In a busy July for the county’s courts, here are seven Hertfordshire criminals who have been convicted this month, including a St Albans man who raped a six-year-old child.
1. Shakir Rahman
Shakir Rahman, of Creighton Avenue, St Albans, was sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison with an extended 12 months on licence, after appearing at St Albans Crown Court on July 12.
The court heard how in June 2018, the victim, who was aged just six at the time, was raped by Rahman in St Albans.
READ MORE: St Albans man jailed for raping six-year-old child
"I’d like to thank the victim and her family for their bravery in supporting this investigation throughout," said investigating officer Detective Sergeant Zoe Maddison.
"Their strength in reporting this incident has resulted in a dangerous man being put behind bars."
2. Alun Pickford
Alun Pickford, of Manor Fields in Bratton, Wiltshire, was sentenced to seven years in jail at St Albans Crown Court for raping the woman 30 years ago while he was a junior teacher at Aldenham School.
The offence happened when the now 54-year-old invited the teenager to stay overnight at his one-bedroom flat on the school estate.
He offered her his bed to sleep in while he slept on the sofa, but during the night he entered the bedroom and got into the bed with her.
When she reported the rape in 2020, she admitted she was paralysed with fear, and was unable to react or call out.
READ MORE: Teacher jailed for raping 18-year-old student at school near Radlett
Shortly afterwards, the victim confided in a friend about the incident but did not take the matter further, while a witness said they had seen the victim coming from the direction of Pickford’s flat in the early morning, with another saying that Pickford had later boasted about the incident.
In interviews with police, Pickford denied the incident had happened or that the girl had ever stayed at his flat, but he could offer no explanation as to why the witnesses would lie about what happened.
"Pickford’s attack on her when she was barely an adult has stayed with her all her life. I hope his conviction brings her some closure and the opportunity to move on," said Detective Constable Sam Hunt, from Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Non-Recent Sexual Offences Investigation Team.
3. Ashley Liles
Ashley Liles, of Fleetwood in Letchworth, sentenced to three years and seven months in prison at Reading Crown Court on Tuesday, July 11, after he attempted to blackmail his employer for £300,000.
The 28-year-old was working as an IT security analyst for Oxford BioMedica in February 2018 when the company was subjected to a security attack. The attacker demanded a ransom payment of £300,000 in Bitcoin, and Liles began to investigate the incident.
He then conducted a separate and secondary attack against the company in an attempt to have the ransom money paid to him, rather than to the original attacker.
READ MORE: Letchworth man jailed after attempting to blackmail employer
Liles accessed the emails of senior board members more than 300 times, and altered the email address of the original attacker to an almost identical one, putting pressure on BioMedica to pay the money, but they refused to do so.
It was later found that the email access had come from the address where Liles was living, and officers from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit’s Cyber Crime Unit arrested Liles and searched his property, seizing a computer, laptop, phone and USB stick.
He had wiped the data from his devices just days before his arrest, but officers were able to recover the information.
4. Reece Haynes and Tegan Holden
Reece Haynes and Tegan Holden were sentenced to multiple years behind bars at St Albans Crown Court on Monday, July 10, for Class A drug offences.
Haynes, of Sunnyside Road in Hitchin, was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison having also been arrested for drugs offences in June 2022, while Holden, of Brighton Way in Stevenage, was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment, with both having sold cocaine and heroin.
READ MORE: Pair from Hitchin and Stevenage jailed for drugs offences
Both were arrested in Welwyn Garden City, with Detective Inspector Bianca Broadbent, from the Welwyn Hatfield Local Crime Unit, saying: "We work hard to tackle the local drugs supply and so I am glad that Haynes and Holden are now behind bars.
"I hope that the public feel reassured that these two offenders are no longer free to supply drugs to the local community."
5. Larry Ansell
Larry Ansell, of West Lane, Pirton, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years behind bars at St Albans Crown Court, for six counts of possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine.
After a stop and search by officers in June 2021, the 20-year-old was found with 80 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine hidden inside a tobacco pouch in his pants.
While on bail for this offence, in October last year, mobile phone data revealed links to a county lines drug network operating in Stevenage. It is believed he was sending up to 80 messages a day to drug users in the area.
Officers then launched an operation to tackle his illegal activities and conducted a warrant at a private address in Drury Lane.
READ MORE: Stevenage county lines drug dealer who tried to flee police jailed
Ansell was inside the property with the county line phone, a stash of crack cocaine and heroin with an estimated value of more than £2,000, and a 'Rambo' style knife.
After pleading not guilty at an early court hearing, and claiming he was a victim of modern slavery, he was subsequently remanded to prison and then bailed to an address outside Hertfordshire with a strict curfew.
Before a trial could take place though, further investigations revealed he had broken his bail conditions, returning to Stevenage to run a new county lines drug dealing operation.
Ansell was eventually traced to a flat in Canterbury Way after Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Integrated Offender Management Unit launched a manhunt, supported by the Specialist Investigation Team, Operational Intelligence Team and the Operational Support Group.
As officers closed in to arrest him, he attempted to flee, as well as trying to conceal evidence by throwing more than 100 wraps of class A drugs out of the window.
Officers had surrounded the building, preventing his escape, and he was arrested, with cash and a large hunting knife seized from the address.
6. Hassan Bolat
Hassan Bolat was sentenced to six years behind bars at Luton Crown Court on Wednesday, July 12, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs, namely crack cocaine and heroin.
The 29-year-old had been arrested at an address in Hemel Hempstead in September 2022, following an investigation by Hertfordshire police.
READ MORE: Hemel Hempstead dealer who ran three drug networks jailed
Bolat operated the Ace drug line in Hemel Hempstead, the Carlito line in Portsmouth and the Blue line in Peterborough, from February 2022 until his arrest.
A search of the address discovered over £16,000 worth of crack cocaine and heroin. £8,500 in cash and a number of mobile phone handsets were also recovered.
7. Liam Campbell and Charlie Kettle
Liam Campbell, 25, of Rockingham Way, Stevenage, was found guilty of attempted murder, and pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition and ABH, at St Albans Crown Court on Tuesday, July 4, after a shooting at the Our Mutual Friend pub in Stevenage on New Year's Eve.
Charlie Kettle, also 25, of Pembridge Gardens, Stevenage, was found guilty of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Both men will be sentenced on September 8, at St Albans Crown Court.
READ MORE: Man guilty of attempted murder after shooting at Stevenage pub
On Saturday, December 31, 2022, Kettle and Campbell had been drinking inside Our Mutual Friend pub when they became involved in an altercation with two men and a woman.
Campbell threw a glass which hit the woman, before another altercation took place outside the pub, in which he was seen firing a gun at the men twice, before fleeing the scene with Kettle.
In the hours following the incident, police raided a number of properties in Stevenage, and after further warrants were issued outside of the town, Kettle was arrested at an address in Suffolk, and Campbell at an address in Welwyn Garden City.
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