kill her and other relatives. His bizarre two-day outburst included making threats to kill his own mother and his sister, strangling his mother during a struggle which lasted four minutes, squeezing his sister’s dog while it squealed in pain, and assaulting officers who arrived to arrest him.

Roland Long

(South Wales Police)

The rapist chased his terrified and lost victim then shoved her to the ground and told her: "No-one says no to me" before subjecting her to a violent 10-minute sex attack. Roland Long, who was finally punished for the offence more than 40 years on due to advances in DNA technology, was revealed to be a serial sex abuser and paedophile when he was sentenced.

The pensioner was handed a 12-year extended sentence for the brutal attack in Cardiff which left his victim fearing for her life and thinking about the Yorkshire Ripper killings with the man responsible then still at large. Long, 67 and from Nailsea, North Somerset, carried out the August 1980 attack on a woman in her late 20s as she was walking home after a day out with her family. Read here how justice caught up with Long after 40 years.

Terrence John

Terrence John (South Wales Police)

The pensioner tried to murder his former partner as she lay in bed by stabbing her in the face and chest with a kitchen knife. Despite her injuries, John's victim managed to fight him off and fled to a neighbouring flat wearing nothing but a towel. When police and paramedics arrived they found 70-year-old John face down in a pool of blood in the property having tried to take his own life.

Kayleigh Hardy

Kayleigh Hardy (South Wales Police)

She brutally attacked a pensioner in broad daylight as she tried to make her way past with her shopping cart, inflicting headbutts and punches which left her with black eyes. Hardy attacked 65-year-old Jenny Williams in broad daylight in the area of Heathfield and Carlton Terrace in the Mount Pleasant area of Swansea. Completely unprovoked, Hardy then approached Mrs Williams and headbutted her twice to the forehead.

Kevin Holt

Kevin Holt (South Wales Police)

He stabbed his friend in the stomach with a kitchen knife during a Christmas Day argument.. Witnesses at the festive party later reported how they saw the victim with a piece of his intestines hanging out of the wound in the aftermath of the attack. Holt fled the scene but was arrested the following day, and told officers he could not believe his friend had "grassed him up".

Nathaniel Williams

Nathaniel Williams (South Wales Police)

He stabbed his partner in the backside in a row over which pizza takeaway to order food from. Williams got into an argument with his partner of four years at their home in Adamsdown in Cardiff. Cardiff Crown Court heard how, after entertaining friends, Williams and his partner wanted to get some food before and an argument erupted over which pizza takeaway to order. She wanted Pizza Choice, and Williams wanted Pizza Hut.

Bradley Dhlamin

Bradley Dhlamini (South Wales Police)

The visiting drug dealer was operating from a busy Swansea city centre hotel and paying for the room with cash on a day-to-day basis. Swansea Crown Court heard the technique was popular with so-called "county lines" gangs based in cities such as London and Liverpool, as it allowed dealers and couriers to be flexible in coming and going from the target towns where they were working.

Sending the dealer to prison, the judge told him that those who came to Swansea to sell drugs must expect a long stay in the city when they were caught.

Elliott Fiteni

Elliott Fiteni (South Wales Police)

He was cleared of the murder of Newport dad Ryan O'Connor but stole an Amazon delivery van and swiped alcohol from a supermarket. Earlier in the month, Fiteni was found not guilty for the murder of 26-year-old Mr O'Connor - you can read more about that case here.

But he was called back to court for a string of offences dating back to 2019, two years before he went on trial. The court heard how the 20-year-old, drove off in an Amazon van on August 27, 2019 and ended up in a police chase before ditching the vehicle and hiding from officers. Two months later he then stole £480 of booze from a Tesco store.

Clinton Simms

Clinton Simms, 22, was found with more than £1,000 worth of cannabis after being stopped on an electric bike in Ely, Cardiff (South Wales Police)

The cannabis dealer's life turned to tragedy after his father was brutally murdered.

He was caught by police after trying to escape on an electric bike. Simms, 21, was seen acting suspiciously by police in Cardiff on January 16 and when he was apprehended he was found in possession cannabis.

In mitigation, defence barrister Hashim Salmman said his client's life had been blighted by "challenge and tragedy". In 2016, Simms' father Clint Simms was stabbed in the chest and died as a result of his injuries. Mr Simms' murderer Stephen Pike was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 20 years.

Dean Pile

Dean Pile (South Wales Police)

The cycling crack dealer was caught red-handed after police saw him trying to sell drugs to an intoxicated man on the street. A search of Pile's house revealed a supply of cocaine along with £4,000 in cash, and a stash of amphetamine in the freezer Swansea Crown Court heard it was the second time Pile had been caught dealing cocaine, and sending him back to prison a judge said it appeared he had learned nothing from his previous incarceration.

Marcus Williams

Marcus Williams (South Wales Police)

The "dangerous" offender tried to rob a man at knife point in the kitchen of a shared accommodation building. Williams, 30, wielded a knife during an attempted robbery for a paltry amount of money at the Wallich Riverside Project on Clare Street, Cardiff. The defendant had a string of previous offences to his name, including robbing his own grandfather while he slept in 2015 and inflicting grievous bodily harm to a family member's partner in 2017.

Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith (South Wales Police)

The heroin dealer seen by police carrying out a deal from his car claimed he was only selling cigarettes. Officers swooped on the parked car after seeing the driver carrying out a "transaction" with a man leaning through the open window. When officers searched the vehicle they found wraps of heroin hidden under Smith's seat, and a subsequent search of his house found a further stash of heroin along with scales showing traces of brown powder.

Greg Lemon and Gemma Owen

The couple kicked, punched and butted a woman outside their flat leaving her bruised and battered and missing two teeth. Lemon and Owen claimed they had been acting in self-defence after their victim had turned up at their Port Talbot home uninvited. Lemon has a long history of violent offending including two convictions for inflicting grievous bodily harm, and three for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Julian Davies

The builder came "flying" towards his partner and savagely attacked her in view of their children. Davies headbutted, kicked, punched and verbally abused the mother of his three children during a booze-fuelled rage, Cardiff Crown Court heard on Friday. The 46-year-old, of Upland Road in Pontllanfraith, denied causing actual bodily harm but he was found guilty by magistrates at an earlier hearing.

Andrew Quick

Andrew Quick (South Wales Police)

He plunged a knife into his partner's breast as he repeatedly stabbed her in a drunken, jealous rage. Quick lashed out after accusing his long-term partner of sneaking another man into her house.

After attacking the woman the defendant fled from the property and rang for paramedics and police saying he had stabbed the woman "all over" before he returned to the house to apologise. The 48-year-old later told officers that what had happened was not the victim's fault but "it was her fault that he was so angry".

Joseph Curley

Joseph Curley - custody picture (Gwent Police)

The burglar had a "bingo moment" when he broke into a man's house and found thousands of pounds under a mattress. Curley has 128 offences on his record including 41 burglaries. The 49-year-old appeared at Cardiff Crown Court after using a hammer to smash the back door of a home in Fields Park Road, Newport, while the owner was out.

Curley raided the house on March 7, 2020, taking £3,000 in cash from a wallet underneath the owner's mattress as well as a tub containing £300 in £1 coins.

Reece Jimoh, Lianne Jenkins and Adam Lomax

(Left to right) Reece Jimoh, Lianne Jenkins and Adam Lomax (South Wales Police)

The Liverpudlian drug dealers were caught red-handed in Swansea with more than 800 heroin and crack cocaine deals ready to be supplied to users on the street. They were arrested by officers investigating a Merseyside organised crime group which was operating a drug supply network known to be operating in the city.

Both dealers have been locked up, as well as the vulnerable Swansea woman who allowed her house to be used as a base for their Class A drug dealing.

Darren Smith

An argument over face masks in a petrol station culminated in Smith crashing his car into another customer. The 47-year-old drove his Volkswagen Polo at speed into Stephen Callaghan at the Morrisons filling station in Caerphilly. Moments earlier Smith had headbutted the victim, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

The confrontation started at around 4.50pm, after Mr Callaghan had arrived at Morrisons following a shopping trip. His two grandchildren were in the car with him. Mr Callaghan entered the petrol station and found himself behind Smith. Judge Daniel Williams said Mr Callaghan was wearing a Covid mask exemption card, and the defendant "took exception" to him not wearing a mask.

Jamie Lewis

Jamie Lewis (South Wales Police)

He held a kitchen knife to his aunty's throat after a Christmas Day vodka and Valium binge. Lewis had only been released from police custody a matter of hours earlier and his aunty had taken him in as he had nowhere else to go.

After being arrested for assaulting his relative the 38-year-old then kicked and spat at police officers who tried to help him, and he had to be placed in leg restraints and a spit hood. The defendant's advocate told Swansea Crown Court that he had represented Lewis on many previous occasions, and that when not under the influence of drink and drugs he was perfectly polite

Rhys Shearan

Rhys Shearan (South Wales Police)

The young dad with a cannabis and cocaine habit turned to dealing drugs to fund his addiction. Shearan was 21 when he was caught with "drug paraphernalia" in his house along with a phone containing bulk text messages advertising drugs which he had been sending to dozens of potential customers.

Swansea Crown Court heard that in the more than two-and-a-half years since his arrest the defendant had become drug-free, moved to a different area, and established contact with his children. A judge described Class A drug dealing as a "filthy business" and jailed Shearan.

Drugs gang

Pictured are (top row, left to right) Todd Connor Brown, Jake Luke Rowley, Ben William Brown, (bottom row) Bradley Sandford, Kim Michelle Williams, Zoe Platt and Tia Platt. (North Wales Police)

The seven have been put behind bars for a total of more than 64 years for their part in a plot to flood a town with heroin and crack cocaine worth £745,000. North Wales Live reports how some of the 19 conspirators bought the drugs in Liverpool and then brought them back to their organised crime group in Caia Park in Wrexham.

But police using covert surveillance cameras launched Operation Lancelot to catch the plotters for a crime which could wreak "misery" on North Wales communities.

Brian Richards

Brian Richards (South Wales Police)

The disqualified driver crashed twice in the space of two months, both times while over the alcohol limit. Roofer Richards flipped his car on Boxing Day then, a matter of weeks later, slammed his van into a tree after crashing over a roundabout. The 49-year-old has a history of driving while banned, and a judge asked how the courts could deter those who persistently took to the roads in breach of the will of the courts when the maximum sentence that could be imposed after a guilty plea was four months.

Perrie Dunwell

Perrie Dunwell, 33, was found guilty of manslaughter (Gwent Police)

The convicted killer was involved in supplying amphetamine and was discovered after police found the drugs in his car. Dunwell, 34, was sentenced to 13 years and nine months imprisonment last year after being found guilty of the manslaughter and conspiracy to rob Shafiul Islam.

The 22-year-old victim was found bloodstained in the cupboard of his Newport flat and died six days later in hospital having been struck to the head three times with a glass Kopparberg bottle. Dunwell's co-defendant Euan Peters, 42, was found guilty of murder and jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years, and Conlan Dunnion, 23, who was found guilty of manslaughter and conspiracy to rob, was sentenced to nine years and six months imprisonment.

But before the fatal attack on Mr Islam in November, 2019, Dunwell had been arrested on suspicion of supplying amphetamine after his Volkwagen Sirocco was pulled over on the M4 on June 3, 2019.

Selim Hoxha

Selim Hoxha (South Wales Police)

A judge has said police would be failing in their public duty if they did not properly investigate the international criminal gangs responsible for running cannabis farms in Wales. The judge spoke out as he sentenced an Albanian man caught working as a so-called gardener in a Swansea Valley house which had been given over to the production of the drug.

Judge Geraint Walters said it "should not be beyond the wit of man" for detectives to find out who was higher up the chain of command and to go after them, but in the experience of the courts it seemed police regarded catching a low-level gardener as "case closed". Read more here.

Stephen Mulcahy

Stephen John Mulcahy (South Wales Police)

The out-of-work cook intentionally started eight fires in a shop under people's homes and caused "carnage" at a train station. Mulcahy, of Erw Hir in Bridgend, set alight the Amplifon hearing aid shop in Swansea, leaving residents of the 10 flats above choking on smoke.

On another morning the 42-year-old went on a rampage of damaging equipment at Bridgend railway station. Cutting cables and ripping wires, he caused "nothing short of havoc".

Alan Jenkins

Alan Jenkins, 59, assaulted a neighbour in Cardiff leaving him with fractured eye sockets and a dislocated jaw (South Wales Police)

A man was left with a dislocated jaw which required permanent metal plates fitted after being repeatedly punched in the face by neighbour Jenkins. The 59-year-old assaulted Stephen Perkins at his Cardiff home on December 18 last year in a vicious attack which saw him kicked and punched to the head at least 25 times. The victim sustained serious injuries included fractured eye sockets and a dislocated jaw which required metal plates.

Dominic Oliver

Dominic William Oliver (Dyfed-Powys Police)

He took street drugs in an attempt to ease tooth pain and ended up carrying out a burglary at a home. Oliver gained access to a property in Colby Road, Burry Port, and once inside he attempted to remove copper piping.

The home belongs to Douglas Clark, a retired 72-year-old, who had been leasing the property. It was unoccupied at the time as the tenant of the property at the time had been in custody.

Lincoln Parkes

Lincoln Parkes (South Wales Police)

He throttled his partner with a dog lead, repeatedly punched her, and kicked her in the face during a prolonged assault in their home. As Parkes choked the woman with the lead he told her he wanted to see her soil herself - something a judge described as "gratuitous degradation" of his victim.

The 60-year-old defendant has a previous conviction for inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on the same partner, as well as convictions for assaulting a taxi driver and beating a colleague with a spanner.

Craig Scott

Craig Scott, 35, left a man scarred after smashing him over the head with a glass (South Wales Police)

The labourer who worked on the Grenfell Tower project and had a history of violence smashed a glass over a man's head. Scott, 35, had been made subject to a community order just days before assaulting Jordan Batten in Cardiff on August 12 last year. He left his victim permanently scarred after hitting him in the head with a Pyrex glass after retaliating to a minor incident.

James Cook

James Cook (South Wales Police)

The father-to-be will miss the birth of his child after being caught red-handed with wraps of cocaine, almost £800 cash and a phone full of incriminating messages. Cook travelled from his home in Ammanford to Swansea to peddle the Class A drug but was collared by undercover cops.

Joshua Aspell

Joshua Aspell (Dyfed-Powys Police)

A Newport drug gang took over a vulnerable woman's flat in Llanelli to use as a base for peddling crack cocaine and heroin. When police raided the property they found Aspell and Michael Brace along with a stash of Class A drugs, cash, phones, and drugs paraphernalia.

The defendants were part of a Newport-based county lines drugs operation which was exploiting the woman - herself a drug user - and using her home to peddle drugs in a technique known as "cuckooing". Read more here.


Paul Davies

Paul Davies (South Wales Police)

The cocaine dealing father-of-three was caught after trying to hide his face from passing police officers. Police found Davies had a stash of coke and Valium along with £1,145 in cash - though the defendant maintains most of that money was from the sale of a car. A judge said he could not understand how people with responsibility for children could engage in the "serious criminality" of supplying Class A drugs knowing that if caught they would face a lengthy prison sentence and miss years of their kids' lives.

Owain Coleman

Owain Coleman (South Wales Police)

The thug armed with a pair of scissors robbed a terrified shop worker just days after being released on licence from prison following previous robberies. The victim had been so traumatised by the experience that she suffered panic attacks, and was no longer able to work on the tills, the court heard. The robbery was the culmination of a four-day spree of offending by 23-year-old Coleman which saw him smashing up cars, shoplifting, and making threats to firebomb his accommodation.

John Bullingham

John Bullingham (South Wales Police)

The paedophile attempted to meet a fictitious young girl and made threats to someone he thought was an 11-year-old girl.

Bullingham was caught with indecent images of children by police and he was released pending further investigation. But in the meantime Swansea Crown Court heard how Bullingham, of Bowen Street in Neath, sexually communicated online with people he thought were young girls. During the exchanges he encouraged lewd behaviour, attempted to arrange to meet another, and made threats to a third.

Malcolm Crane

Malcolm Crane (South Wales Police)

The convicted paedophile was caught with two mobile phones despite being banned from owning the devices. Crane had been convicted at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in May, 2019 for offences of attempting to incite a child under the age of 13 to engage in a sexual act and attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

As part of his sentence he received a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years and was advised of notification requirements which included telling police of any change in address.

James Ricketts

(South Wales Police)

He was found walking a Cardiff street with a bag of white spirit and a lighter and was on his way to set fire to his cousin’s house when he was arrested by police. Ricketts was in the Ely area of the city when he phoned police from a telephone box and told them he had been the victim of a robbery and that he was being followed.

Colin Williams

Colin Williams (South Wales Police)

The former soldier hit a teenager while driving and left him bleeding in the road before a 'good Samaritan' doctor stopped and helped save the boy. Williams was driving his Volkswagen in Barry's A4050 Port Road East shortly before 4am on December 5, 2020, when he struck Cem Ziyaeddin and fled. He later returned to the scene to find the 16-year-old victim being treated by the passing Dr Benjamin Roper but Williams tried to hide his crime before police arrested him days later, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Abdul Rouf

(South Wales Police)

He stabbed a visitor to a takeaway restaurant who jumped in to defuse a confrontation with the business owner. The victim was stabbed in the hip and the chest after Rouf had gone to Halima Tandoori in Cwmafan in Port Talbot to speak with owner Zakir Hussain, who was involved in civil proceedings with Rouf's brother-in-law, in a bid to remove his name from the business's lease.

Lee McKinnon

Lee McKinnon (Dyfed-Powys Police)

He broke into a neighbour’s flat while he was sleeping and beat him about the head with a dumbbell.

McKinnon later told police he had gained entry to the downstairs property in the early hours of the morning by smashing a window, and that he had wanted to kill his neighbour. Swansea Crown Court heard McKinnon had long-standing mental health issues, and at the time of the brutal assault was likely experiencing auditory hallucinations and feelings of paranoia.

Dean Price

Dean David Price (South Wales Police)

A taxi driver who unwittingly acted as a getaway driver following a burglary on a student house returned the victim's laptop after the burglar made off from his cab without paying the fare. An intoxicated Price broke into the shared student house in the dead of night and stole a computer containing course work along with a number of "designer jumpers" while his victim was out.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.