A SERIES of sex offenders, killers and violent men all faced justice at Teesside Crown Court in April.
David Smith
A DISGRACED former Tory councillor has been found guilty of a catalogue of child sex abuse charges.
David Smith systematically sexually abused one young boy over a four-year period more than a decade ago and also exposed himself to another young boy in an attempt to get him to perform a sex act on him.
The 33-year-old spent £10,000 buying the silence of the first complainant as he showered him in gifts and took him on lavish shopping trips to Liverpool and Edinburgh.
Smith categorically denied the charges throughout his trial at Teesside Crown Court but jurors found him guilty of all 11 charges.
Due to a number of delays, including the trial being moved due to the Covid pandemic, Smith finally had to face his accusers in court.
The second victim, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, was a teenager when Smith would expose himself and then ask him to touch his genitals.
Smith, of Rainsford Crescent, Middlesbrough, will be sentenced this month.
Luke Porter
A TEENAGER caught trying to arrange to have sex with a young girl was arrested when he turned up to meet her but was confronted by members of an online paedophile hunting team.
Luke Porter believed he was talking to a young girl called ‘Megan’ but was in fact sharing sexually explicit messages with an undercover vigilante.
The 18-year-old was caught when he arrived at Darlington railway station on January 23 this year to meet the ’14-year-old girl’.
Teesside Crown Court heard how Porter knew the age of his intended target as he had been clearly told in a message when he was arranging to meet her for sex.
The court heard how the defendant had only turned 18 a couple of weeks before his arrest.
Porter, of Beaumont Street West, Darlington, pleaded guilty to one charge of attempting to communicate with a child to engage in sexual activity.
Judge Timothy Stead sentenced Porter to nine months in a young offenders’ institute, suspended for two years as there was no actual contact with a child.
Michael Tewelde
A RAPIST who targeted a vulnerable man as he walked through a park has been branded a danger to the public.
Michael Tewelde forced the man to the ground before subjecting him to serious sexual assault and leaving his victim traumatised.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had told Teesside Crown Court how he had offered to smoke a cannabis joint with his alleged attacker while he was walking near the Maze Park Nature Reserve, in Middlesbrough.
Jurors heard how the victim broke down when he returned home and police were able to recover a towel from the scene which the man had used to clean himself up after the attack, which happened at around 7.30pm on Thursday, April 29.
But it took the jury less than an hour to convict the 36-year-old of the distressing rape.
The judge passed a ten year sentence, eight years in custody with an extended two-year licence period, after hearing that Tewelde posed a ‘high risk of re-offending’.
He said: “Your victim was making his way home when you were in the area. I’m satisfied you had gone out that evening looking for a sexual encounter."
Lewis Fisher
A CARER who had sex with a vulnerable teenage girl he was supposed to be looking after has been jailed.
Lewis Fisher had been warned about his inappropriate relationship with the teenager while she was living in a North East children’s home but failed to heed the advice.
Teesside Crown Court heard how the 28-year-old went into her bedroom and kissed her before engaging in full sexual intercourse with her.
In a victim impact statement, the teenager said he ‘promised her a life of luxury’ and they would move to Canada.
The young girl added: “I was in a place where I should have been safe and cared for but the opposite happened. When I was brave enough to say what had happened, I was believed, nobody in the home believed me.”
Fisher, of Kesteven Road, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a child.
Judge Chris Smith jailed Fisher for five years for the breach of trust when he targeted the vulnerable teenage girl.
Tomasz Dembler's Killers
THE callous killers of a defenceless father-of-one beaten death in his own bed have been jailed.
Rafal Chmielewski and Zbigniew Pawlowski rained down an ‘explosion of violence’ on Tomasz Dembler after simmering tension over a ‘sexual joke’ resulted in a brutal attack on the 39-year-old.
The violent pair then chopped off Mr Dembler’s hands before dumping his body in a shallow grave in woodland on the outskirts of Middlesbrough.
His mutilated body was discovered a month later when two teenage girls spotted his toes sticking out of the ground and alerted the police.
They were jailed for 17 years and six months after they admitted manslaughter seven weeks into their murder trial at Teesside Crown Court.
The Judge, Justice Mary Stacey DBE, said the pair had lied throughout and only changed their plea to guilty when they realised their stories were not convincing anyone.
Three other co-accused - Monika Solerska; Tomasz Reczycki; and Adam Czerwinski, all pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by helping to dispose of the body.
The judge dealt with all three individually as she passed sentences reflecting their involvement in the attempts to cover up the horrendous crime.
Solerska, 37, of Birchington Avenue, Grangetown, was branded a liar by the judge as she sentenced her to five years and six months.
Czerwinski, 45, of Edward Street, North Ormesby, was jailed for five years for his role in the clean-up.
While Reczycki, 37, of Ashfield Avenue, Grove Hill, Middlesbrough, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison as ‘he was the first to break ranks’ the judge said.
Guisborough violence
FOUR men have been jailed for a violent, mob-handed attack, using a machete and a knife, on a family in their own home.
Ringleader Paul Jeffels, and three Nash brothers, Craig, Simon, and Liam, smashed the windows of the home after ramming a car with a 4x4 before two of them started swiping at the occupants of the house with the weapons.
The family’s terrifying ordeal only came to end when their attackers fled the scene when they heard the sirens of approaching police vehicles, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Recorder Richard Thyne QC described the violent attack as pre-planned and branded Jeffels the ringleader as he sentenced the men for their role in the violence.
“You turned up mob-handed with the clear intent of using and threatening violence to that family and causing damage to their property – and that is exactly what you did."
Sentencing Jeffels, of Mulgrave Court, Guisborough, to 32 months for affray, possession of a bladed article, causing actual bodily harm, and two charged of criminal damage, the judge said: “You were plainly the ringleader in all of this.”
Craig Nash, 28, of Borrowby Court, Guisborough, was sentenced to a total of 27 months for affray, criminal damage, and possession of a bladed article, after being found guilty of all charges following a trial.
Liam Nash, 30, of Hawthorns, Great Ayton, and 29-year-old Simon Nash, of Borrowby Court, Guisborough, were sentenced to two years for their roles in the violent affray and criminal damage, after also being found guilty after trial.
All four were made subject of a ten-year restraining order.
Christopher Currie
A THIEF who used a stolen van during a break-in at a school bike shed has been locked up and the badly re-painted vehicle was spotted outside his home.
Christopher Currie bought the stolen VW Transporter van for £500 before he and an accomplice set off on a theft spree stealing four bikes and a motorbike.
Teesside Crown Court heard how within two days of the van being stolen it had been given an ‘amateurish’ paint job using black gloss paint.
Currie and his accomplice used the stolen van to steal four bikes from a school shed whilst youngsters were on the premises.
Kelly Sherif, in mitigation, said 34-year-old had been in full time employment working as a builder and was no longer associated with his co-accused.
Judge Howard Crowson jailed Currie for a total of two years when he appeared for sentence.
Dealing with the handling of the stolen VW van, the judge said: “You pretty much deprived him of his livelihood by what you did. It had only been stolen two days ago in a house burglary and by the time it was found in your possession it was in a different colour."
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