Courier fraudsters, child sex offenders, domestic bullies, driving menaces and violent thugs were among the defendants jailed at Durham Crown Court in August.
A teenager shared vodka with a younger girl before sexually assaulting her in woodland near a running track in Newton Aycliffe.
Tyler Mark Thomas Cummins suggested sexual activity with the “tipsy” teenager, but when she refused, he touched her chest over clothing, to which she did not consent.
The court was told he asked the girl if she would report his actions to the police and said he would kill her if she informed anyone what had happened.
Cummins, 18 at the time, but who is now 20, of no fixed abode, admitted charges of sexual touching and causing or inciting a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity, at a hearing at the court on June 14.
He had previously denied both offences and other charges arising from the incident, with a trial provisionally listed for July 2.
But after his guilty pleas to the two charges were accepted by the prosecution, following consultation with the complainants, the case was adjourned for sentencing on August 12.
Judge Peter Armstrong passed a 12-month young offenders’ custodial sentence, and made Cummins subject of a two-year restraining order, forbidding contact or approaches to the girl.
Cummins must also register as a sex offender for ten years.
He will also be subject the restrictions under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, also for ten years.
In a case, on August 20, a man who made himself “at home” in a former friend’s house in Tow Law twice in the same day when the new occupier was out, was also jailed at the court.
Adam Ben Orpen, 37, of Coronation Avenue, Tow Law, admitted a charge of burglary at a previous hearing at the court.
Although the court heard he did not remove any property from the house, he ate and drank foodstuffs and wine found there, and took £40 from a tv stand.
Imposing a two-year prison sentence, Judge Jo Kidd said she would be failing in her duty to public safety if she did not make it an immediate term of custody.
She also made Orpen subject of an indefinite restraining order.
It prohibits him from approaching or contacting the householder "until further order".
Former religious missionary Martyn William Fryatt groomed a boy over the course of a year, sending him sexually explicit messages and images and videos of naked men and young boys.
The court heard that the 71-year-old defendant, who is of previous good character, repeatedly told the boy to delete the photos so that his parents would not find them.
But the retired Christian missionary and senior mental health nurse in the NHS was arrested in June last year after the boy’s shocked mother discovered the images and messages on her son’s phone, before alerting the police.
Fryatt, of Derwent View, Burnopfield, was charged with three counts of making indecent images of a child, and one each of possessing prohibited images of a child and engaging in sexual communication with a child.
He admitted the charges when he appeared at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court, on July 23, and the case was sent for sentence to the crown court.
Imposing a 14-month prison sentence, Judge Kidd said it would have been a 21-month jail term had the defendant taken the case to trial and “lost”.
Fryatt was also made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and registration as a sex offender, both for ten years.
Three Scotsmen were involved in a courier fraud scam targeting vulnerable victims in County Durham while posing as crime investigators.
Paul Brown, Adam Rankin and Irfan Yousaf, all from the west of Scotland, were each jailed for a crime in which one victim was drained of savings for him and his sister, who has learning disabilities, and for whom he has power of attorney over her affairs.
The trio claimed to be conducting Fraud Squad inquiries into potential financial crimes and urged their would-be victims to transfer money into supposed “safe” accounts.
Brown, 27, said to be care/of HMP Gateside, in Greenock, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by misrepresentation and concealing criminal property, relating to some of the £50,000-plus dishonestly money made from the offence.
Had all their efforts been successful, the figure could have been above £60,000.
Both 41-year-old Yousaf, of Darnley Road, Glasgow, and Rankin, 32, of Mary Fisher Crescent, Dumbarton, were found guilty of the fraud offence, which both denied, following a four-day trial earlier in August.
Judge Kidd imposed four-year prison sentences upon both Brown and Rankin, and one of 42 months (three-and-a-half years) on Yousaf.
She said all three took part in, “acts of extreme dishonesty where vulnerable people were deliberately targeted”.
A man who carried out a road-rage-type attack leaving two victims with deep lacerations to their heads was given a seven-year prison sentence, on August 21,
The violence arose after a collision between two vehicles on Seaside Lane, Easington Colliery, at about 9.30pm on February 8 this year.
It led to a fight developing on nearby Station Road where defendant Kent Wallace had armed himself with a shovel handle.
The court heard he used it to strike his first victim, a man in his 30s, several times, causing deep cuts which required hospital treatment.
When the other man, who is in his 50s, tried to intervene, he, too, was assaulted with the same weapon, suffering deep cuts to his face and head.
Although Wallace then fled the scene, he was eventually arrested following extensive reviews of CCTV in the area, and with the help of forensic evidence.
While admitting involvement in the incident, 33-year-old Wallace, of no fixed abode, denied wounding the two men with intent.
He, did, however, admit further counts of affray and possessing an offensive weapon.
On the fourth day of his trial he was convicted on both counts of wounding with intent by the jury earlier this week and appeared back at court for sentence via video link from nearby HMP Durham.
Judge Kidd imposed consecutive sentences of four and three years and the defendant must serve at least two-thirds of the total seven-year term before being eligible for release.
She warned Wallace he would be on licence upon his release and if he commits any further offences he would be returned to prison.
Restraining orders were also put in place prohibiting the defendant from approaching or contacting either of his victims, in both cases for ten years.
Christopher John Nash was at the wheel of a friend’s Mitsubishi Shogun which came to the attention of officers in a passing police patrol car, in the Murton area, at 4am on July 8.
The sentencing hearing at the court, on August 22, heard that Nash was disqualified from driving at the time.
Elisha Marsay, prosecuting, said having passed a blue-lighted ambulance, and gone the wrong way around a roundabout at speed, the defendant drove through South Hetton at about 70mph and continued on the A182 where a Stinger tyre-deflating device was successfully deployed by police.
As another police vehicle then tried to block the defendant’s further progress on his damaged tyres, Nash made a sharp left turn off the road onto a nearby farm field, causing £1,500-worth of damage to the land and crops being grown.
The police found the abandoned vehicle in the area a short time later, while Nash was located in the vicinity, where he was cautioned and arrested.
Miss Marsay said by the time the results from positive drug samples came back, the 43-year-old defendant, of Victoria Court, Framwellgate Moor, Durham, had already appeared before magistrates and admitted charges of dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance.
Imposing a 16-month prison sentence, Judge Kidd extended Nash’s period of disqualification from driving to 56 months.
She said when that period expires, he will still have to sit an extended re-test to enable him to drive legally.
A man with a track record for violence and specifically domestic disorder is behind bars following his latest drunken outburst inflicted on a partner.
William McClacklan appeared before the court, via video link from the city’s nearby prison, on August 23, for sentence after admitting charges of battery and criminal damage at a hearing ten days earlier.
The court heard the case related to offences committed on a woman with whom the defendant had been in a relationship for two years.
McClacklan 40, of Cotswold Close, Coundon, was said to have 53 convictions for 107 offences, including several for assault.
Passing a 32-week prison sentence, Judge Sarah Mallett told the defendant that it means, given the time he has spent on remand, that he would probably be released in the near future.
But, she made him subject of a restraining order preventing McClacklan from contacting or approaching the victim of his latest offences for five years.
A drink and drug-crazed man caused a serious knife injury to a police officer attempting to arrest him for making threats to kill his wife.
Offences of making threats to kill, unlawful wounding and common assault were admitted by David Eldrett, 54, arising from a prolonged incident while under the influence of drink and probably cocaine at his home in Kestrel Court, Newton Aycliffe, in the early hours of Sunday January 28 this year.
He put a knife to the neck of his wife and threatened several times that he would kill her, as well as pushing the 70-year-old, who has mobility issues, forcefully to the floor.
When police forced their way into the locked house, Eldrett threw the knife from short range into the left thigh of the first officer, causing serious long-term muscle injury.
Judge Geoffrey Marson KC told Eldrett: “The consequences of your actions that night were quite dreadful”, as he caused either significant psychological or physical impact to his victims.
He imposed prison sentences totalling six years, three years consecutively for the offences against each victim.
The judge also made Eldrett subject of a restraining order, “until further order”, prohibiting him making any contact, directly or indirectly, or approaching his wife, which he said meant it was, effectively, “without limit of time”.
A man arrested on suspicion of engaging in sexualised online chat with an underage girl committed numerous similar offences when released under investigation.
John Paul Williamson, now 28, of Pine Avenue, Durham, admitted four counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, three of possessing indecent images of a child and two of possession of extreme pornography.
He also asked for 20 further charges of attempted sexual communication with a child to be taken into consideration.
Imposing a total three-year prison sentence, Judge Marson told Williamson he will spend up to half in custody before being released on licence.
The judge made the defendant subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and registration as a sex offender, both, “without limit of time.”
He also made a forfeiture and destruction order for the devices seized from the defendant during the investigation.
A man under the influence of drink carried out a sudden screwdriver attack on his long-term partner he had accused of cheating on him.
The court heard that seeing a sudden movement coming towards her face after Glen Wigham entered her bedroom, the victim, who was on her bed looking at her phone, instinctively put up her arm to protect her face.
The court was told it resulted in her receiving a stab wound to her left lower forearm.
She was treated with 17 stitches and antibiotics.
Wigham, 41, of Duddon Close, Peterlee, admitted wounding with intent when he appeared before magistrates recently.
See more court stories from The Northern Echo by clicking here
Former missionary from Burnopfield told boy to delete explicit photos
Durham man chatted with police decoys posing as underage girls online
Drink and drug-crazed Newton Aycliffe man made threats to kill wife and injured PC
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The case was sent to the crown court for sentence on Friday (August 30),
Judge Nathan Adams said had his ex-partner not shielded her face from Wigham's flailing hand, carrying the screw driver, her injuries could have been far worse.
He imposed a 40-month (three years and four months) prison sentence and made the defendant subject of a restraining order, prohibiting him from contacting or approaching the victim, either directly or indirectly, for life.
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