An ‘evil’ couple who found their friend dead and dragged her body ‘face down through the mud’ before dumping her by a primary school are amongst those who have been jailed in Greater Manchester this week.

Also locked up in our region was a woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend in the chest, as well as a ‘successful business’ who was not as he seemed.

Prison terms are handed out to the most serious offenders. And Manchester Evening News court reporters are on the press bench to cover such cases.

He portrayed himself as a 'successful businessman' - the reality was very different

A violent 'high-ranking' drug dealer has been jailed for 19 years after being caught uploading a picture of himself on to Encrochat.

Lee Standen, 42, was convicted of being involved in the supply of cocaine across Wigan during 2020. Prosecutors alleged that he had an Encrochat device, and used the handle ‘AleZebra’ as part of the conspiracy.

Standen had created a car valeting business to hide his criminality and give a ‘veneer of being a self respecting, self employed business', the court heard. However, after the encrypted system was broken into by law enforcement, Standen was arrested as part of the conspiracy and officers found drugs, body armour, CS gas and a machete at his home.

“The drugs must come from somewhere, someone keeping their distance, hiding from the law, at a high level making the big bucks,” prosecutor Phil Barnes said. “The prosecution say this defendant is one of those individual.

At a trial at Manchester Crown Court, jurors heard that Wigan had a drug problem, particularly cocaine, during 2020. Prosecutors said that a conspiracy involving a number of men saw the supply of ‘tens of kilograms’ of cocaine throughout the area.

Eight men, namely Dean Smallwood, Jamie Kenny, Leon Kenny, Nathan Cooke, Sam Causer, Nathan Hart, Ian Ormshaw and Daryl Golding, have already admitted their involvement. The prosecutor said that whilst others have admitted they were involved, it showed it was proof the conspiracy existed.

Greater Manchester Police officers went to Standen's home address to hand him a warning notice that he was under threat. Officers spoke to him and gave him the piece of paper.

"As soon as he had been given that piece of paper, AleZebra was to send pictures of that piece of paper to other people and tell them about that piece of paper. He was talking about something that had just happened,” Mr Barnes said.

He also uploaded a picture of himself getting ready for an MMA fight from a number of years ago, the court heard.

Standen, of Liverpool Road, Hindley, was jailed for 19 years. A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing was set for March 28 next year when prosecutors will aim to claw back his ill-gotten gains.

"Outrage!": Shouts from public gallery as woman jailed for five years after fatally stabbing 'abusive' boyfriend

A woman who fatally stabbed her ‘abusive’ boyfriend in the chest following a row about a man has been jailed for over five years.

Katie Yeomans, 28, stabbed Rees Howarth once to the chest after the row erupted into violence. Both had been out drinking and taking cocaine when Mr Howarth became ‘jealous’ about another man he thought she had previously been in a relationship with.

Manchester Crown Court heard he had become ‘increasingly threatening’ and Yeomans had tried to call the emergency services before Mr Howarth took the phone from her. She then grabbed a kitchen knife before a scuffle ensued.

As she tried to leave, Mr Howarth attempted to stop her, resulting in her stabbing him in the chest, puncturing his lung. Yeomans then called her sister saying: “I think I’ve killed him.”

After her sister came over to the house, Yeomans asked her for help to move Mr Howarth to an alleyway dubbed ‘The Tracks’ behind her house. She refused, and Yeomans went on to lie to the police and Mr Howarth’s dad, saying that he had been stabbed by somebody else.

Yeomans, of Hyde, has since admitted manslaughter on the grounds of loss of self control. Today, November 8, she was jailed for five years and three months. As she was led down to the cells, members of Mr Howarth's family could be heard shouting from the public gallery: "Outrage! Absolutely disgusting!"

Vile man attacked women at tram stop, in Morrison's car park and on the bus in terrifying 30 minute rampage

A pervert who sexually assaulted three young women within thirty minutes has been jailed. Eric Mwangi, 33, had earlier swiped a bottle of whisky from a hotel in Manchester city centre before embarking on the ‘disturbing’ campaign.

One young woman was assaulted after she got off the tram to meet her mum. Minutes later he grabbed another woman intimately as she pushed a shopping trolley outside a supermarket in Hollinwood.

He then approached a teenage girl on the bus before assaulting her.

Mwangi was arrested days later and interviewed by the police, during which he was asked if he committed the offences. “I don’t have a clue, I have been drinking all week,” he replied.

After being convicted at a trial of offences of sexual assault, Mwangi was jailed for three years at Minshull Street Crown Court.

'A year for a life?!' Shouts in court as 'evil' couple who dumped friend's body after finding her dead jailed

A couple dragged their friend’s dead body ‘face down through the mud’ before dumping it by a primary school. Robert Halliwell, 48, and Melanie Bullen, 53, had been taking drugs alongside Kerry Newman when they woke up to find she had died.

They both ‘bundled’ her into Halliwell’s car, drove half a mile away and dragged her body to an alleyway by Ashfield Valley Primary School and the Sandbrook Retail Park in Rochdale. She was discovered face down, partially clothed, by members of the public on New Barn Lane, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

Following a post mortem, 40-year-old Kerry Newman's cause of death was said to be aspiration pneumonia due to drug toxicity. Police are no longer treating her death as suspicious.

Halliwell and Bullen both accepted perverting the course of justice and claimed that they ‘panicked’ when they found that Kerry had died. Today, November 7, both were jailed for two years, of which they will serve half their time in prison and the other half on licence.

'Babe, you need to ring the police and report your car as stolen - I've just run someone over': Lies of dating site love cheat

A conman left a hard-up mother of four with a £20,000 bill after he wooed her on a dating site before stealing her car - which contained her disabled daughter's wheelchair. Love rat Ben Robinson, 33, charmed the mum into a relationship then asked to borrow her leased Land Rover Discovery, falsely claiming he needed it to go to the shops to buy his son a birthday present.

Despite the £16,000 Discovery containing the wheelchair - plus special boots and splints belonging to the woman's daughter who has cerebral palsy - Robinson sold it on to 'criminal contacts'. He then came up with a string of excuses not to return the vehicle, including a false claim he was visiting his sick mother in hospital before texting the victim to wrongly claim he had smashed it up in a hit and run crash.

In a made-up message to the mother, Robinson blustered: "Babe. You need to ring the police and report your car as stolen. Say you just got home from your mum's house and found it gone.

"You'll have to say the keys were next to the front door door and the thieves must have taken them through the letterbox. I've just run someone over and there was a big chase and I've run off. I'm sh**ting myself and I don't know what the f**k I'm gong to do. There's police everywhere."

The mum only realised she had been duped when she managed to contact the mother of Robinson's children to discover he had been lying all along about the vehicle - and about his relationship status with her. The NHS issued wheelchair was later recovered, but was missing a specially-made seat which had been moulded around her body and was rendered unusable. The Land Rover; her boots which helped her stand up; and her splints were never recovered.

At Bolton Crown Court, Robinson was jailed for 27 months after he admitted theft, perverting the course of justice and assault.

Encrochat drug dealers 'FlyingHorse' and 'Dave' sent down

Two men who sold kilos of cocaine at a ‘wholesale’ level have been locked up. Atiq Arif, 49, and Mohammed Sharif, 43, both used the Encrochat handle ‘FlyingHorse’ to flog cocaine, amphetamine, ketamine and cannabis at ‘wholesale’ levels.

They were caught after the Europe-wide hack into the encrypted messaging system used exclusively by organised criminal groups. In total, 1.25 kilos of cocaine, two kilos of heroin, six kilos of amphetamine, four kilos of ketamine and 20 kilos of cannabis was supplied, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Messages sent from the handle showed multiple arrangements for the collection and delivery of drugs and cash. After pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply both class A and class B drugs, Arif and Sharif were handed hefty jail terms.

Arif, of Sovereign Point, The Quays, Salford, was jailed for 10 years and three months, while Sharif, of Faraday Drive/Avenue, Cheetham Hill, was jailed for nine-and-a-half years. Both pleaded guilty to offences of conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs.

Rapist tried to get victim to drop the case before forcing her to relive harrowing ordeal before a jury

A rapist tried to get his victim to drop the case then forced her to relive her ordeal before a jury. David Bevan, 45, has been locked up for 15 years after being found guilty.

Manchester Crown Court heard that Bevan had raped the woman on two separate occasions. Prosecutors said that after he was arrested, Bevan, from Wigan, attempted to persuade the victim to drop her allegations.

But she bravely gave evidence at a trial, and Bevan was subsequently found guilty of three counts of rape, and two counts of assault by penetration. He pleaded guilty to one count of common assault, one count of criminal damage and one count of perverting the course of justice.

In a statement read on her behalf in court, the woman - who will remain anonymous - said: "This has left me feeling so emotional. I had to go to the doctors, I was suicidal.

"I'm on medication just to get me through the day. I can't believe he made me go through the trial, knowing what he had done to me.

"I just want people to know I hate everything that has happened, having to go through this trial and the effect that this will have. I'm glad that the truth has come out but there are no winners in this.

"I don't think people understand just how difficult that this all is."

Bevan, from Wigan, was found guilty of three counts of rape and two counts of assault by penetration. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Judge Rachel Smith said Bevan would serve two-thirds of the jail term behind bars.

Man's bizarre actions as fire engulfed his flat 'could have ended in tragic consequences'

Residents in an apartment block were left in fear after a man 'did nothing' when a blaze engulfed his flat. The fire began accidentally at Jason Madegwa's home in Hulme after he discarded a lighter in the property.

But instead of calling for the fire brigade, the 52-year-old 'did nothing', Manchester Crown Court heard. A neighbour called 999 and banged on the doors of other properties as smoke poured out of the flat.

When firefighters and police arrived he was 'positively obstructive'. Madegwa said that weeks earlier he had been seriously assaulted by a man who also lived in the apartment block.

On the night of the fire, the man was filming the blaze from nearby and Madegwa said he feared he was 'going to kill him'. Prosecutors told how the blaze broke out at about midnight on September 18 last year at a first floor flat on Old Birley Street, within a four storey complex containing 22 other flats.

Madegwa, who lived at the property with his partner, later said it started accidentally after the lighter had 'exploded'. He told others that he would 'sort it out' but instead 'did nothing'.

Firefighters arrived quickly at the scene and no-one was hurt, but Madegwa was said to have been 'obstructive' to both them and the attending police. The blaze caused considerable damage to the flat, totalling at least £65,000, with the cost still rising with more work having to be carried out.

Madegwa was jailed for three years and seven months.

Burly thug launched sickening attack on 78-year-old man in city centre pub... then urged dad to join in

CCTV footage shows the moment a burly thug launched a sickening attack on a pensioner in a pub - then encouraged his dad to join in. Douglas Joyce, 35, left the 78-year-old victim bloodied and bruised after punching him three times to the face and head during a row.

Joyce, wearing a black baseball cap and a Givenchy tracksuit top, followed the victim into the back room of the pub on Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter and began shouting and pointing at him, before punching him in the face and knocking him off his seat.

The thug continued to stand over the pensioner while gesticulating aggressively, before urging his dad John Joyce to join in the attack. When victim stood up, Douglas Joyce launched a left hook to the victim’s face, propelling him backwards over the table and chairs.

He continued to stand directly over him, leaning into him still shouting and pointing, before aiming one last punch to the victim’s face whilst he was helpless on the ground. Douglas Joyce, of Quayside Close, Salford, has now been jailed for 19 months after pleading guilty to GBH at Manchester Crown Court.