A SERIAL rapist and sexual abuser, a paedophile and a man who punched and spat at police officers before smearing himself in poo are among the criminals jailed in March.
These criminals were sentenced to around 37 years and nine months combined.
They were jailed for a series of sexual offences including rape and sexual activity with children, having indecent images of children, dealing cocaine and cannabis, domestic abuse, affray, assaulting police officers and criminal damage.
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Here’s a round-up of their cases.
Kevin Offland
“Manipulative predator” Kevin Offland has been jailed for a series of sexual offences against women and girls spanning more than 20 years.
Offland, 45, had denied 18 sexual offences between 1998 and 2021.
The defendant, now of Nichols Road in Great Yarmouth, was charged with raping two women and an 11-year-old girl – after giving her alcohol – in the Telford area, before he moved to Pembrokeshire.
A third woman gave evidence that Offland had raped her after spiking her drink in Pembrokeshire in October 2014, telling the jury she woke up in a bed at his home in pain and with no memory of the night before.
The jury heard that Offland sexually assaulted one of the teenagers multiple times under the guise of giving her massages to help with her training to get in to the army. He also got her to carry out a sex act on him when she was aged just 14.
In total, he faced 13 offences of sexual activity with a child relating to the two teenagers.
Following a two-week trial, the jury found Offland guilty of all charges on February 21.
The defendant – who refused to attend his sentencing – was jailed for a total of 26 years, plus a further four years on extended licence.
“What was plain in this case was the incredible bravery of the victims and survivors to come to court and give their evidence,” Judge Catherine Richards said.
Daniel Byrne-Crowley
“Dangerous paedophile” Daniel Byrne-Crowley was found to have had “stomach-churning” conversations with other predators online.
He had one Category A image – the most serious type, 11 Category B images, and 10 Category C images, all from between August 2012 and September 2020, while he had been inappropriately talking with a 10-year-old boy between June 2019 and September 2020.
The 28-year-old pleaded not guilty to all charges, despite what the judge later described as “overwhelming evidence” against him.
The jury took just over half an hour to return unanimous guilty verdicts on each offence.
Police raided Byrne-Crowley’s home address on Bush Street in Pembroke Dock on October 28, 2020. They found 23 child abuse images on his devices – one of which was inaccessible. These included pictures and videos of children as young as four being sexually abused.
Officers also discovered what appeared to be conversations between the complainant and other adult men discussing indecent images, masturbation, and oral sex.
Byrne-Crowley appeared to boast to another user that he had worked at a summer camp in America where he said he “saw [the children] naked and taught them to masturbate”.
The police also recovered conversations on the devices with a 10-year-old boy which involved pornography, masturbation, giving the boy a computer, and going to Oakwood theme park.
During cross-examination, the defendant denied having a sexual interest in children.
The defendant, now of Swily Road in Dublin, was jailed for a total of 21 months. He must sign the sex offenders register for 10 years, and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the same amount of time.
Mathew Edwards
An “out of control” Mathew Edwards attacked his long-term partner again just weeks after assaulting and strangling her.
Edwards, 35, of Caer Bryn Road in Penygroes, appeared at Swansea Crown Court charged with two offences of assault by beating, one of strangulation and one of criminal damage.
Edwards and the complainant argued on January 3 after she received a call asking for money. When she threatened to leave him, the defendant grabbed her with one hand by her hair and by the throat with other.
He told her: “I am going to kill you”.
On January 31, Edwards and the complainant were arguing again about the future of their relationship.
Edwards left to get a bottle of wine, and the complainant locked him out. When he returned, he threatened that if she didn’t let him in, there would be a “car-shaped hole” in their home.
He was let in and remained in the house for a few hours.
The court heard that he slapped the complainant in the face, before slapping her twice more.
She called the police, but Edwards then came upstairs and grabbed her by the wrists before punching a door – damaging it – while screaming.
Police were later told Edwards was “out of control”. The defendant was arrested that morning a short distance from the address.
While in custody, Edwards was asked if he needed anything. He replied: “To punch my missus in the face”.
The defendant told police that the assault was just “a little clip and a slap” and denied strangling the complainant. He then told officers he was “only trying to scare her to get a reaction” before saying that he’d admit the offences.
Daniel Davies
Drug dealer Daniel Davies and his partner Rhian Warlow splashed their ill-gotten gains on luxury watches, diamond jewellery and a diamond key ring.
The pair both pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis and being concerned in the supply of both drugs too.
The couple were stopped in a car on the A477 heading towards Milford Haven on the afternoon of December 29 as officers suspected the car of being linked to drugs supply.
They told officers they had been shopping at B&Q in Carmarthen, but when the car was searched, a 493 gram block of cocaine – which had a street value of around £61,000 – was found under a panel in the boot.
They were both arrested at the scene, and Warlow told officers she had left her daughter at home. The police went to her address and found her 10-year-old daughter asleep. They could smell cannabis in the home.
When searching the address, officers found four bags of cannabis totalling 921 grams of cannabis – with a street value of just over £10,000.
The also found cash scattered around the address, with £1,255 found in a cardboard box, £679 in loose change, and £260 in notes in the bedroom.
Messages were recovered from Davies’ phone which showed he was often dealing in ounces and sometimes selling boxes – in kilograms – of drugs.
The messages from Davies set out Warlow as his driver and the recipient of the money, but the messages on her phone showed she also facilitated deals herself.
The prosecution said there would be an application to recover any profits the couple made from their offending under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Bradley Morgan and Joseph Scholz-Conway
Two men from Surrey were jailed after they sparked a brawl in a Llandovery pub “like a scene from a Wild West film”.
Bradley Morgan, Joseph Scholz-Conway, John Slade and Jordan Pollitt checked in at the Castle Hotel in Llandovery on November 24, 2022, before making their way to the Whitehall Inn at around 9pm.
Their conduct at the Whitehall Inn was described as “unruly, boisterous and aggressive”.
After a glass smashed on the floor, one of the other customers confronted the group – pointing out the glass was a hazard for dogs in the pub.
Slade replied: “You’re a f****** dog. Don’t you dare talk to us like that”.
Morgan was shown on CCTV footage leaning over another patron and repeatedly pointing in his face. What happened next was described as “befitting violence in a scene of a Wild West film”.
Morgan punched the man he had been abusing, Scholz-Conway punched him again and pushed him in to the group , and Slade and Scholz-Conway then hit him again.
The landlady and her son – who also worked at the pub – tried to put a stop the violence, with the son escorting Morgan towards the door. However, Morgan again verbally abused the woman who had confronted them, spat in her face, and threatened to kill her.
Morgan grabbed a chair and attacked the landlady’s son with it, while Scholz-Conway smashed him over the head with the glass before appearing to stamp on him and punch him.
Pollitt – who had missed the outbreak of the fight as he was smoking outside – punched staff members before going over to one of the locals – who was recovering from the initial attack – and striking him several times over the head.
Morgan, Slade and Scholz-Conway were identified from the CCTV footage. They were arrested at the Castle Hotel. Pollitt was smoking in the car park and admitted to officers that he had a Stanley knife on him. He was arrested, and was then identified as being involved in the brawl.
Pollitt, 28, of Diamedes Avenue in Stanwell, denied charges of affray and possession of a knife, but was found guilty at a trial in October.
Morgan, 31, Ravensbourne Avenue in Stanwell, initially pleaded guilty on the basis that he hadn’t used the chair as a weapon, but later fully admitted affray.
Scholz-Conway, 31, of Weymede in Byfleet, now admitted using his glass as a weapon.
Slade, 37, of Clockhouse Lane in Ashford, entered an unqualified guilty plea at the plea and trial preparation hearing.
Recorder Simon Clarke jailed Scholz-Conway for 10 months and Morgan for nine months.
Slade received a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, and Pollitt was sentenced to a total of nine months, suspended for two years.
Jordan Mruk
Jordan Mruk was jailed after punching and spitting at police officers before shouting racial slurs, urinating in his cell and smearing himself in faeces.
Mruk, 25, of Martletwy, near Narberth, was sent down for a total of 12 months at Swansea Crown Court after admitting two offences of assaulting an emergency worker, criminal damage and racially aggravated harassment – all while in breach of a suspended sentence order.
On May 28 last year, police were called to Swansea railway station after receiving a report of two men fighting. After being spoken to by the police, they left the scene. However officers were later called back as the men had returned.
When the police arrived, Mruk “became aggressive while refusing to leave”. As the officers called for back-up, the defendant ran away and left the railway station. When he was apprehended, he punched one of the officers in the chest.
Mruk was incapacitated with PAVA spray and was carried towards a police van. While he was taken towards the van, he spat on one of the officers.
Whilst in custody, the defendant started making multiple racial slurs.
When he was in his cell, the defendant urinated on the door and then defecated and smeared it on the intercom and over himself.
In interview, Mruk said his actions were in self-defence, and that he hadn’t spat at the officer, but was instead “only clearing his throat”.
Mruk was subject to a suspended sentence at the time, after he had been sentenced last February to 12 months, suspended for two years, for threatening to damage property.
Judge Daniel Williams jailed Mruk to a total of three months for the offences, and a further nine months for breaching a suspended sentence.
Cameron Tudor
Cameron Tudor was jailed after going on a crime spree smashing shop windows and stealing alcohol and a vape.
Tudor, 25, of Maes Y Fron in Garnant, was accused of damaging a £6.99 bottle of wine and stealing an Elf Bar disposable vape at One Stop Garage in Brynamman on March 7.
He was also alleged to have broken shop windows at Vantage Chemist and Siop Y Brynamman – both also in Brynamman.
The defendant was also charged with damaging a window and stealing two bottles of San Miguel lager and two bottles of Echo Falls wine – worth a total of £16.90 – at Co-op in Garnant.
Tudor pleaded guilty to four charges of criminal damage and two of theft from a shop at Llanelli Magistrates’ Court on March 12.
He was sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment for each charge, running concurrently.
Tudor must also pay £85 in costs, as well as £12.98 in compensation for the stolen vape and £16.90 in compensation for the stolen alcohol.
Craig Baker
West Wales builder Craig Baker has been jailed for false representation and fraud.
Craig Baker, the sole director of Elite Construction and Plastering Limited and Elite Plastering and Construction Limited, and the charges revolved around Baker's fraudulent practices in his construction dealings through two counts.
The first charge involved false representation of initial quotes and work value, as well as unfulfilled promises of professional standard work completion, between July 1, 2021, and May 11, 2022,
The second offence, from July 26, 2021, to April 27, 2022, included excessive charging and further false representation of work value.
He pleaded guilty to both charges.
An investigation by Carmarthenshire Trading Standards revealed that Baker, with offices in Spilman Street, Carmarthen and Is-Y-Llan, Llanddarog, had defrauded customers of more than £30,000 for building work.
This included one instance where Baker built a conservatory, later deemed by an expert witness surveyor to have "no value" and described as "some of the worst" work they had seen in 24 years, saying it needed removal and rebuilding.
Judge Paul Thomas KC sentenced Baker to two years and eight months.
Jessie Nicholson
Jessie Nicholson, 44, of Marsh Road, had been made the subject of a restraining order at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court on March 27 last year.
However, he returned to court after he was “swearing in the presence of members of the public” in Haverfordwest on March 5 – which he was barred from doing under the terms of the order.
He pleaded guilty to breaching a restraining order on March 7 at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court.
Nicholson was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison due to the offence being committed while he was serving a suspended sentence and it was not his first breach of the restraining order.
He must also pay £85 in court costs.
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