Eight criminals from Merseyside have been jailed over the past week, receiving a combined total of 28 years in prison. Among them are a drug dealer who was kidnapped and tortured by rivals, a thug who battered a vulnerable man with his own Zimmer frame, and a dad who terrorised staff at Bargain Booze.
Also locked up was a smuggler who flew from Portugal to Liverpool John Lennon Airport with more than £400,000 of cocaine in his suitcase. Liverpool Crown Court also heard how a man drove a teenager to a quiet road before sexually assaulting her, later apologising and saying he had not been strong enough.
Drug dealer jailed after being kidnapped and tortured
Martin Weaver, 24, of William Henry Street in Bootle, was jailed for 40 months after being caught throwing his stash into a neighbour's garden when police came knocking. The raid came only two years after he was previously given a second chance following drug trafficking offences, with a judge having told him: "You will know as well as anybody that drug dealing brings misery to people. We have to come down hard on people who repeatedly deal drugs."
Weaver admitted possession of cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis with intent to supply, possession of criminal property and possession of a class B drug. He wore a grey Reprimo t-shirt in the dock as he was sentenced.
Smuggler caught with £400k of cocaine
William Wallace, 37, of Teal Grove in Warrington, was jailed for six years after being caught with more than £400,000 of cocaine in his suitcase on a flight from Portugal to Liverpool John Lennon Airport. He claimed to have been offered £10,000 by a stranger to bring the stash back to the UK, but his passport indicated previous "suspicious" trips to South America and Amsterdam, leading a judge to label his account as "sketchy".
Wallace admitted being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of cocaine. He appeared via video link to HMP Altcourse and now says his "only goal" is to "do something that can make his parents proud".
Dad who terrorised Bargain Booze staff jailed
Andrew Carter, 41, of no fixed address, snatched hundreds of pounds from a Bargain Booze till, "terrorising" a shop worker who was cashing up. Having been "desperate for drugs", he was jailed for eight months after admitting battery and theft from a shop, with an earlier charge of robbery dropped.
Having been jailed over other matters the very next day, he served his sentence and was released, but police were waiting for him outside the prison gates and arrested him again as soon as he was freed.
Other criminals sentenced
Robert Daw, 26, of Redwing Lane in Gateacre, was jailed for three-and-a-half years after being found with nearly 1,500 screenshots and recordings of sexualised conversations with children, along with explicit images and videos. He was told to sign the sex offenders' register indefinitely.
Ryan Graham, 33, of Bentley Road, battered a vulnerable man with his own Zimmer frame after being called a "nonce" and placed him in a chokehold. He was jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and intentional strangulation.
Joel Carroll, 23, was jailed for 12 months for dangerous driving, driving without insurance, driving while disqualified and failing to stop, after riding an e-bike on pavements and the wrong side of the road during a police chase. James Eves, 51, of Boreham Industrial Estate in Chelmsford but originally from Widnes, was jailed for six years and eight months for sexually assaulting a teenage girl. Travis McDonnell, 21, of Terrace Road in Widnes, was jailed for five years and six months for drug supply offences after jumping from a bedroom window in a bid to escape police.
