News Beat
York and North Yorkshire defendants sentenced in 2025
JANUARY
In November 2024, Benjamin Dilnot had got a sentence for sexual assault that meant he was home for Christmas. The Court of Appeal decided he had got off too lightly and in January doubled his sentence to four years and nine months. Dilnot, 23, of Willow Bank, Brayton, who did not attend the London hearing, had to hand himself in to a police station so he could be sent back to jail.
Two judges had words of warning. The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, had stern words for the way vigilantes had snared a man with learning difficulties. He was told they had masqueraded as a police officer – which is illegal.
Recorder Peter Makepeace KC warned that Jess Collinson, 36, who has a fetish for stiletto heels, was increasingly a risk to others. He has previously been jailed for robbing women of their shoes.
In April, Collinson, of no fixed address, was back in court for sexually assaulting a woman on a train. Again he was jailed.
FEBRUARY
York Crown Court heard how an 87-year-old pensioner proved too much for a gang of scammers. He laid a trap for them with the police and Daniel Henao, 23, who lives in London, was jailed for 14 months.
“Sadistic” dog owners Kenneth Wade and Stephen Rose were jailed for 40 months for badger baiting that killed a badger and left their own dogs injured.
North Yorkshire Police’s witness care unit was successful in a bid to increase the sentence of Macauley Nesfield, 28, of Eastfield, Scarborough for splitting a woman’s head open. The Court of Appeal raised it to three years.
MARCH
Homeless Jason Holdgate, 32, became the first of four killers jailed in 2025 in North Yorkshire. He murdered kind York pensioner Michael Bradley, who had tried to help him and his partner by giving them a roof over their head.
“Self radicalised lone wolf terrorist” Mohammed Farooq, 29, plotted to bomb RAF Menwith Hill, decided it was too difficult and targeted St James Hospital in Leeds instead. He was convicted by a jury and jailed for life.
APRIL
Ian Franklin, 34, of Roche Avenue, York, became the third person in just over a month to receive a life sentence after a jury convicted him of murdering Gregory Marshall.
Serial shoplifter Michaele Allan, 34, of no fixed address, got a community order after her solicitor persuaded York magistrates she was reforming herself. It didn’t last long. In November she was back in court getting a suspended prison sentence and in December, the prosecution told magistrates “she had been a persistent shop thief all this year“.
The public gallery at York Crown Court was packed when care home employee and gambler Cheryl Louise Pratt, 35, of Byland Avenue, off Huntington Road, was jailed for two years for stealing from residents’ bank accounts.
At the end of the month Callum Graham, 29, of Giles Avenue, Heworth, York, was jailed for setting his American Akita on his then partner as he attacked her in a car park.
MAY
Two Gear4Music managers who stole the firm’s stock for years and sold it online avoided going to jail.
Former City of York Council housing officer Anthony Patrick, 63, of Haslewood Close, Burmanthofts, Leeds, was sentenced for sexual and financial misconduct during his time with the council.
The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, issued another warning – this time for those tempted to avoid penalty points by lying on official forms after they were caught speeding. Do that and I’ll jail you, he said as he sentenced a 72-year-old driver.
JUNE
Laura Carr told a jury at Leeds Crown Court her husband Stephen, 57, of Southfields, Strensall, didn’t intend to kill her as he chased her around their Strensall home with a bow and arrow and then attacked her with a knife. The jury disagreed and convicted him of attempted murder. In July he was given a 20-year extended prison sentence.
Former Ampleforth College monk Michael Callaghan, 71, was jailed for seven years for sexually abusing pupils at the boarding school.
JULY
Footballer McKenzie Dicicco, 22, of Belgravia Gardens, Middlesbrough, killed popular goalkeeper James Hitchcock at York Railway Station by hitting him from behind after running across the footbridge. The prosecution accepted his plea to manslaughter and he was jailed.
Stephen Woodward, 36, of Front Street, Thirsk, lived a life of luxury with jewellery and Jaguar cars as he and his brother Christopher Woodward profited from running websites granting illegal cheap access to streaming services, York Crown Court heard. Stephen, who made £1 million plus out of the scam, was jailed.
AUGUST
Five of six men who broke into a Selby home at night armed and masked were jailed. The sixth had been killed as the homeowner defended himself. One of the five, Kallan Hunt, 35, formerly of Selby and of Dunhill Road, Goole, who received 24 years, was also jailed for sex with an underage girl.
Twins Benjamin and Thomas Richardson, 38, of The Laurels, Barlby, made millions out of smuggling potentially toxic gas into the country intending that people should use it to get a high. Both were jailed, but not before Thomas had celebrated in front of some of his ill-gotten gains.
SEPTEMBER
Kristian Franks, 35, of no fixed address, stood trial for raping a woman some years ago. In an unusual move, the jury heard a video recorded by Leah Bedford, shortly before she died in the River Ouse in 2023 aged 16, in which she said Franks had raped her. The jury convicted him.
Many of Leah’s family were present and cheered when Franks was jailed in October for raping the woman. They also praised the woman’s courage.
OCTOBER
Philip John Watson, 35, of no fixed address, was jailed for life for murder. He had forced a woman to watch what a judge called “torture and a sadistic attack” on the victim, York-born Paul Tillett.
Timothy Glen Jarrett, 45, of Flaxman Croft, Copmanthorpe, was jailed for a string of sexual offences during which he had supplied girls with drugs for sex and filmed them.
Jamie Hawksworth, 35, of Hull Road, Hemingbrough, appeared before his second court in a year for stealing from his employer. Hull Crown Court heard about his thefts from one employer and York Magistrates Court about his thefts from a second.
NOVEMBER
West York is having a break from the criminal activities of Sean John Beard, 33, of Hull Road, Hemingbrough. He was jailed in November for the latest in years of crimes that had resulted in him being banned from part of Acomb under a criminal behaviour order. Following his court case, police released a video showing him carrying out one of his burglaries.
Former police constable Paul Beckwith, 53, of York, was in the dock at York Crown Court and sentenced for a string of voyeurism and sex offences, all committed while he was still a serving police officer but none committed while on duty or engaged in police work.
DECEMBER
“Arrogant” company director Marek Nelken, 45, of Colton Bassett near Nottingham, had hoped that a payment to a police charity and a promise to behave himself in future would get him off a charge of assaulting an emergency worker when roaring drunk in the city centre. It didn’t work and he was sentenced in December.
An illiterate mother was before York magistrates for not registering her children at any school. She claimed they were being educated at home – but had no evidence to support her claim. It was the third time she had been convicted of a similar offence.
