The past few weeks have been busy in London's courts and a lot of South Londoners now find themselves behind bars.
Their crimes include covering up a murder, manslaughter, sexual abuse and stealing charity boxes.
Here's a rundown of the men and women from south London who have been jailed in the first half of November 2023.
Leah Simmonds and Khelsi Johnson-Davies
Godfrey Madondo, 20, murdered 19-year-old Jeremiah Sewell following a “chance meeting” in Beckenham Place Park early on July 16 last year.
The motive of the murder was simply that Jeremiah was from Beckenham.
After the murder, Johnson-Davies and Leah Simmonds together cleaned and threw away Madondo’s bloodstained clothes.
Johnson-Davies was arrested at her home on July 19 last year, and a grey balaclava with Madondo’s DNA on it was seized.
An examination of her phone led to “incriminating” conversations with Simmonds in which she advised her to wash Madondo’s bloodstained clothes at “90 degrees”.
Following Simmonds’ arrest, communal bins near her home were searched and a bin bag containing Madondo’s grey hoodie and jogging bottoms was recovered.
Johnson-Davies was jailed for 14 months while Simmonds was given a nine-month sentence.
Read the full story here - Women washed bloodstained clothes after Beckenham murder.
Jay Langley
Jay Langley, 37, of Ellenborough Road in Sidcup, targeted charity shops, pharmacies and a plumbers in his crime spree across Bexley borough.
On September 1 he trespassed into a plumbing store in Bexleyheath and stole from a till, the court heard.
Then on September 8 he stole from the till of Sense charity shop in Erith.
On September 18 he then stole from the till of Scope charity shop in Welling and took a charity box from Aspire Pharmacy in Sidcup.
He was jailed for 15 months after he admitted to three burglaries and one theft.
Read the full story - Sidcup charity box thief jailed for 15 months after Bexley crime spree.
Shelford Brizey
Shelford Brizey, 48, beat, strangled and abused his vulnerable partner out of jealousy and an irrational belief that she was cheating on him.
The abuse eventually came to light when he chased her around a hotel lobby in Camberwell.
The victim was particular vulnerable due to pre-existing mental health problems, the court was told.
“Mr Brizey targeted her for this very reason, that he know about these vulnerabilities and that these made her far less likely to report him because she was reliant on him,” prosecutor Claire Langevad said.
He was jailed for five years and six months.
This wasn't Brizey's first run-in with the law - in 2004 he was jailed for 10 years for the armed robbery of a post office where he assaulted the shop keeper.
Hailu Getemariam
Hailu Getemariam, 24, of no fixed address, stalked carriages across the Transport for London network looking for lone women to sexually assault.
On one occasion he sat next to a woman on an otherwise empty train carriage then stroked her leg, while another time he stood directly behind a woman on the London Underground and groped her.
“Mr Getemariam, you are a pervert,” Judge Freya Newbery told him at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday (November 15). “You are seeking out young women on public transport to touch them sexually.”
The first incident took place on March 25 when refugee Getemariam boarded a train at Denmark Hill.
He sat next to a woman, despite the carriage being nearly empty, and began rubbing his fingers up and down her leg and thigh.
As he did this he rested his leg on the seat in front, leaving the woman feeling trapped, the court heard.
As the terrified woman got off the train at Beckenham Hill she turned and shouted at Getemariam.
He went on to sexually assault two more women over the following months.
Getemariam was jailed for 14 months
Norman Samura
In October 2022, Kent Police began an investigation into the ‘H’ county drugs line which was supplying the area with class A drugs – they identified a mobile phone being used by Samura as sending bulk text messages.
A search of his home revealed the phone used to send the messages and deal bags containing white powder, and white and yellow pills.
Samura was arrested and later charged with possession with intent to supply crack cocaine, being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin and three charges of handling stolen goods.
He was jailed for seven years.
Read the full story here - Woolwich drug dealer jailed for seven years.
Daniel Benitez
In May 2016, Daniel Benitez launched a “sustained and brutal” attack on John Davies because of a custody dispute.
Benitez battered Davies in his own home, punching and kicking him on the floor because he blamed him for a decision to take his girlfriend’s son into care.
Afterwards, he ransacked the property in Streatham Hill in a bid to make it appear as if Mr Davies had been beaten up by an intruder, only to be disturbed by the victim’s wife.
In 2017, Benitez admitted causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Davies with intent and was jailed for 14 years with a further five years on extended licence.
According to his family, Mr Davies’ head injuries left him in pain and misery, effectively “imprisoned in solitary confinement in his own body”. He died on April 1 2019 aged 56.
After an Old Bailey trial in August, Benitez, now 33, formerly from Wandsworth, was cleared of murder but convicted of the lesser offence of manslaughter.
He was jailed for a seven years and nine months for the manslaughter to run concurrently with the remainder of his earlier sentence.
Read the full story - South Londoner beat girlfriend’s dad to death in custody dispute.
Benjamin Agyemang
He was convicted after a victim-survivor came forward to police ten years after the abuse.
Detectives spent two years investigating the case which spanned over a 20-year period and led them to uncover other victim-survivors.
The court heard how Agyemang targeted the girls who were all between 14 and 16-years-old at the time of the offences.
They knew Agyemang as ‘Marshay’ who lured them by offering them modelling work and then taking them back to his flat in Elephant and Castle to sexually exploit them.
In 2021, a woman reported offences of sexual assault and exploitation which took place in 2008 when she was 14 years old.
She was approached on the street by Agyemang, under the name ‘Marshay Ramone’, who told her he could get her into modelling for music videos.
Read the full story here - Southwark man jailed for sexually exploiting teenage girls.
Police say she began staying at his flat for weeks at a time, manipulated and unable to leave, where she would be sexually abused by Agyemang and multiple paying ‘clients’ a day.
During this time, she witnessed him sexually exploiting other girls and young women.
He was arrested following the report and police went on to identify other victims.
Agyemang was sentenced to 13 and a half years in jail at Inner London Crown Court on November 9.
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