FROM a serious knife attack to a man being shot with a crossbow, the courts dealing with Colchester and Tendring cases have had a busy month.
The offenders locked up for their crimes include a serving soldier who sexually assaulted a woman and a dangerous driver who ploughed into stationary traffic, leaving a victim with life-changing injuries.
Here are the faces and stories of the north east Essex criminals locked up this month.
Keith Palfreman
A PROLIFIC offender who stabbed a “vulnerable” woman after accusing her of stealing his drugs has been jailed for seven years.
The woman, aged in her 50s, sustained lacerations to her arms during an attack at her home in Talbot Avenue, in Jaywick’s Brooklands estate, on September 26 last year.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard Keith Palfreman, 43, of Langham Drive, Clacton, visited Colchester with the victim and bought 200 Valium tablets before returning to her home.
He woke up to find the tablets missing and accused her of stealing them.
He told the victim she had “better find them” before returning later that day with a tshirt wrapped around his face and a sword or machete sheath, which he used to “poke and threaten her”.
He struck her head and torso ten times before pushing her to the kitchen floor and headbutting and kicking her.
He then picked up a 5ins kitchen knife and threatened to “cut her open and kill her”.
He knelt over her and held the knife to her face, causing a small injury, before stabbing downwards three or four times.
She used her arms to defend herself, which led to her suffering the lacerations.
Palfreman left and was arrested the following day. He was later charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
He denied the charge and was found guilty on September 23 following a trial.
Ronnie Bergenthal, mitigating, told the court the time of the offences was a particularly “turbulent” one for Palfreman due to a lack of stability with accommodation.
He added it was unclear whether a weapon was taken to the scene or whether it was just a sheath.
The court heard Palfreman has 45 previous convictions for 103 offences.
Sentencing Palfreman, Judge Timothy Walker said: “Whether it was a sheath only, or a sheath containing a weapon, is irrelevant.
“But for her defensive actions her injuries could have been far more severe.”
He was jailed for seven years and must serve two-thirds of the sentence before being considered for parole. Once released, his licence period will be extended by three years.
Mitchell Sullivan
A MAN “changed his victim’s life forever” by leaving him with life-threatening injuries after a violent attack at a bar.
Mitchell Sullivan, 22, was on bail after dealing Class A drugs and serving a suspended sentence for a similar attack when he launched a flurry of punches at a bar in Harwich last month.
Gareth Hughes, prosecuting, said: “Violence erupted when the defendant came running into the bar.
“It appears he was intending to assault somebody else. But he came in and was throwing punches.”
One connected with the victim, a young man who was not involved with Sullivan, who fell to the floor and hit his head.
Another victim was hit by Sullivan, but suffered no injury.
The young man was rushed to Colchester Hospital, before being transferred to Addenbrooke’s Hospital for specialist care.
He suffered a bleed on the brain and fractures to his skull and face.
The injuries were life-threatening, but he was stabilised after surgery.
In a victim impact statement, he said he had suffered permanent disfigurement to his forehead, scarring underneath his right eye and scarring from the centre of his forehead to his left jawline.
Sullivan committed the assault while serving a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after a similar unprovoked attack outside Harwich and Parkeston Football Club in July last year.
On that occasion, he broke a stranger’s jaw when he threw a punch.
Sullivan was also on bail for a separate drug dealing offence.
He admitted charges of causing grievous bodily harm, assault by beating, being concerned in the supply of a Class A drug and breaching a suspended sentence order.
Jessica Ward, mitigating, said Sullivan is “remorseful, ashamed and embarrassed” to be appearing in court.
Recorder William Clegg QC jailed Sullivan, of St Edmund’s Close, Dovercourt, for five years and eight months.
He also imposed an indefinite restraining order banning contact with the victim.
He said: “He has not fully recovered from those injuries today, he is still in pain, the prognosis is uncertain and he is scarred for life.”
Delroy Mairah
A JEALOUS thug wielding a one-handed crossbow and an axe fired a bolt into a man’s stomach after falsely accusing him of sleeping with his partner.
Delroy Mairah, 40, was caught on CCTV in a car park near flats in East Street, Colchester, telling his friends “watch this”.
Ipswich Crown Court heard he advanced on the victim with a small £80 metal tactical crossbow and fired.
The victim could be heard saying: “What are you on about? Don’t shoot me with that thing.”
The bolt was fired at 200ft per second and punctured the victim’s shirt and skin. Mairah also wielded a small axe in his other hand.
The court was told Mairah carried out a “revenge attack”, accusing the victim of sleeping with his partner.
READ MORE: The crossbow thug who shot neighbour over false allegation
The victim had moved into a flat neighbouring Mairah’s partner in the days prior to the attack.
The court heard there was a conversation between the defendant and the victim which caused Mairah to feel “some form of disrespect”.
The victim pulled the bolt from his abdomen following the attack and later handed it over to the police.
In a statement, he said he had felt anxiety when thinking back to the attack, particularly when considering “his own safety and that of his pregnant partner and son”.
Mairah, who has ten convictions for 17 offences, handed himself in at Colchester police station on September 16, four days after the attack.
He told the police he had not meant to fire the crossbow, an assertion Judge Emma Peters branded as “complete nonsense”.
He admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a blade.
Kevin Toomey, mitigating, said Mariah had struggled with depression after losing both his mother and his father to illness in quick succession.
Judge Emma Peters sentenced Mairah, of East Street, Colchester, to three years and four months imprisonment.
She acknowledged he had showed some concern for the victim when he handed himself in to the police.
But she added: “As you strode across the courtyard, as you shot him with that crossbow, there was no mercy at all in your heart that I could see.”
Jason Hill
A SELF-CONFESSED monster who abused a child told the girl she was “pretty for her age”.
Jason Hill, 28, was jailed for six years after he admitted to 13 counts of sexual activity with a child.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard the victim was told she must keep the incidents a secret.
Joanne Eley, prosecuting, said: “She said he would say ‘Just stay quiet, just like don’t make any noises’.
“He said to her ‘No-one can ever know about this, ever’.”
She added: “During the course of the interviews, [the victim] was very upset, she explained she had lost everything.”
The victim estimated there had been between 40 to 50 different occasions when sexual activity took place.
The court heard the police were contacted in February and interviewed Hill, of Steam Mill Road, Bradfield, who made limited admissions.
Ms Eley said: “He said sexual intercourse had taken place and it had started the year before.
“He said what he had done was vile and wrong and it made him a monster.”
In police interview, the predator said he found the victim “pretty for her age”.
READ MORE: Mother of 'brave' girl urges victims to report sex offences
Ms Eley said: “He minimised the sexual contact and said they had sex three or possibly four times.”
Hill added he was “quite happy to take whatever gets thrown at him, I deserve it”.
Ms Eley added: “He said he knew it was wrong from the outset.”
In a statement summarised in court, the victim said she felt “scared and guilty”.
The court heard she blamed herself and felt like the offences were her fault.
Ms Eley said: “She says she can’t look at herself in the mirror without feeling sick and feeling horrible.”
The girl said the offences had impacted on her sleep.
Ms Eley added: “Night time is the only time she feels like she can cry and let it all out.
“She said she felt dirty and horrible.”
Lynne Shirley, mitigating, said Hill had accepted responsibility for his actions from the outset.
She added that Hill had previously been a man of good character.
In addition to his jail term, Hill was placed on the sex offender’s register for life.
He will also be subject to an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.
Ben Goodspeed
A MAN who was jailed for stabbing a teenager in the chest as he lay defenceless on the ground was caught with a knife after his release from prison.
Ben Goodspeed was stopped by officers in a car in Mersea Road, Colchester, last Tuesday.
The car had fled from officers by going the wrong way in a one-way street.
The 22-year-old, of Monkwick Avenue, was found in possession of a blade, while on licence for a serious assault which took place Osborne Street, Colchester, in January 2018.
Goodspeed and his accomplice Tate Heeney ambushed a 17-year-old boy, hiding behind a building near the town’s bus station before launching their attack.
Goodspeed knifed the victim in the chest as he lay defenceless on the ground and Heeney smashed him on the back of the head with a wooden baton.
The victim was first rushed to Colchester Hospital and then a specialist unit in Basildon because of the severe injuries to his chest, which included extensive nerve damage and a punctured lung.
READ MORE: Teens who went on the run after town centre attack are jailed for 13 years
Police launched a manhunt for the pair after the incident and directly appealed for the two of them to hand themselves in.
Goodspeed admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and was jailed for seven years in November of that year.
On Thursday, he admitted the knife offence at Colchester Magistrates’ Court and was jailed for 18 weeks.
Sgt Lee Palmer, of Essex Police’s North Disruptor Team, said: “Goodspeed committed this offence whilst out on licence for a serious offence.
“Thankfully, my officers decided to stop the car he was in, which has resulted in a knife being taken off the streets of Colchester.
“Within two days, he was in front of the court and was handed another prison sentence.
“Rest assured that successful stops such as this are just one of the many duties that my team carries out across the north of the county to keep our communities safe.”
Dennis Hooper
THE mother of a drug addict says she feels she has lost the past 25 years of her life due to her son’s abusive behaviour.
Dennis Hooper, 38, was jailed for two years and two months after the latest in a long line of breaches of a restraining order prohibiting contact with his long-suffering mum.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how Hooper’s repeated abusive contact with his mother had lead to a restraining order, which was “breached again and again”.
He was given a 15-month prison term in February 2020 after another breach and the order was reaffirmed, banning him from contacting her or going to her Clacton address.
But after his release there was another breach in August this year.
The court heard Hooper’s mother was awoken by “loud and aggressive” banging on a rear window at her home.
Opening a curtain, she spotted her son outside.
Marc Brown, prosecuting, said: “She could tell straight away he was intoxicated on drugs and she was able to do that just by looking at his eyes.
“She would describe him as being off his head. She had seen him in that state many times before.
“Immediately she called the police indicating she needed help, the defendant was shouting abuse.
“She does recall him saying ‘You’ll be dead by the time I’m out’, alluding to the fact that he knew that the result of the conduct was he was going back to prison.”
The police arrived and Hooper, of Victoria Street, Ipswich, was arrested.
He admitted breaching a restraining order.
David Barr, mitigating, said Hooper had begun to make some progress towards sobriety in prison.
He said: “He has reached a stage where he feels the only place he can begin to turn around his life and his substance misuse is in prison.”
Judge Christopher Morgan said: “It is never pleasant to deal with an individual whose life has been blighted by drug and alcohol addiction.”
Joshua Meider
A LANCE corporal who sexually assaulted a woman following a booze-fuelled night out has been jailed after a judge disagreed with the assertion he was a “perfect soldier”.
Joshua Meider, 27, had gone into Colchester with a group of fellow soldiers, drinking alcohol over the course of about two hours.
Ipswich Crown Court heard he went on to sexually assault a woman in the early hours of the morning.
The court heard the victim was asleep when the sexual touching began, and when she awoke she “froze and pretended to be asleep”, hoping it would cause Meider to leave.
After initially denying any assault in his first police interview, he went on to admit one charge of assault by penetration.
The court heard there had been an unacceptable delay in bringing the case to a conclusion, with the offence committed in 2018.
Emma Nash, mitigating, said Meider has no previous convictions and described the attack as an isolated incident.
READ MORE: Victim sexually assaulted by serving soldier who 'abused her trust'
She said in a letter to the judge, the soldier had “demonstrated a real, genuine understanding of what he did and how much it would have impacted on [the victim]”.
References from commanding officers also described his “impressive Army record”, describing him as the “perfect soldier”.
His captain took to the witness box to tell the judge the Army would consider keeping him on if he was spared immediate custody.
He said he could teach a lesson to other soldiers, telling the judge: “If he was able to help other soldiers, maybe we can stop this happening again.”
But Judge Emma Peters rubbished any suggestion the Army’s hierarchy would consider keeping Meider as a serving soldier in the light of his conviction.
She said this consideration is “unrealistic” and did Meider “no favours” by raising his hopes.
She added: “The Army may want to consider whether any soldier who commits this kind of offence can be described as the perfect soldier.”
Meider, of Dishforth, Thirsk, in North Yorkshire, was jailed for two years and six months and will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.
Albert Kirk
A PAEDOPHILE has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison after he was convicted of historic child sex offences.
Albert Kirk will serve 24 years in jail, with a further year on extended licence, after he was convicted of 26 child sex offences.
Kirk, 68, of Fal Drive, Witham, denied all 26 offences but was convicted of them all following a trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.
The offences included three counts of rape, three counts of attempted rape, 12 counts of sexual assault, six counts of indecent assault, one count of assault by penetration and one count of indecency with a child.
The offences relate to three children and took place in the 1980s and 2010s.
Following the sentencing, one of Kirk’s victims thanked Essex Police for their support after her abuser was jailed.
The woman, who is remaining anonymous, said: “What he did has affected my whole life and has impacted my physical health too.
“I can’t hold a relationship down and it’s affected relationships with my family.
“No matter how they punish him, it can’t make what he did any better. He has already done the damage.”
READ MORE: 'It has affected my whole life ' - brave victim of vile child rapist speaks out as he is jailed
She added: “I keep having bad nightmares. Sometimes I think they’re real.
“I believe there may be many children out there that he has abused and who haven’t come forward. I hope that they can now speak out.
“I also believe someone like that preys on his victims and carefully selects them.
“I would encourage other people to come forward because this sort of thing has to stop.
“I can’t bear the thought of someone doing that to another child and that is why I have spoken out about what he did.”
Det Con Siobhann Murphy, of Essex Police’s child abuse investigation team, added: “I want pay tribute to the courage of the victims abused by Albert Kirk.
“It has taken incredible bravery to report what has happened to them and re-live that ordeal.
“It has had a profound affect on them and I hope seeing Kirk brought to justice because of their courageousness will help them move forward.”
Barry Goody
A YOUNG man left partially paralysed after a dangerous driver ploughed his van into stationary traffic on a busy road told a court how he had to learn to walk and talk again.
Barry Goody, 41, told witnesses it was likely he fell asleep at the wheel of his van when it smashed into the rear of a Ford Fiesta driven by a 22-year-old man.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard he had been travelling at about 60mph at the time of the crash, which unfolded on the A12 at Langham on February 10 last year.
As one witness moved into a slip lane to exit the A12, he reported seeing Goody’s van heading “at speed” towards the stationary traffic.
He said: “I was amazed at the speed of this vehicle, the fact the driver did not appear to be slowing or reacting to the tailback of traffic ahead.”
The witness saw the rear of the van rise into the air as it smashed into the car.
The court heard Goody was recorded on a police officer’s body-worn camera saying: “I was slowing down, I do have a horrible feeling I fell asleep, I’ve been doing a lot of hours recently.”
James Onalaja, prosecuting, said: “This defendant failed to acknowledge the slowing vehicles ahead of him, struck the rear of the Fiesta [the victim] was in and forced that van up into the air.
“[The victim’s] Fiesta was pushed to the near side of the carriageway and left the road, striking a wooden fencing before coming to a rest.”
The court heard Goody was due in court the day after the crash for driving at 57mph in a 30mph zone.
The victim’s Fiesta was partially crushed by the crash and the young driver was flown by air ambulance to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where he was placed in an induced coma. He required immediate surgery to relieve pressure on his brain.
He suffered a severe fracture to his skull, a bleed on his brain and spinal fractures. His injuries were life-threatening and he still struggles to speak.
READ MORE: 'You feel numb' - victim details horrific consequences of dangerous driving
In a victim statement, he said: “At the age of 22, I had to learn to swallow, talk, move arms, walk, go to the toilet, feed myself, all over again.”
He added: “Depression did sink in, I was in the process of buying my first home.
“I had a job I loved, I had my own car so I could go and see my friends and family when I wanted, now I could not even take myself to the toilet or have a shower on my own.
“I started to think ‘Why me?
What have I done that is so wrong?’”
Speaking of Goody’s role in causing the crash, he said: “He has no injuries, but my life will never be the same again.”
Goody, of Falkenham, Suffolk, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Jailing him for 18 months, Judge Christopher Morgan said: “A person who falls asleep even for a short period of time on the A12, and causes an accident resulting in such significant injuries, must go into custody.”
Goody was banned from driving for 39 months.
James Jacobs, Danny Hicks, Gary Calder and David Hall
FOUR men were jailed after a two-year probe into modern slavery and a £2million drugs supply operation which exploited vulnerable people by forcing them work in cannabis factories.
A Clacton man, two men from Canvey and another from London are behind bars after a series of raids in 2019 and 2020, including a house in Melbourne Road, Clacton.
In total, more than 2,000 cannabis plants were seized with an estimated value of more than £2million.
Police also “safeguarded” five Vietnamese nationals who had been forced to harvest and guard the plants, and were found living in appalling conditions.
Two years after the operation began, five men were sentenced at Basildon Crown Court after admitting conspiracy to produce cannabis.
James Jacobs, 39, of Stevens Close, Canvey, was jailed for five years.
Danny Hicks, 41, of St John’s Road, Clacton, was jailed for three years and eight months.
Gary Calder, 43, of Whernside Avenue, Canvey, was jailed for three years and six months.
David Hall, 37, of Caspian Walk, London, was jailed for three years and four months.
A fifth man, Terrence Green, 34, of St John’s Road, Clacton, received a suspended sentence of two years and six months and was ordered to complete 100 unpaid hours of work.
Specialist teams of Essex Police officers carried out raids across Essex and London between November 2019 and July 2020, including: l Melbourne Road, Clacton, on July 15, 2020, where officers found 26 cannabis plants spread across three bedrooms in a house.
Rawreth Industrial Estate, Rayleigh, on November 29, 2019, where officers found 8 industrial units containing 1,015 cannabis plants in total.
Bromfords Farm, Wickford, on May 1, 2020, where officers found 361 cannabis plants in a house.
London Recycling factory, Barking, on July 15, 2020, where officers found 850 cannabis plants.
The Essex Police lead officer for the case, who does not wish to be named, said: “I’m extremely proud of all of the teams who have been involved in the investigation, whose hard work and dedication has helped sentence five men for their crimes and prevented a substantial quantity of cannabis from entering the illegal market.
“Not only did the men capitalise on the growing and selling of illegal drugs, they threatened and exploited five vulnerable people into doing their bidding.
“Not one ounce of care was shown for their welfare and had they not been safeguarded, they would have been worked into the ground.”
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