These are the faces and stories of 15 of the most notorious criminals jailed in November for serious crimes across the UK.

They include Lancashire "bully" Andrew Burfield who claimed he accidentally killed his ex-girlfriend when throwing an axe, a mother and her partner who murdered her teenage son during a campaign of torture, and a former plumber sexually assaulted and murdered his elderly mother-in-law.

Other offenders put behind bars for their wicked crimes include a career criminal who killed an elderly brother and sister in a bungled burglary and an unlicensed tattoo artist who “exploited and abused” a woman’s trust before raping her while she was unconscious at his flat.

READ MORE: Dedicated family man who 'saw the good in everyone' brutally murdered in Preston street

In some cases, trials have been held, in others the criminals have admitted their guilt. But in all cases a judge has decided their crimes are so serious only significant custodial sentences will suffice.

These are some of the most shocking court cases that were widely reported in the UK last month.

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Andrew Burfield

Andrew Burfield was jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years for the murder of 33-year-old Katie Kenyon
Andrew Burfield was jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years for the murder of 33-year-old Katie Kenyon

A “bully” who claimed he accidentally killed his ex-girlfriend when throwing an axe has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years for her murder. The family of 33-year-old Katie Kenyon appealed for others with concerns about controlling relationships to contact police following the sentencing of her killer Andrew Burfield, 51, who murdered and buried the mother-of-two in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, on April 22.

Burfield, of Todmorden Road, Burnley, initially denied murder and told officers he had accidentally killed Miss Kenyon, from Padiham, when he threw an axe after she bet him he could not hit a drinks can with it. A post-mortem examination revealed the mother-of-two, who began a relationship with Burfield in 2019, suffered at least 12 head injuries.

Burfield changed his plea to guilty on the third day of his trial, in what judge Mr Justice Goose described as “a final recognition your game plan had failed”. The court heard that after her death he used Miss Kenyon’s phone to send messages, drafted the month before her death, to her children and to himself. He dug her grave in Gisburn Forest on April 21 and returned with Ms Kenyon the following day, where he killed her and buried her body.

Dewal Dos Santos Silva

Dewal Dos Santos Silva, 37, raped an unconscious woman
Dewal Dos Santos Silva, 37, raped an unconscious woman

An unlicensed tattoo artist “exploited and abused” a woman’s trust before raping her while she was unconscious at his flat. Brazilian Dewal Dos Santos Silva, 37, of High Road, Wembley, north-west London, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, the M.E.N reports.

A court heard how he was contacted by the victim, a woman in her mid-30s, who arranged to go to the flat to get a tattoo done on the evening of October 30 2020. While there she became groggy and lost consciousness before waking in the early hours of the following morning to find Dos Santos Silva raping her.

As the “distraught” woman went home after the attack, Dos Santos Silva sent a text apologising for “screwing up” and asking if she was angry with him. He was arrested by police on November 3 of that year, claiming he could not remember what had happened, but officers had seized forensic evidence which would later prove his guilt.

Police say there is a “possibility” more victims are yet to come forward. He was found guilty of rape and sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment, with a further five years to be served on licence, the Metropolitan Police said. A restraining order was also issued prohibiting him from contacting the victim directly or indirectly.

Simon Parks

Simon Parks sexually assaulted and murdered his elderly mother-in-law Mari O'Flynn
Simon Parks sexually assaulted and murdered his elderly mother-in-law Mari O'Flynn

A former plumber sexually assaulted and murdered his elderly mother-in-law. Simon Parks, 52, strangled 79-year-old Mari O’Flynn as she lay in bed at the home they shared in Newport, Gwent.

Parks, an alcoholic, held a long-term grudge against the mother-of-three and a few months after she moved into the mid-terrace property he shared with her daughter, he left. However, just five days before the killing on May 24 this year Parks had returned to the house in Leach Road in Bettws. Cardiff Crown Court was told Parks had been drinking heavily before and after the murder – making repeated trips to local shops to buy cans of lager, whiskey and cigarettes.

It was only several hours later that he confessed to a neighbour, who then found Ms O’Flynn’s semi-naked body in bed and called the police. Michael Jones KC, prosecuting, told the court: “The defendant harboured resentment and anger towards the deceased, not least because she had moved into live with her daughter, Claire O’Flynn, his partner, and he had to move out because of his dislike of her mother. The defendant had made threats towards Mari O’Flynn which had been witnessed by neighbours and Mari had told family members about."

The prosecution told the court that Parks physically assaulted her "by repeatedly punching her to the face as she lay in bed, then strangled her to death". The court heard that forensic evidence indicated that the defendant sexually assaulted his victim.

Parks, of no fixed abode, previously admitted a single charge of murder. Jailing him for life with a minimum term of 25 years, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke, the Recorder of Cardiff, said: “You assaulted her both physically and sexually, and strangled her until she was dead. She fought for her life biting and scratching your face, so that it bled. It is clear what you have done will cause life-long trauma and unimaginable grief to Mrs O’Flynn’s family."

Luis Balcazar Soto

Luis Balcazar Soto crashed into a rickshaw killing Sophie Strickland as she celebrated her birthday
Luis Balcazar Soto crashed into a rickshaw killing Sophie Strickland as she celebrated her birthday

A drunk driver crashed into a rickshaw and killed a passenger who was out in London to celebrate her birthday. Luis Balcazar Soto, 24, did not have a licence and was twice over the drink-drive limit when the silver Kia he was driving smashed into the pedicab, throwing Sophie Strickland, 31, from the vehicle.

The rickshaw’s driver Tanzir Ahmed, who is in his 30s, was seriously injured while Ms Strickland was killed in the collision in Elephant and Castle, south-east London, in the early hours of July 10. Mr Ahmed had stopped in New Kent Road so Ms Strickland and her friend Jade Redford, who was not harmed in the crash, could use the cash machine of a branch of Tesco Express.

Soto, whose former partner and friend were in the car with him, was described by witnesses as “driving like a madman” as he hit speeds of up to 70mph. Ms Strickland, from Hay-on-Wye, in mid Wales, had come to the capital to celebrate her birthday with friends, a court heard.

Reading her victim impact statement from the witness box, Ms Redford said: “We were heading back to the hotel after having one of the best nights of our lives. Sophie and I were laughing to almost the very last second.” Ms Strickland had just got back into the rickshaw before the collision while Ms Redford returned to find her friend lying among the wreckage.

Balcazar Soto, from Elephant and Castle, tried to run from the scene but was stopped from escaping by members of the public, who he threatened to punch and offered money to let him go. He pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving, acting in breach of a restraining order – by seeing his former partner – and breaching a suspended sentence. He was jailed for a total of nine years and nine months, and banned him from driving for 10 years and nine months.

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith, 41, tried to sell the house he was renting
Andrew Smith, 41, tried to sell the house he was renting

A tenant tried to sell the house that he was renting in what police described as an “almost unbelievable” crime. Andrew Smith, 41, began renting the three-bed home in Cambridge in February 2020, and, less than two weeks after receiving the keys it appeared for sale online via a fake estate agent company.

A price was agreed with a potential buyer but the victim visited the property with a drain surveyor and spoke to neighbours, who said they thought the house was tenanted and not for sale. He contacted police following the visit in June 2022 and officers discovered that many documents Smith had provided to the letting agent were fraudulent.

Smith had also made payments, shortly after moving in, to a furniture rental company which supplies furniture for show homes, Cambridgeshire Police said. The force said he was arrested in Bedford and later admitted to fraud by false representation and entering into money laundering.

Smith, of Gardeners Close, Flitwick, Bedford, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison. Detective Constable Dan Harper said: “This is an almost unbelievable and truly brazen crime, which saw an innocent buyer almost part with more than £400,000 for a property that was never for sale in the first place. The investigation has been long and detailed and we have worked tirelessly to make sure justice has been served.”

Matthew Fisher

Matthew Fisher killed his wife Abi Fisher
Matthew Fisher killed his wife Abi Fisher

A man who murdered his wife and dumped her body in woodland six months after she gave birth to their child has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years. Matthew Fisher, 30, strangled primary school teacher Abi Fisher, 29, before leading police and her family on a “wild goose chase” by claiming she left him and their daughter in the middle of the night, Leeds Crown Court was told.

While hundreds of people were searching for Mrs Fisher near her home in Castleford, West Yorkshire, police checked her phone and found searches including “why does my husband hate me?” and “is marriage counselling available on the NHS?” prosecutor James Lake said. Officers then discovered her husband’s phone – and car – had been on the move when he claimed he was asleep, the court heard.

Fisher was seen on CCTV leaving home after 4am on July 9 and returning just before 9.30am. While he was gone, he travelled to Lancashire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, the court was told. Police found Mrs Fisher’s body in bushes near a lay-by in Southmoor Road, near Brierley in South Yorkshire, on July 10 – the day after she was reported missing.

Fisher went on to tell a psychiatrist he “lost it” after his wife told him she was “not happy and was going to move back in with her parents”, Mr Lake said. The defendant claimed he put his hand over his wife’s mouth to try and smother her and, when that did not work, he smothered her with a T-shirt.

Danville Neil

Danville Neil was found guilty of killing an elderly brother and sister in a bungled burglary
Danville Neil was found guilty of killing an elderly brother and sister in a bungled burglary

A career criminal killed an elderly brother and sister in a bungled burglary. Danville Neil has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years.

The 65-year-old “dodged justice for nearly 30 years” after attacking Second World War veteran William Bryan, 71, and widow Anne Castle, 74, during a break-in at their east London home in August 1993. Following a trial at the Old Bailey, Neil was found guilty of Mr Bryan’s murder and of Mrs Castle’s manslaughter.

Sentencing him, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: “You dodged justice for nearly 30 years, now justice has caught up with you.” She later said: “This was a notorious and universally appalling crime, both because of your history and the doubly fatal consequences of what you did.”

The pensioners were beaten and restrained as their flat was ransacked in the search for valuables. The judge told Neil his actions were “unscrupulous” and “lacking in mercy”, and the siblings died “as a result of your greed”.

Neil pulled two wedding rings and two diamond rings from Mrs Castle’s fingers, but failed to find some £4,000 in cash – some of which had been stashed in socks, the Old Bailey was told. Mrs Castle suffered a heart attack and Mr Bryan went into cardiac arrest after being beaten and smothered during the night-time raid.

The murders went unsolved for nearly 30 years until Neil’s DNA was found on the knot of a strap used to tie Mr Bryan’s hands. The court heard Neil had a string of convictions for some 15 burglaries between 1973 and 1998.

Steven Craig

Steven Craig murdered his partner Jacqueline Kirk, who died 21 years after he doused her with petrol and set her on fire
Steven Craig murdered his partner Jacqueline Kirk, who died 21 years after he doused her with petrol and set her on fire

A man convicted of murdering his former partner, who died 21 years after he set her alight, received his second life sentence for the “gratuitous, deliberate and monstrous” attack. Steven Craig, 58, was inspired by a scene from the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs when he doused Jackie Kirk in petrol and held a lighter to her face in a car park in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, in April 1998.

He was convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to the attack on the mother-of-two, and handed a discretionary life sentence with a minimum term of nine years for that and two other offences in 2000. Craig served almost 19 years in prison, but was then arrested and charged with murder in June 2021 after Ms Kirk’s death at the age of 61 in August 2019.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court unanimously convicted Craig of the charge last month, finding the injuries caused by him – including burns to 35 per cent of Ms Kirk’s body – were linked to her dying from a ruptured diaphragm. The judge jailed Craig for life and set the minimum term he must now serve in prison as 15 years and five days, meaning he will have spent at least 34 years behind bars for the attack.

The judge described how Craig had repeatedly watched a scene in Reservoir Dogs in which a policeman is tortured in a chair before being set alight with petrol. “Jackie described you watching the film with a permanent grin and that you liked seeing the torture. You enjoyed acting like the characters in the film,” the judge said.

The judge said there was a history of violence by Craig towards Ms Kirk, he was drunk at the time of the attack and “cowardly” afterwards – ordering her to stay away from him while on fire and not helping to extinguish the flames. She highlighted the “level of sadism and extreme nature of the attack”, describing it as “just so callous and so brutal”.

Leon Rashid and Taiquane Lewis

Leon Rashid (left) and Taiquane Lewis (right) were jailed for conspiracy to murder
Leon Rashid (left) and Taiquane Lewis (right) were jailed for conspiracy to murder

A teenage knife crime victim, who has been left in a wheelchair, effectively died for nearly an hour after being attacked on the street. James Bascoe-Smith, then aged 16, was knocked off a bicycle and repeatedly knifed by masked men in Brixton, south London, last February 23.

The court heard James was the entirely innocent victim of a gang stabbing sparked either by a provocative online drill video or as “tit-for-tat” revenge for a previous attack. His attackers Leon Rashid, 20, from Thornton Heath, and Taiquane Lewis, 19, Kennington, have been handed life sentences with minimum terms of 14 years and 13 years respectively for conspiracy to murder.

During the hearing, a pre-recorded video was played in which James asked why the defendants targeted him and whether they now “feel bad”. He said: “When I was stabbed by these people I remember crying out for my mum and pleading for them to stop. I do not remember much and I could not communicate for six months after the attack."

“I cannot get out of bed on my own," he told the court. "I can’t even brush my own teeth and I need a lot of medication to help me with my recovery. I have been left in a wheelchair that is not electric, I rely on everyone to move me, I have no independence."

James had been testing a bicycle for his mother when he was targeted near his home. After being repeatedly stabbed, he shouted “call my mum, call my mum” then collapsed. He effectively died for nearly an hour before being brought back to life by medics.

John Paul

John Paul was locked up for a “merciless” murder he committed in 1980, but didn't confess to until he walked into a police station last year. Porter and part-time barman Anthony Bird, 42, was found naked with his wrists bound, at his flat in Kensington Gardens Square, west London, more than 40 years ago.

His murder remained a mystery until Paul, 61, confessed to police last year that he had “battered him” with a lump of wood. Paul, of Maida Vale, west London, denied murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter at his trial at the Old Bailey. It was claimed his confession to the killing was not reliable and that even if he was responsible, he did not intend to do Mr Bird really serious harm.

CCTV footage showing John Paul confessing to the murder of Anthony Bird at the front office of Hammersmith Police Station on May 5 last year
CCTV footage showing John Paul confessing to the murder of Anthony Bird at the front office of Hammersmith Police Station on May 5 last year

John Price KC said Mr Bird was last seen alive late on the night of June 3 1980, in the Queensway area of west London. He told friends he “had his eye on a black lad” and had hurried after him, the court heard. After Mr Bird failed to turn up for work at the Railway Tap pub, police were called to his one-bedroom flat and used a sledgehammer to smash into the property, which appeared to have been “ransacked”, Mr Price said.

The prosecutor told jurors: “The officers went into the bedroom. On the bed they found the lifeless body of Tony Bird. He was naked. He was lying on his side. His knees were tucked up and his legs were crossed. Black electrical flex was bound tightly around his left wrist and around his left ankle."

The court heard that following his confession, Paul’s fingerprints were taken and matched to evidence from the crime scene. An Old Bailey jury deliberated for half a day before finding Paul guilty of murder. The judge jailed him for life with a minimum term of 19 years.

Agnieszka Kalinowska and Andrzej Latoszewski

Agnieszka Kalinowska and her long-term partner Andrzej Latoszewski subjected 15-year-old Sebastian Kalinowski to 'cruel assault and abuse'
Agnieszka Kalinowska and her long-term partner Andrzej Latoszewski subjected 15-year-old Sebastian Kalinowski to 'cruel assault and abuse'

A mother and her partner were jailed for life with a minimum term of 39 years for murdering her son during a campaign of “horrific and prolonged torture”. Sebastian Kalinowski died of an infection caused by “untreated complications of multiple rib fractures”, after weeks of what prosecutors described as “cruel assaults and abuse” at the hands of his mother Agnieszka Kalinowska, 35, and her long-term partner Andrzej Latoszewski, 38.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court heard the 15-year-old, who had been in the UK for less than a year after moving from Poland to live with his mother, was beaten with a bed slat, whipped with an extension cable and stabbed with a needle at the couple’s home in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

The judge told them: “You, Latoszewski, are a bully. Like all bullies, you sought to intimidate and frighten Sebastian, who was weaker than you. In Sebastian you found an easy prey. There were times when viewing the footage I was sure you had lost awareness of the fact that you were hitting a human being and not a punching bag. As for you, Kalinowska, the explanation is simple – you just didn’t care about Sebastian. You were only interested in yourself.”

The judge said that between the start of the school holidays in July and Sebastian’s death in August, there was “scarcely a day that went by that Sebastian was not subjected to some form of physical abuse”. She told the defendants: “Sebastian was a young teenage boy who spoke little if any English, had neither friends nor allies in this country and was wholly dependent on you both for his wellbeing.”

Jurors heard that, on the morning of Sebastian’s final day, August 13 2021, he went through “the routine of being assaulted by both defendants”. The court heard CCTV showed Latoszewski taking Sebastian out of the bedroom at 8.25am, before carrying him back around 15 minutes later, “naked, clearly wet and unconscious”. Emergency services were called to the defendants’ house by Latoszewski after Sebastian had been unconscious for around two and a half hours, the court heard.

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