SEVERAL shocking cases have been heard in Oxfordshire courts so far this year, from animal mutilation to the attempted murder of a child.
The Oxford Mail is looking back on the 10 most shocking cases of 2024 to this point.
1. Scarlet Blake
Scarlet Blake, who is a transwoman, killed Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, at Parsons Pleasure in the early hours of July 25, 2021.
A trial at Oxford Crown Court heard that she had ‘likely’ hit the Spanish man on the back of the head with a vodka bottle before strangling him and pushing into the River Cherwell.
The 26-year-old also kidnapped and tortured her neighbour's cat - putting its body into a blender whilst on a live stream to her girlfriend.
2. Anthony Stocks
A paedophile who attempted to murder a 10-year-old boy by throwing him off a clifftop in Brighton after he was caught sexually abusing a young girl was handed a life sentence.
Anthony Stocks was found guilty of attempting to murder the boy after he tried to intervene with Stocks assaulting an underage girl.
The 54-year-old wanted to ‘marry’ the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and had sexually assaulted her on several occasions in the early 2020s.
It was heard that the boy, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, tried to stop the assaults, resulting in Stocks trying to kill the boy.
3. Paul Hilton
Another shocking case was the children's entertainer who was caught by his neighbour looking at ‘shocking and revolting’ child pornography.
On August 18 last year, Paul Hilton was caught looking at child pornography on his parent’s living room television by his neighbour in Malvern Close, Banbury.
When arrested, the self-employed ventriloquist, who runs his entertainment business under the name ‘Paul Dumas’, told police: “I know what I’ve done is a crime.
"I admit what I’ve done, I’m not going to deny it. I have a fascination with younger children.”
4. Janaed Akhtar
Janaed Akhtar, 40, was found guilty of murdering his housemate Neil Comins in the early hours of Wednesday, January 3 this year.
Mr Comins was attacked by Akhtar with a baseball bat, sustaining extensive serious injuries.
Akhtar had attacked Mr Comins, hitting him in the head with a baseball bat and stabbing him to the right side of his neck, before calling 999 himself to ask emergency services to attend.
5. Peter Gibbs
Another notable court case this year was the former school bus driver in Witney who was jailed after raping a 14-year-old girl and encouraging a 13-year-old girl to send him naked photographs.
Peter Gibbs, 60, was sentenced for three counts of historic child sex abuse which happened in the early 2000s – two counts of indecent assault and one count of rape – after being found guilty at trial.
Over two decades later, Gibbs, pleaded guilty to one count each of sexual communication with a child and making indecent images of a child after six naked photographs were found of the teen on his device in 2022.
6. Dennis Hawkins
A seven-year jail sentence was handed to an elderly man who sexually abused two children, one when he was a teenager and the second when he was in his 60s.
The 68-year-old, of Saxon Court, Wessex Way, Bicester, was on trial at Oxford Crown Court where a jury heard he assaulted a young boy in the 1970s, followed by a young girl in the late 2010s.
Hawkins could be seen crying and shaking his head before being sentenced, saying: “I didn’t do anything. They're liars.”
7. Roy Summers
Next on the list is a pensioner who was jailed for 15 years after being found guilty of several counts of child sex abuse against girls as young as four.
Roy Summers, of Springfield Oval in Witney, stood trial at Oxford Crown Court charged with 17 counts of historic child sex abuse, of which he denied all.
The 80-year-old has now been found guilty of sexually assaulting three girls, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, in the 1990s and early 2000s.
8. Underage rape case
A teenage boy was handed a youth rehabilitation order after raping a 12-year-old girl who has since died in Kidlington.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty earlier this year of raping a girl at Exeter Park in June 2021, when he was 13 years of age.
During the trial, the jury heard the girl, whom the Oxford Mail has decided not to name, has since died.
The reason and cause for her passing has not been explicitly disclosed in court.
9. Liam Jones
A convicted murderer who killed for a second time when battering to death a disabled father-of-five, was jailed for life in May.
Liam Jones was sentenced to 37 years in prison after murdering 59-year-old Phillip Breach on November 30, 2022. He subjected disabled Mr Breach to a minimum of 37 separate blows.
He had previously been jailed for the murder of Ian O'Brien in 2002 and was eventually released on parole on July 12, 2021. Jones, described as a loner, stabbed Mr O'Brien to death by plunging a knife into his head and throat in Southampton.
10. Benjamin Cuff
A father-of-two was jailed in March after thrusting a broken glass into a man’s neck during a drunken pub fight.
Benjamin Cuff, 40, injured Derrick Janes at a Headington pub on August 29, 2022.
Oxford Crown Court heard Cuff had hit Mr Janes with a broken bottle over the head, before straddling him and thrusting the glass into his neck.
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The Oxford Mail will complete a full round-up of the most shocking cases of 2024 at the end of the year.
Make sure to catch-up on several of these cases in the Oxfordshire Court and Crime Podcast.
Listen now on Spotify or wherever you listen to your pods.
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