![Faces of those sentenced to jail terms by North Wales courts this Decemner [All images provided by NWP]](/resources/images/12170149.jpg?type=mds-article-962)
SEXUAL predators, drug dealers and knife-wielding men were amongst the Wrexham and Flintshire criminals brought before the courts in December.
Justice has been served to many over December – with freshly sentenced crooks spending this Christmas locked behind bars for their crimes.
The Leader has looked back at some of the court cases that have been featured in the paper this month following hearing at the region’s court buildings.
These are some of the criminals who were jailed by the courts in December:
NAME: Matthew Pritchard
AGE: 34
DATE: Tuesday, December 1
COURT: North East Wales Magistrates
CRIME: Having a seven-inch knife in public
SENTENCE: 18 weeks in prison
A Queensferry man has been jailed after being stopped with a knife in the street.
NAME: Levi Hughes
AGE: 27
DATE: Wednesday, December 2
COURT: Mold Crown
CRIME: Assaulting a prison officer
SENTENCE: 27 months to be served on top of his ongoing jail term
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: Judge Rhys Rowlands said the officer’s head wound was “described as pouring with blood” and had “left him with a degree of disfigurement.”
A Wrexham prisoner has had his jail term extended after injuring an officer with a bin.
NAME: Ben Randles
AGE: 27
DATE: Thursday, December 3
COURT: Mold Crown
CRIME: Attacking another man with a knife
SENTENCE: Five years and four months in prison
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: "You armed yourself in preparation for meeting him. He thought, understandably, that you were trying to kill him.”
NAME: Patrick McDonagh
AGE: 24
DATE: Friday, December 4
COURT: Mold Crown
CRIME: Dangerous driving
SENTENCE: Eight months added to his current prison sentence plus a two-year driving disqualification
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: "You were affected clearly by the cocaine, which you had taken previously.”
An uninsured driver damaged several cars and a wall in Wrexham after taking cocaine, a court heard.
NAME: Jake Blackwell
AGE: 28
DATE: Monday, December 8
COURT: Mold Crown
CRIME: Dealing cocaine and steroids
SENTENCE: 26 months in prison
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: “You took a risk and made a choice to supply drugs so that you could make significant amounts of money - regardless of the harm you were causing.”
A Flintshire drug dealer will spend Christmas behind bars after pleading guilty to his crimes.
NAMES: John Barr, Stephen Fisher and Bobby Davies
AGES: Barr (27), Fisher (21) and Davies (24)
DATE: Thursday, December 10
COURT: Caernarfon Crown
CRIME: Burglary
SENTENCE: 38 weeks in prison each
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: Judge Nicola Jones told the three that “significant public resources were deployed” to find them after "targeting a rural business”.
NAME: Ashley Massingham
AGE: 32
DATE: Thursday, December 10
COURT: Caernarfon Crown
CRIME: Assault, affray and criminal damage
SENTENCE: Two years and three months in prison. Also given an indefinite restraining order.
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: Judge Nicola Jones said Massingham’s victim was ‘frightened’ and ‘genuinely believed’ he would kill her.
NAME: Shaun Sansom
AGE: 47
DATE: Tuesday, December 15
COURT: Mold Crown
CRIME: Arranging sex with a child
SENTENCE: Two years in prison
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: “At 47, you were more than 30 years older than these girls – you were old enough to have been their father should they have actually existed.”
A Flintshire man caught out as a predator by decoy children has been jailed.
NAME: Daniel Croft
AGE: 26
DATE: Tuesday, December 15
COURT: Mold Crown
CRIME: Assault
SENTENCE: One year in prison
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: “The victims were both women so they are cowardly assaults.”
A ‘cowardly’ thug who bit his ex-girlfriend and pushed his mum has been jailed.
NAME: David Bateman
AGE: 43
DATE: Tuesday, December 15
COURT: Mold Crown
CRIME: Drug dealing
SENTENCE: Four and a half years in prison
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: Judge Rhys Rowlands said Bateman was ‘assisting others with the distribution of drugs’ into North East Wales.
A drug dealer who brought thousands of pounds worth of drugs into North Wales has been jailed.
NAME: David McCullough
AGE: 47
DATE: Thursday, December 17
COURT: Mold Crown
CRIME: Arranging sex with a child and possessing extreme pornographic images.
SENTENCE: 15 months in prison
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: “Your loss of self-control, driven by your deviant urges, had caused you to ignore not just the law and decent behaviour.”
A SHOTTON ‘predator’ who was exposed live on the internet has been jailed.
NAME: Paul Jones
AGE: 43
DATE: Monday, December 21
COURT: Mold Crown
CRIME: Arranging sex with a child
SENTENCE: Six years in prison
WHAT THE JUDGE SAID: “Mercifully there were no child victims.”
A Chirk man who arranged to have sex with an eight-year-old girl has been jailed.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here