Watch the latest cases captured by Sky News cameras in the Crown Court and Court of Appeal in full.
Student jailed over college bomb threat
A teenager who admitted possessing explosive substances and threatening to bomb his college and kill his fellow students was sentenced to three years and 11 months in custody.
Police found explosives …at Jagger Strang’s home, in Stafford, and he also admitted accessing material on YouTube about the manufacture of gunpowder and how to make an improvised detonator.
Strang, 18, had been due to go on trial at Leicester Crown Court but pleaded guilty hours before the trial began.
A sentencing hearing at Birmingham Crown Court heard he had idolised serial killers and had a disturbing fixation with violence.
He was told he would also face extended supervision once he was released from a young offender institution.
Police first became aware of Strang when they were contacted by a safeguarding officer at Stafford College.
The court heard how the then 17-year-old, who was studying woodwork at the college, told other students he had numerous weapons and had planned how he would blow up a classroom.
He was arrested at his home the following day, and officers undertook a search of the property.
Strang’s mobile phone was also examined and officers discovered internet searches and videos relating to serial killers, including sharing images on Snapchat of Norwegian domestic terrorist Anders Breivik and the person responsible for a massacre in Crimea.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Wall told Strang: “You developed an unhealthy interest in explosives. You acquired the chemicals necessary to make gunpowder and thermite, and you made them.”
The judge said there was a “longer-term potential” for harm, given Strang’s obsession with serial killers and explosives.
The chemicals Strang possessed were “not toys” and were “akin to dangerous weapons”, he added.
The judge’s sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-jagger-strang/
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Student jailed over college bomb threat
A teenager who admitted possessing explosive substances and …
A teenager who admitted possessing explosive substances and threatening to bomb his college and kill his fellow students was sentenced to three years and 11 months in custody.
Police found explosives …at Jagger Strang’s home, in Stafford, and he also admitted accessing material on YouTube about the manufacture of gunpowder and how to make an improvised detonator.
Strang, 18, had been due to go on trial at Leicester Crown Court but pleaded guilty hours before the trial began.
A sentencing hearing at Birmingham Crown Court heard he had idolised serial killers and had a disturbing fixation with violence.
He was told he would also face extended supervision once he was released from a young offender institution.
Police first became aware of Strang when they were contacted by a safeguarding officer at Stafford College.
The court heard how the then 17-year-old, who was studying woodwork at the college, told other students he had numerous weapons and had planned how he would blow up a classroom.
He was arrested at his home the following day, and officers undertook a search of the property.
Strang’s mobile phone was also examined and officers discovered internet searches and videos relating to serial killers, including sharing images on Snapchat of Norwegian domestic terrorist Anders Breivik and the person responsible for a massacre in Crimea.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Wall told Strang: “You developed an unhealthy interest in explosives. You acquired the chemicals necessary to make gunpowder and thermite, and you made them.”
The judge said there was a “longer-term potential” for harm, given Strang’s obsession with serial killers and explosives.
The chemicals Strang possessed were “not toys” and were “akin to dangerous weapons”, he added.
The judge’s sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-jagger-strang/
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Six jailed over death of innocent woman in drug gang turf war
Six people were jailed for a total of more than 150 years for the …
Six people were jailed for a total of more than 150 years for the murder of an innocent woman who was shot as part of a feud between rival drug …gangs.
Joanne Penney was staying with friends at a house in Talbot Green, South Wales, March 2025 when she answered a knock on the door.
Drug dealer Marcus Huntley, 22, then shot her at close range with a gun that had been delivered to him from Leicester to carry out a revenge attack.
Huntley, along with five others, were all convicted of murder after two lengthy trials at Cardiff Crown Court.
Sentencing them, Mr Justice Fordham said Penney’s life was “senselessly taken” as an “innocent victim in a drugs war”.
Jordan Mills-Smith, 34, from Cardiff, Leicester trio Joshua Gordon 28, Melissa Quailey-Dashper, 40, and Kristina Ginova, 22, along with drug gang boss Renaldo Baptiste, who ordered the attack from a prison cell where he was serving a sentence for a previous killing, were found guilty of Penney’s murder as part of the drugs turf war.
Huntley pleaded guilty to the same offence.
Both trials heard how the two rival drug gangs were involved in a turf war centred around Talbot Green and the address at Llys Illtyd where the shooting happened.
Weeks before the murder, a drug dealer working on behalf of Gordon was beaten and humiliated by a member of a rival gang.
Huntley and Gordon were said to have discussed a reprisal attack and a gun, along with ammunition, was sourced from the criminal underworld in Leicester and sent to Cardiff.
Following the shooting Huntley buried the gun in a park in Cardiff before fleeing the city.
Mills-Smith also fled to Suffolk but the police closed in on all six. Within days they were all arrested, with Huntley stopped in a dramatic swoop by police on a National Express coach.
Huntley must serve 30 years before he can apply for parole; Mills-Smith a minimum of 27 years; Gordon 32 years and Baptiste will have to serve a further 42 years in jail before he can be considered for release. This will run concurrently with his current minimum term, which has 19 years left.
Quailey-Daspher, who knocked on the door pretending she wanted to buy drugs on the night of the murder, was told she must serve 14 years. Ginova, Gordon’s girlfriend who destroyed vital evidence the day after the shooting, will serve a minimum of 12 years in jail.
The judge’s sentencing remarks can be read in full at:https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-gordon-huntley-baptiste-mills-smith-quailey-dashper-ginova/
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Two jailed over arson attacks linked to Keir Starmer
Two men were jailed for plotting to carry out arson attacks targeting …
Two men were jailed for plotting to carry out arson attacks targeting property and a car connected to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych 22, was jailed for …seven years while Ukrainian-born Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, was sentenced to two years imprisonment at the Old Bailey.
Lavrynovych carried them out after being recruited by Russian-speaking Telegram user “EL” who promised him payment. He had previously been hired by the same unknown figure to put up far-right posters.
The judge, Mr Justice Garnham, described Lavrynovych as a “useful idiot” who could be easily manipulated.
He said he had been “easily bought” and “accepted the job as you had accepted other grubby little tasks”.
Carpiuc played a “supporting role” in the “utterly reckless” attacks, the judge said.
The court heard a Toyota car previously owned by the prime minister was found on fire on a street he used to live on in Kentish Town, on 8 May 2025.
On 11 May, a fire was discovered at flats linked to Sir Keir in nearby Islington. He had lived there years before.
A day later, a fire was discovered at the entrance to Sir Keir’s Kentish Town home, which he still owned and was being rented out to his sister-in-law, Judith Alexander.
She told the trial of the billowing black smoke going up the stairs while she, her daughter and partner were in the house.
Lavrynovych and Carpiuc were found guilty at the court on Monday of conspiring together and “with others” to damage property by fire between 1 April and 13 May 2025.
Lavrynovych was also convicted of alternate counts of damaging property by fire, being reckless as to whether life was endangered. He was acquitted of damaging property by fire with intent to endanger life.
A third man, Petro Pochynok, 35, was found not guilty of the conspiracy charge.
The judge’s sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-lavrynovych-and-others/
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Stepmum jailed over 1978 killing of girl, 5
A woman who killed her five-year-old stepdaughter by scalding her in a …
A woman who killed her five-year-old stepdaughter by scalding her in a bath in 1978 was jailed for 12 years.
Janice Nix, 67, punished Andrea Bernard by forcing her into the …piping hot water in Thornton Heath, south London.
Andrea suffered severe burns to half her body and died in hospital five weeks later.
Her death had been treated as an accident until Andrea’s older brother, Desmond Bernard, went to police in 2022.
Nix was found guilty of Andrea’s manslaughter.
Passing sentence at Isleworth Crown Court, Mr Justice Lavender said: “I’m sure that you ran the bath, you knew how hot it was… You heard her screams.”
“At the very least the risk ought to have been obvious to you,” the judge added.
Nix, of Clapham, was also convicted of cruelty to Desmond Bernard between October 1975 and June 1978, when he was aged seven to nine.
The judge’s sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-janice-tracyline-nix/
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Two jailed for spying for Chinese intelligence in the UK
A Border Force officer and his handler were jailed for spying for …
A Border Force officer and his handler were jailed for spying for China in the first such conviction in British criminal history.
Peter Wai, who conducted “shadow policing” operations on Chinese …dissidents in the UK, was sentenced to 10 years, while his handler, Bill Yuen, received an eight-year term.
The pair were convicted under the National Security Act of assisting a foreign intelligence service following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Wai, 41, a Border Force officer at Heathrow airport who previously served in the Metropolitan police and as a special constable in the City of London police, was also convicted of misconduct in a public office over his use of a Home Office computer system to acquire details about his targets.
Yuen, 66, a senior manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, had taken over the handling of Wai shortly after they met in 2021 to conduct surveillance on dissidents.
Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the defendants’ actions were “deliberate, concerted and serious”.
They had caused “real and significant” harm, leaving those targeted in fear and distress, the judge added.
She described Wai’s attitude towards his misconduct as “arrogant”, saying he had a “sense of entitlement” to do as he pleased.
The case is one of the first to be prosecuted under the National Security Act.
The judge’s sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-yuen-and-wai/
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Whole life order for teacher who murdered and abused adopted baby
A teacher who sexually abused and murdered the 13-month-old baby boy …
A teacher who sexually abused and murdered the 13-month-old baby boy he adopted with his partner was told he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Preston Davey died …in July 2023 at the hands of Jamie Varley, 37, who subjected the child to physical, sexual and emotional abuse during the final four months of his life.
Varley, from Blackpool, told police Preston had accidentally drowned in a bath, but a post-mortem examination discovered the child had suffered 40 injuries.
He was convicted of murder, child cruelty, sexual offences and further charges relating to indecent images following a trial at Preston Crown Court
His partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, who was found guilty of sexual assault, child cruelty and allowing the death of a child, was sentenced to 25 years.
A whole life order means that Varley will never be released from prison, except in exceptional compassionate circumstances.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Turner said Preston had faced “unremitting abuse” and neglect before being killed by Varley during a sex attack.
Turning to Varley, he said: “It was you who did this. You murdered him.
“A whole life order is a sentence of last resort for cases of the most extreme gravity.
“This is a case of the most extreme gravity. You must stay in prison for the rest of your life. You will never be eligible for parole.”
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Palestine Action ban is lawful, Court of Appeal rules
The government’s proscription of Palestine Action as a terror …
The government’s proscription of Palestine Action as a terror organisation is lawful, the Court of Appeal ruled.
Five of the most senior judges in the country overturned an earlier decision from …the High Court that the ban had breached the right to protest and had been incorrectly taken by ministers.
The proscription made it a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Handing down their ruling, which followed an earlier two-day hearing, the appeal judges said the ban had been “justified and proportionate”.
Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr and four other judges said that the government’s policy on banning terrorism groups meant the home secretary had been legally entitled to decide the group should be proscribed.
She said the judges recognised the proscription of an organisation like Palestine Acton was “highly controversial” and that it was supported by “many otherwise lawful citizens”.
But Baroness Carr added that it was “a fundamental mistake to overlook the fact that Palestine Action overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism”.
“It is not – as claimed – a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragettes, operating transparently in the open,” she added.
“It is a covert organisation which operates with secret cells to avoid the detection and prosecution of those using violence to destroy property and cause injury.”
She said the group had neither disowned nor condemned three incidents which took place before the ban was implemented and were judged by ministers to amount to terrorism.
The threats posed by Palestine Action had been the most important factor in the lawful decision-making, Baroness Carr said, including how the group clandestinely organised and targeted lawful businesses.
That included defence firms involved in UK national defence and assisting Ukraine. The home secretary had been best placed to judge the impact of those threats, said the court.
Ammori had challenged the ban on the argument that the-then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had not followed her own internal rules – and that the ban also amounted to a serious interference with the right to protest.
The High Court decided the home secretary’s policy on bans was designed to limit her discretion – but the government appealed that, saying she had been entitled to take into account the benefits of targeting and curtailing the group with terrorism legislation.
The Court of Appeal agreed, adding that the government was generally better placed than the courts in deciding matters of national security. While the court was the ultimate arbiter, judges had to recognise that ministers must have a wide margin within which to act in this complex field.
The judgement of the court can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/home-secretary-v-huda-ammori/
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IN FULL: Palestine Action activists jailed over factory raid
Four Palestine Action activists who caused £1.2m of damage at a UK …
Four Palestine Action activists who caused £1.2m of damage at a UK site of an Israel-based defence firm were jailed.
Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema …Rajwani, 21, were convicted of criminal damage in a retrial after they broke into the Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in August 2024.
Corner was jailed for seven years and eight months for criminal damage and inflicting grievous bodily harm on a police sergeant.
The judge, Mr Justice Johnson, said Corner had had no justification for the “extreme and gratuitous force” used.
The case is believed to be the first time that convictions for criminal damage have been classified as being connected to terrorism. The judge said their actions had aimed to influence the government.
Head, who drove the prison van into the compound, was sentenced to five years in prison, Kamio was also handed a five-year jail term, and Rajwani received a prison sentence of four years and eight months.
The offenders will not qualify for early release from prison provisions and the Parole Board will assess their risk to the public when it determines when they can be set free.
All four will also serve an additional one year on a licence in the community at the end of their terms.
The judge said two of the activists had livestreamed the raid and posted the footage to social media, as part of an effort to “glorify criminality and vigilantism”.
He added that they had been “reckless” about who would be injured and had been heavily involved in organising the raid with the right of veto over each part of the plan.
This video has been edited to remove extreme language.
The judge’s sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-charlotte-head-and-others/
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Jail for Brit who encouraged US man's suicide online
A British man who encouraged a US citizen to kill themselves while on …
A British man who encouraged a US citizen to kill themselves while on a video call was jailed for six years and four months.
Dylan Phelan, 21, pleaded guilty to intentionally …doing an act that was capable of encouraging the suicide of another person.
In October 2024, Travis Dyer, 21, from Louisiana, took his own life during a call between the pair and two other men.
Phelan, from Morley, West Yorkshire, also admitted to three counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image and one count of making an indecent image of a child.
Passing sentence at Leeds Crown Court, the judge, Mr Justice Cotter, admonished him for indulging his “morbid curiosity” at the expense of Dyer’s wellbeing, saying the deceased had needed “help and support but he got the very opposite of that from you”.
He said: “You wanted to feel like you had control over the actions of another. You showed no respect for the life of Travis Dyer.”
This video has been edited to remove descriptions of suicide methods and extreme pornographic material.
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Jail for rapist who let innocent man serve 17 years for his crimes
A sex attacker who violently beat and raped a woman in 2003 – in an …
A sex attacker who violently beat and raped a woman in 2003 – in an attack that led to the wrongful conviction of another man who spent 17 years in …prison – was given an extended sentence of 24 years.
Paul Quinn, now 52, evaded justice for more than two decades but was found guilty of two counts of rape, one count of choking with intent and one count of grievous bodily harm after new DNA technology linked him to the crime.
The victim, a then-mother-of-two who cannot be named for legal reasons, was walking along Cleggs Lane in Little Hulton, near Salford, in the early hours of 19 July 2003 when she was pushed down an embankment before being was beaten, raped and strangled by Quinn.
After an e-fit based on a description of the attacker was produced by police, Andrew Malkinson was picked out of a digital identity parade by the victim and two other witnesses – despite no DNA evidence linking him to the crime.
Mr Malkinson served 17 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Now aged 60, he was only released in 2020 after 17 years in jail, with his conviction finally quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2023.
Quinn always denied any involvement in the attack and was never linked to the crime until 2022 when new evidence emerged. nHe was convicted after a six-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.
During sentencing Mr Justice Bright, described Quinn’s victim as a “hero”, paying credit to her “quiet dignity” at having to give evidence in two trials.
He added: “She is a remarkable person, and I say all this to give public tribute her, and to others like her.
“They do not come here for vengeance, which we do not give them, they do not come expecting closure, which is a largely mythical phenomenon, especially after an event such as rape, they come because they want the truth to be heard and because they know it is the right thing to do.
“Without them it would not be possible to bring the guilty ones to justice – and this is why she, far above any of the police, or the lawyers or the DNA scientists is the hero of this story.”
Turning his attention to Quinn, the judge said he had “seen no sign he has ever repented” for what he had done, adding he had instead “sat back and enjoyed your liberty at the expense of another man”.
“Your stance remains that you deny committing the offences, that is by definition not a stance I accept, but it means as you appear before me today you appear apparently without remorse and without regret and you appear to have no readiness to tackle the causes, characteristics and circumstances that led to the offending,” he said.
Sentencing him to 21 years in jail, with an extra three years on licence after release, Mr Justice Bright also addressed Quinn on Mr Malkinson’s wrongful conviction.
“It is utterly clear that you knew throughout that another man had been arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned,” he told him.
“You knew that his conviction was wrongful. You also knew that it was extremely useful to you. It must have played on your conscience that another man was in prison, in effect, serving your sentence.
“It certainly should have played on your conscience that you were only too willing to sit back and take advantage of his misfortune.
“It is true that you never did anything positive to implicate Mr Malkinson, however but for your offending he never would have been questioned.”
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Killer who murdered partner and blew up her home jailed for at least 23 years
A killer who murdered his partner before blowing up their home in a …
A killer who murdered his partner before blowing up their home in a gas explosion was jailed for at least 23 years.
Clifton George, 45, punched and tried to strangle mother-of-two …Annabel Rook before stabbing her 31 times when she tried to end their 10-year relationship.
The 46-year-old was found dead in the family home in Stoke Newington, north London, in the early hours of 17 June 2025.
George admitted arson but denied murder, claiming he was only guilty of manslaughter because he had lost control. He was convicted of the more serious charge after a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
The trial heard evidence that George was an aggressive and bullying partner who was prone to angry outbursts over trivial matters.
After killing Rook, he started a fire in the basement in order to cause a gas canister explosion which ripped through the house, causing around £400,000 of damage.
Imposing a life sentence with a minimum term of 23 years, Mr Justice Constable said George had the ability to be friendly and fun, but he had “another troubling side” to his character.
“An overwhelming picture has emerged of your rage, anger, and volatility”, said the judge, adding that George had a “pronounced temper” which could be sparked by trivial matters and “perceived slights”.
This video has been edited to comply with reporting restrictions.
The judge’s sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-v-clifton-george/
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UK Athletics fined £350,000 over death of Paralympian hit by falling metal cage
UK Athletics was fined £350,000 over the “wholly avoidable” death of a …
UK Athletics was fined £350,000 over the “wholly avoidable” death of a Paralympian who was killed when a shot-put cage collapsed during training.
Abdullah Hayayei, 36, who represented the United Arab …Emirates, was killed at Newham Leisure Centre, east London, during a practice session in 2017.
The father-of-five was preparing to represent his country in the F34 class discus, javelin and shot put at the World Para Athletics Championships in London when part of a 31st throwing cage fell on him.
He was left with a severe head injury after the 5ft high cage toppled over because it was put up incorrectly and without its base plate, in an “accident waiting to happen”.
The national governing body for athletics was charged with causing the death of Mr Hayayei by “supplying for use… a discus/shot put cage which it used and operated without its base structure and which collapsed” into the Paralympian while he was practising shot putting.
UK Athletics Ltd admitted corporate manslaughter and was ordered to pay nearly £400,000 over six years – made up of a fine of £350,000 and legal costs of £44,000, as well as a statutory surcharge.
Keith Davies, who was the head of sport for the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships, also pleaded guilty to a health and safety charge.
The 79-year-old was handed a community order to do 175 hours of unpaid work, to be carried out in the next 12 months.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Marks KC said Mr Hayayei’s death was “tragic, untimely and wholly avoidable”.
He noted failings by UK Athletics were not a “one-off” but said any financial penalty would “weaken” its ability to support individual athletes and athletics in the community.
He told Davies, a retired PE teacher, that he knew, or ought to have known, base plates were an “integral part” of the cage construction.
He was “on notice” following an earlier collapse of an identical cage, the judge said, adding: “This was an accident which sooner or later was waiting to happen.”
In the five years since UK Athletics acquired two identical cages originally used in the 2012 Olympics, they had never been properly assembled with the base plates attached, the court heard.
Davies had claimed UK Athletics had never been supplied with base plates, but this proved not to be true, the court was told.
The judge’s sentencing remarks can be read in full at: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/metropolitan-police-v-uk-athletics-limited-and-keith-davies/
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