The Manchester Evening News has looked back on the cases before our regions courts this week
Left to right: Simon Mitchell, David O’Brien and Ray Ostrowski(Image: Greater Manchester Police)
A nightmare neighbour who attacked a man with a samurai sword is amongst those who have been locked up this week in Greater Manchester.
Simon Mitchell became ‘mistrustful’ of his neighbour, believing his dog was ‘disturbing’ his ‘enjoyment’ of his garden. He then ‘snapped’ and slashed at the man leaving him with serious injuries.
Also locked up this week was a rapist who has been handed his fourth life sentence order for attacking a prison officer, and two drug mules who got caught by border force officials at Manchester Airport.
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Prison terms are handed out to the most serious offenders.
Here, the Manchester Evening News has looked back on the biggest cases before our regions courts this week:
David O’Brien
David O’Brien has been handed a fourth life imprisonment order(Image: GMP)
A convicted rapist issued threats to a court before being handed a fourth life sentence for attempting to stab the neck of a prison officer.
David O’Brien, who already has three life imprisonment orders for attempting to murder fellow inmates, was hauled before Manchester Crown Court after the most recent attack in October 2022.
The 47-year-old previously admitted attempting to murder Danny Fitzsimons, a murderer who he attacked with a metal bar as the two inpatients worked out in the gym at Ashworth Hospital in Maghull.
He also admitted attacking fellow inmate Peter Harris before approaching him from behind and “slicing his neck” with an “improvised knife” made out of a toothbrush and a razor blade.
In another attack, upon inmate Dean Rawlinson having only met for the first time the previous day, O’Brien asked him for a cigarette which they went to smoke in a shower block.
The complainant was sat on a bench when the defendant charged at him and produced a weapon from inside his waistband. He lunged at Rawlinson, who managed to dodge the first blow.
But O’Brien continued his attack, inflicting a 12cm laceration to the left cheek which required surgery.
Cutting into his own barrister’s mitigation, O’Brien said: “I really don’t care – you know if you want to life me off, I don’t care. Before you do sentence me, I will be back, and it will get worse. On my mother’s life.
“Do what you are doing, making it f***ing worth it. Hope every one of them dies of f***ing cancer. I hope one of my people catches up with you, the CPS, judges. For the f***ing lies, giving me 25 years.
“Can’t do convictions properly, reading just the worst ones out. Your court is f***ing me over and f***ing me over. Vengeance will be sweeter. Give me a life sentence judge, I’m not getting out any time.”
Read the full story here: Rapist issues threats to court before being handed fourth life sentence for attacking prison officer
Mark Nuttall
Jailed: Mark Nuttall(Image: GMP)
A man who brutally attacked a woman with a meat cleaver – then mocked her as she lay bleeding – has been jailed for attempted murder.
Mark Nuttall, 46, attempted to cover his tracks by telling her to say someone else had assaulted her, police said on Monday after a court sentencing hearing.
But she told the truth to officers inside the ambulance as she was being treated – and Nuttall was arrested.
Police said he kept the woman inside a house for four hours before he attacked her.
She was then struck by him with the meat cleaver four times, resulting in ‘life-changing’ facial injuries, Greater Manchester Police added.
Nuttall, of Farnworth, Bolton, has now been jailed for 21 years.
Read the full story here: Man attacked woman with meat cleaver then mocked her as she lay bleeding
John Ahern
(Image: GMP)
A paedophile who abused two boys has finally been jailed decades after his crimes. Justice has caught up with John Ahern, now aged 73, after he manipulated and indecently assaulted them as young children.
Now grown men, police said they bravely came forward to report their abuse at Ahern’s hands in March, 2019.
Before Ahern was sentenced, victim impact statements were read out to a court. One of the men said Ahern ‘destroyed my childhood and damaged the foundations of my adulthood, forever changing the person I would become’.
The second said that by sharing his experience, he hoped steps would be taken ‘to protect other vulnerable individuals from suffering a similar fate’.
At Manchester Crown Court last week Ahern, of St Anne Street, Birkenhead, was jailed for 19 years following an investigation by Greater Manchester Police. He was previously found guilty by a jury after trial of eight counts of indecent assault and a further sex crime charge.
Read the full story here: ‘This man destroyed my childhood and damaged the foundations of my adulthood’
Simon Mitchell
Simon Mitchell(Image: GMP)
A man attacked by his neighbour with a Samurai sword told a court: “I’m incredibly lucky I wasn’t killed.” Richard Adams-Burton was left with serious injuries by Simon Mitchell.
Mitchell had felt a sense of ‘mistrust and resentment’ towards Mr Adams-Burton, whose house in Rochdale backed onto his property.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard he believed that Mr Adams-Burton’s dog was ‘disturbing’ his ‘enjoyment’ of his garden, and that he ‘snapped’. Mitchell, 60, has been jailed for three years.
Read the full story here: ‘I’m lucky my neighbour who had a problem with my dog didn’t kill me in Samurai sword attack’
Ray Ostrowski
Ray Ostrowski(Image: Greater Manchester Police)
A man who drunkenly agreed to bring two suitcases full of cannabis back to the UK has been jailed.
Ray Ostrowski was caught at Manchester Airport on August 13 this year with two suitcases containing 27 kilos of the class B drug. When asked by border force officials, he confirmed what they were carrying, though said he did not pack them himself.
He later told police that he was ‘exploited’ when drunk. He claimed he was approached by others who offered him £10,000 in return for transporting the suitcases back to the UK.
Ostrowski, of Aynholne Drove, Addingham in Ilkley, was jailed for 20 months.
Read the full story here: He was drunk on holiday, and when he woke in the morning he realised his terrible decision
Casimiro De Lemos-Francisco
Casimiro De Lemos-Francisco(Image: GMP)
A would-be drug smuggler was caught at Manchester Airport with almost £900,000 worth of cocaine hidden in a mobility scooter.
Casimiro De Lemos-Francisco, 56, was stopped with the huge load after arriving at Manchester on a flight from Barbados.
Manchester Crown Court heard that De Lemos-Francisco actually had no issues with his mobility, and that the scooter was being used as a way of attempting to smuggle class A drugs into the country.
But he was caught, and has now been sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.
Read the full story here: ‘Foolish man enamoured with a female’ locked up after mobility scooter X-rayed at Manchester Airport