THESE people were all jailed in Gwent this month, and here are details of the crimes which put them behind bars.
— Colin Watson
Watson, of Bank Court, Pontypool, was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court on May 31.
He had pleaded guilty to five offences – possession of a prohibited weapon (a Taser), having an offensive weapon (extendable baton), the possession of two class A drugs (cocaine and MDMA), and possession of a class B drug (cannabis).
The court heard police arrested Watson in Newport on October 27, 2018, after members of staff at the city's Courtyard nightclub had spotted a "flash" caused by the Taser.
Watson was apprehended later that night as he left another pub, The Greyhound. He tried to run away from police officers, but tripped and fell.
At sentencing, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said this was "an act of mercy" so that Watson could "say goodbye to his family".
Watson was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
— Jamie Townsend
Townsend, of Rectory Road, Abertillery, appeared in Newport Crown Court on June 2 having pleaded guilty to three charges of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and one charge of sexual communication with a child.
Townsend, who was 28 at the time, messaged his 14-year-old female victim for roughly two weeks from September 2018.
The court heard how Townsend's partner had found a number of explicit messages on the defendant's phone after becoming suspicious of his behaviour.
She searched for the recipient on Facebook and found out the girl was aged 14.
Townsend had told police officers he had sent the messages "for a laugh".
Judge Daniel Williams ruled that Townsend had engaged in an "element" of both planning and grooming, and had "incited" his victim to have sexual intercourse with him.
He said Townsend admitted to kissing the girl on the cheek once – the only physical contact between them.
Townsend was sentenced to 18 months in prison and is subjected to a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.
— Delwyn Smith
Smith, of Wyeverne Road, Newport, was jailed at Newport Crown Court on June 4 having pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine, a Class A drug.
The court heard Smith had been caught with eight small bags of the drug, as well as £875 in cash, when police officers conducted a search warrant at The Royal Albert pub in Newport on June 1, 2018.
A number of text messages related to drug-dealing were found on Smith's phone.
The value of the cocaine seized from Smith would have been worth at least an estimated £160, the court heard.
Judge Jeremy Jenkins sentenced Smith to 32 months in prison, and ordered the £875 cash be handed over to Gwent Police to use in their fight against drugs.
— Marcus Bailey
Bailey, of Dewstow Street, Newport, was sentenced at Newport Crown Court on June 6 for what Judge Richard Williams called the "tyrannical" treatment of the defendant's ex-girlfriend.
The court heard how Bailey had strangled his partner with an electrical cord, threatened to shoot her, and thrown a Christmas tree at her.
He also threatened to burn his former partner's car and house after she moved back in with her mother.
Bailey admitted controlling and coercive behaviour, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and dangerous driving.
In a victim impact statement, read to the court, Bailey's victim said: “I had always been confident. These were the worst nine months of my life."
The judge jailed Bailey for 30 months and imposed a five-year restraining order not to contact the victim directly or indirectly.
— Tony Riviere
Riviere formerly of Corporation Road, Newport, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court this month after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, having a blade or pointed article in a public place, and possessing heroin.
The court heard how, on the night of February 23, 2018, Riviere was witnessed veering into traffic and running two red lights in central Newport.
He stopped in Corporation Road and was approached by a plain-clothes police officer. Riviere pulled out a knife and accused the officer of trying to rob him, the court heard.
The court was told Riviere had 23 previous convictions for 50 offences.
Judge Michael Fitton QC told Riviere he had “deliberately veered towards traffic” and said an immediate prison sentence was inevitable.
He jailed the defendant for a total of nine months.
Riviere was banned from driving for 96 weeks, told he must sit an extended retest, and ordered to pay a victim surcharge upon his release from custody.
— Joseph Dixon
Dixon, of Vivian Road, Newport, was convicted at trial of committing sex offences against a young girl in the 70s and 80s.
A jury found Dixon guilty of three counts of indecent assault – the offences being committed in Cardiff when he was a teenager and young man.
In a victim impact statement, the court heard how paedophile Dixon had "wrecked" his victim's life.
She said she was distrustful of men as a consequence and still suffered from nightmares.
Sentencing Dixon this month, the judge, Recorder Peter Rouch QC, said: “This must have been a frightening experience for a child of that age.”
Dixon was jailed for a total of six years, which was made up of a custodial term of five years and an extended licence period of one year.
He must also register as a sex offender for life, and was made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
— Eight defendants – Operation Divide
Eight men were jailed at Newport Crown Court on June 14 for their roles in an organised criminal network which supplied cocaine to the Newport area.
They had been arrested in large-scale police raids which took place in November 2018 as part of Operation Divide, an anti-organised crime Gwent Police operation.
Seven of the men – Anthony McNamee, Ryan McNamee, Neil Seer, Sanjeev Boora, Jonathan Appleton, Gary Taylor, and Nicholas Moss – were charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine, and the eighth – Darren Dally – charged with money laundering.
The court heard how the group had operated on a hierarchical basis, with Anthony McNamee at the top.
Sentencing, Judge Daniel Williams told the defendants: “The fact is each of you went into the conspiracy with your eyes open, knowing you were playing for high stake and knowing if you lost, it would not be just you who lost, but those who cared and love you.”
Anthony McNamee was sentenced to 10 years in prison, Ryan McNamee was sentenced to seven years and four months, Sheer was sentenced to eight years, Boora was sentenced to six years, Appleton was sentenced to six years, Taylor was sentenced to six years, Moss was sentenced to 12 years, and Dally was sentenced to five years.
— Marius Abramavicius
Abramavicius, of Risca Road, Newport, was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court for sexually assaulting a young girl.
After the girl raised the alarm, Abramavicius initially denied the abuse, but later made a full confession to police, the court heard.
The judge, Recorder Duncan Bould, told the defendant that his actions had had a “serious effect” on his victim and that his offending had shown “elements of grooming”.
Abramavicius was jailed for 30 months and made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
He must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, and will also have to pay a £170 victim surcharge upon his release from prison.
— David Jones
Jones, of Gelli Crescent, Risca, was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court for stalking is ex-girlfriend.
The court heard Jones had sought vengeance on his former partner after she ended their relationship.
His victim “feared he was constantly watching her”, the judge, Recorder Duncan Bould, said.
He added: “The defendant was engaged in a campaign of abusive harassment. It was determined, persistent, and, at times, intimidatory and threatening."
Jones pleaded guilty to stalking, the offence being committed between May 2018 and March 2019.
Recorder Bould jailed the defendant for two years and made him the subject of an indefinite restraining order.
Jones must also pay a £170 victim surcharge upon his release from custody.
— Max Maxamed
Maxamed, of no fixed abode, was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court this month for drugs offences.
Plain-clothes police officers in Newport had caught him selling what was believed to be heroin to five drug users in broad daylight, the court heard.
Officers confronted Maxamed and recovered 11 wraps of heroin, worth £150, and one of cocaine, valued at £10.
Maxamed pleaded guilty to possessing heroin with intent to supply, and possessing cocaine.
The Recorder of Cardiff, Judge Eleri Rees, told Maxamed that he had been involved in “an evil trade which brings so much misery”.
She told him that a custodial sentence was inevitable and jailed him for 30 months.
— Ryan Harrison & Thomas Young
Harrison and Young were sentenced at Merthyr Magistrates' Court on June 21 for a series of animal welfare offences.
Harrison, of Masefield Road, Caldicot, had pleaded guilty to 15 offences; and Young, of East Pentwyn, Blaina, had pleaded guilty to six offences.
They included six joint offences that the pair did wilfully kill, injure or take a badger on four different occasions.
Harrison and Young also admitted attempting to take or kill a deer in the Forest of Dean, and causing unnecessary suffering to a boar by letting it be attacked by dogs and by stabbing the animal with a knife.
The judge described their actions as "Medieval barbarity".
Harrison was sentenced to 22 weeks of immediate custody, was given a lifetime ban on keeping dogs, a deprivation order was made on dogs seized as part of the case along with all the equipment and paraphernalia seized, and was handed a two-year driving ban.
Young was sentenced to 20 weeks of immediate custody, was given a lifetime ban on keeping dogs, and handed a two-year driving ban.
— Gareth Morton-Jenkins
Morton-Jenkins, of Oaksford, Coed Eva, Cwmbran, was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court for what a judge called "gratuitously appalling" controlling and coercive behaviour towards an ex-partner while they were in a relationship.
Morton-Jenkins controlled his victim's bank accounts, took out cash on her pay days, and telephoned her multiple times when she was at work, the court heard.
In one three-month period alone, phone details revealed he had made 1,272 calls to her.
The victim's mother had also told of her daughter being assaulted numerous times, the court heard.
The situation came to a head last August when the woman reported being headbutted at home by Morton-Jenkins.
He pleaded guilty to charges of assault by beating and using controlling and coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship.
In a statement read in court, the woman told of how she was the victim of "numerous assaults and had every aspect of [her] life controlled".
She added: "I never want to see him again. Gareth feels like a monster to me."
Judge Wynn Morgan jailed Morton-Jenkins for 18 months for the assault, and two-and-a-half years for the controlling and coercive behaviour – a total of four years and three months.
A restraining order was also imposed, barring Morton-Jenkins from contacting his former partner indefinitely.
— Three defendants – Operation Toucan
Michael Mordecai, Matthew Curtis, and Christopher Morgan were jailed at Newport Crown Court on June 14 for their role in an organised criminal network involved in the supply of cannabis – a Class B drug – in the Caerphilly area.
They had all been arrested in police raids in April 2018, conducted as part of Gwent Police's Operation Toucan.
Mordecai was jailed for three years and four months for conspiracy to produce cannabis, possession with intent to supply cannabis; and production of cannabis.
Curtis was given a jail sentence of the same length for conspiracy to supply – and conspiracy to produce – cannabis.
Morgan was sentenced to three years in prison for conspiracy to produce cannabis.
Six other defendants in the same case were given suspended sentences for their roles in the network.
— Grethe Tozer
Tozer, 44, of Cortis Road, Wandsworth, London, was jailed at Newport Crown Court for the sexual abuse of a young boy.
The offences were carried out when Tozer – formerly of Cwmbran – was in her late 20s.
Tozer's victim had wanted to come forward for many years, the court heard, but didn’t have the courage to do so.
Tozer pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault, and three charges of indecency with a child, the day before she was due to stand trial.
Judge Jeremy Jenkins jailed her for three years and nine months, and told her she would have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
— Junior Marquinne Norris
Norris, of Lower Ty Gwyn Road, Garndiffaith, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court after pleading guilty to burglary.
He had targeted a family home in Usk last year, but fled empty-handed when he set off the intruder alarm, the court heard.
Norris' number plate was taken down by neighbours, and he also left blood at the scene after cutting himself on a window he had smashed.
Detectives linked Norris to the crime with DNA evidence from the blood he had left.
Norris had struggled with heroin addiction, and his barrister said the defendant couldn't remember anything about the burglary.
The Recorder of Cardiff, Judge Eleri Rees, jailed him for 16 months, banned him from driving for 20 months and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge.
— Richard Goman & Sian McCullough
Goman and McCullough were jailed at Cardiff Crown Court after pleading guilty to robbery and possessing an imitation firearm.
Goman, formerly of Newport, but latterly of Drybrook Close, St Mellons, Cardiff; and McCullough, aged 42, of East Lynne Gardens, Caerleon; had worn balaclavas when they targeted 60-year-old disabled man Robert Elliot at his sheltered accommodation in Newport.
The court heard how their victim had handed over his bank card and given them his PIN number before they made off with his television and £5 in loose change.
Minutes later, they withdrew £250 from a cash point to feed their drug addiction after the raid in the Pill area of the city.
The court heard Mr Elliot had since died, following the January 31 attack, but that there was no link between his death and the robbery.
Judge Niclas Parry jailed Goman for seven years and seven months, and McCullough for two years and seven months.
Both will have to pay a victim surcharge upon their release from custody.
— Kashif Ahmed
Ahmed, of Chepstow Road, Newport, was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court after pleading guilty to possessing a firearm with intent, wounding with intent, and arson.
The court heard how Ahmed had pointed an imitation gun at a co-worker's head and then pistol-whipped him because he was jealous of his victim's “flirtatious” relationship with a female co-worker.
Ahmed’s victim was left covered in blood after the brutal attack before the defendant then torched his car.
Cardiff Crown Court heard that both men were friendly with the female co-worker, and the defendant was in a brief relationship with her before she ended it.
The court heard that the victim had told detectives: “I didn’t know if he was going to pull that trigger or not. I didn’t know if that was my last breath or not.
“But then what’s going through my mind is, you know, am I going to see my kids again?”
The Recorder of Cardiff, Judge Eleri Rees, told the defendant: “The victim believed he would be shot and wouldn’t see his family again.”
She jailed Ahmed for nine years.
— Tobias Millard
Millard, of Brunel Road, Bulwark, Chepstow, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on June 28 after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The court heard Millard had launched an assault on his victim just outside Chepstow Police Station as the town's pubs and clubs were emptying.
The victim – whom Millard had mistakenly thought was a drug dealer called 'Chucky' – was left with two black eyes.
The incident happened on September 1, 2018.
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said Millard's attack had had "a profound effect on the victim".
She jailed Millard for five months and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge upon his release from custody.
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