The Manchester Evening News looks back on the cases before our courts this week
Nicholas Martin, Lee Campbell and Charles Liburd(Image: GMP)
A ‘wicked’ arsonist, a sexual predator and a drugs gang were among the criminals to be jailed this week in Greater Manchester.
Nicholas Martin poured petrol through his wife’s letterbox at her home in Eccles, weeks after she had reported him to police for domestic violence. She had to jump out of a first floor window to escape, breaking her ankles and a bone in her back as she did do.
Charles Liburd committed vile abuse against one girl, and did not let an investigation by police put him off committing33 further sickening abuse against a second girl.
A drugs gang once headed by murdered Thomas Campbell, which was then taken over by his brother Lee Campbell was brought down. A police operation discovered the gang had been involved in a £1.6 cocaine racket, supplying drugs in north Manchester and Tameside.
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Prison terms are handed out to the worst offenders. And Manchester Evening News reporters are on hand to cover the most serious cases.
Here is a roundup of the cases heard before our region’s courts this week:
Nicholas Martin
Nicholas Martin(Image: GMP)
An arsonist who tried to murder his wife by setting fire to her home as she slept has been jailed for 30 years.
Nicholas Martin, 63, ‘stalked’ his wife Emma for days before turning up at her home in the middle of the night, pouring petrol through her letterbox and setting it alight. She became trapped on the first floor of the house in Eccles, and was forced to jump out of her bedroom window to escape.
Ms Martin, 52, a senior civil servant with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, broke both her ankles and a bone in her back. Martin, a former head of estates at Salford Royal Hospital and the Manchester Royal Infirmary, fled to the Lake District but was caught the following day.
Now, after being found guilty of attempted murder, Martin has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Sentencing at Minshull Street Crown Court, Judge Maurice Greene told Martin: “The evidence I am satisfied shows that this was a wicked, planned and premeditated attack carried out at a time when the victim was asleep, and therefore most vulnerable.”
Ms Martin, spent months in a wheelchair and still has to use crutches to help her walk, watched on as her husband was locked up. His barrister said that given his age and the sentence handed down, Martin may die behind bars.
Ms Martin also told of her horror at the loss of her beloved cat TC, who died in the blaze at the house on Montonmill Gardens, on October 22 last year.
Read the full story here: ‘Wicked’ husband who tried to murder wife by setting fire to her home as she slept jailed for 30 YEARS
Luke Wood
Wood was detained after arriving at Manchester Airport from Thailand(Image: Manchester Airport)
A ketamine addict tried to smuggle tens of thousands of pounds worth of cannabis through Manchester Airport in order to wipe his drug debt, a court heard.
Luke Wood, 29, was stopped at around 1.15pm on October 11 after landing on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand, via Doha.
Immigration officials asked to see inside his suitcase, but he refused to give them the code to unlock it.
He told them, ‘you’re not making it easy for me, so I’m not making it easy for you’ Abigail Holmes, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court.
As officers broke into his bag, he then said, ‘I may as well tell you the bag is full of cannabis, I was forced to do it.’ Inside, 20kg of cannabis was found in 36 separate packages, with a value of £61,350, the court was told.
After being arrested, he told officers in a prepared statement that ‘arrangements were made by others, to who I owe a substantial debt.’ I was left with no choice’ he said as he claimed he was told if he didn’t do it his ‘family’s lives were at risk.’ The prosecution accepted he was put under ‘pressure’ to import the drugs, Ms Holmes said.
Wood, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a controlled drug. He was sentenced to a year in prison.
Read the full story here: Ketamine addict arrested at Manchester Airport amid desperate attempt to pay off drug debt
Charles Liburd
Charles Liburd(Image: GMP)
A sexual predator who committed vile abuse against a girl went on to abuse a second child even after he had been reported to police.
Charles Liburd, 64, abused his two victims in the 1980s and 1990s. His first victim reported her abuse and was interviewed by a police officer.
But no charges were brought. Liburd then abused a second girl, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Now remorseless Liburd has been jailed for 20 years. Prosecuting, Dan Calder said: “These children did not know each other. But each grew up as a victim of the predatory sexual advances of Charles Liburd.”
Liburd, from Moss Side, was found guilty of one count of engaging in sexual intercourse with a child under 13; and two counts of indecent assault against his first victim.
Prosecutors said that under modern law, the charge of sexual intercourse with a child under 13 would now be classed as rape. Mr Calder said that at the time, the girl informed a relative and then spoke with the authorities.
He added: “Ultimately, no further action was taken by the authorities at any stage.” In relation to his second victim, Liburd was convicted of six counts of indecent assault; and two counts of indecency with a child.
Sentencing judge Recorder Alexandra Simmons said Liburd maintains that the victims made ‘false and malicious allegations’ and that he denies having a sexual attraction towards children.
“The offences you have been convicted of suggest otherwise,” she said. Liburd will serve two-thirds of his 20 year sentence in prison, before the Parole Board decides whether it is safe for him to be released.
Read the full story here: Sexual predator who committed vile abuse against girl attacked second victim even after being reported to police
Shazad Mughal
Shazad Mughal(Image: GMP)
A security guard who sexually assaulted and raped a woman in a hut outside Emirates Old Trafford has been jailed.
Shazad Mughal, 47, was based at Old Trafford Cricket Club in Stretford.
It happened inside a security hut outside the stadium at gone midnight after the woman had asked Mughal for directions into Manchester city centre.
Police said he allowed her to use a toilet inside the hut where he was based, then attacked her.
The woman had earlier got off a Metrolink tram at Old Trafford which had terminated earlier than expected, Greater Manchester Police said.
GMP said: “On Wednesday 10 August 2022, officers received a 999 call from the victim at 12.45am, who said she had been sexually assaulted.
“The victim asked Mughal, who was working as a security guard, for directions to Manchester city centre after their tram had terminated earlier than expected.
“Mughal had allowed for the victim to use the toilet before sexually assaulting her in his security booth. The victim managed to flee the scene and call the police, remaining hidden until an officer could locate them.”
Mughal, of Tansley Road, Crumpsall, was found guilty by a jury after a trial of one count of rape and one count of sexual assault by penetration, police said. He was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.
Read the full story here: Security guard let woman use toilet in his hut, then raped her
Lee Campbell and others
Lee Campbell(Image: GMP)
Seven members of a drugs gang led by Thomas Campbell before his murder have been sentenced for their part in a £1.6m cocaine supply racket.
Thomas Campbell was brutally murdered in his own home in Mossley, Tameside, in 2022, after his ex-wife plotted with a gang of robbers who pounced on him as he walked into his home.
Following his death, his brother Lee Campbell ‘took control’ as the head of the Campbell organised crime group, prosecutors told Manchester Crown Court.
The hearing ended with Lee Campbell, 43, and six other members of the gang being sentenced for their part in a £1.6m plot to supply class A drugs in north Manchester and Tameside.
Police launched Operation Kilowatt into the Campbell family organised crime group whose ‘principle’ member was Thomas Campbell until his murder in 2022, the court heard, before Lee Campbell then ‘took control’.
Investigators identified a ‘graft line’, the mobile phone number used to supply drugs, and this led police to other members of the gang who shifted 16.5 kilos of class A drugs between March 14, 2024, and January 30, 2025.
Lee Campbell, 43, of Lightfoot Walk in Beswick in east Manchester, was jailed for nine years and four months.
Kelly Blundell, 37, of North Road in Clayton, east Manchester, was jailed for two years and eight months.
Mark McGrath, 41, of Heather Street in Clayton, was jailed for two years and eight months.
Stephen Quinn, 57, of Edge Lane in Droylsden, was jailed for three years and four months.
Mark Salinger, 23, of Ladylands Avenue in Clayton, was handed a two-year jail sentence but the sentence was suspended for two years.
Paul Taylor, 42, of Gleneagles Avenue in Clayton, was jailed for two years and eight months.
Carlo Tommasello, 38, of Droylsden Wharf Road in Droylsden, was jailed for three years and eight months.
All seven defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Read the full story here: Murdered Thomas Campbell’s crime family comes crashing down as seven gangsters brought to justice