London's courtrooms have been as busy as ever over the last couple of weeks since March began.
A number of south Londoners have found themselves being escorted out of the dock and onto a prison van.
They include a gang who stole over 50 high-end keyless cars, a man from Lewisham who killed four people, and several sex offenders from Bromley and Bromley.
Here are the names and faces of 18 of the men from south London who are now behind bars.
Thomas Smith ![News Shopper: Thomas Smith]( "News Shopper: Thomas Smith")
Thomas Smith (Image: Innocent Voices)
Thomas Smith, 27, of Oakhurst Avenue in Bexleyheath, tried to meet a 13-year-old girl at Bexleyheath Station.
He had sent sexual messages and a photo of his penis to what he thought was a young girl.
But when he turned up to meet her on November 25 last year he was greeted by a team of paedophile hunters who detained him and live streamed his arrest on Facebook.
Smith had been exchanging messages with the account since October 11.
On March 7, Smith was jailed for two years.
Read the full story - Man who tried to meet young girl at Bexleyheath station is jailed.
Kel Thompson
Kel Thompson, 21, of Lodge Lane in New Addington, threatened a man with a 20-inch blade on a south London train.
On May 3 last year a young man boarded a train from West Croydon to Victoria in the early afternoon.
Thompson got on the train at Thornton Heath with his hood up and a blue facemask on.
He sat next to the victim and asked: “What ends are you from?”
The victim replied: “I’m not your problem, guy.”
When Thompson continued to try to intimidate him, the victim punched Thompson.
Thompson then pulled out a huge knife and told the victim to hand over his Louis Vuitton bag, his phone and his headphones.
He then warned the victim: “You better not say anything, I know your face.”
Thompson was arrested at his home the following month and police discovered a second weapon.
He was jailed for two years and eight months on March 7.
Read the full story - ‘Knife fanatic’ threatened man with 20-inch blade during south London train robbery.
Joshua Jacques
Joshua Jacques, 29, of Minard Road in Lewisham, stabbed his girlfriend and three of her family members to death as a “sacrifice”.
He was fuelled by drugs and alcohol when he attacked Samantha Drummonds and her family with a knife in their home in Delaford Road, Bermondsey.
Police found the bodies of Ms Drummonds, 27, her mother Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo, 45, grandmother Dolet Hill, 64, and Ms Hill’s partner, Denton Burke, 58, after being alerted to a disturbance by a neighbour.
Officers found Mr Burke’s body at the foot of the stairs and the three women “heaped together” in the kitchen.
Armed officers discovered Jacques naked and lying in the upstairs bathroom in a praying position, screaming “Allah, take me!”, “Kill me now”, “Get rid of me”, and “God please forgive me”.
Later, at Lewisham Hospital, Jacques said: “I ain’t even in the wrong, I did them for sacrifice”, and also warned: “I will do something stupid again.”
He admitted manslaughter but denied murder on the basis that he was mentally unwell at the time.
An Old Bailey jury deliberated for two hours to find Jacques guilty of four counts of murder.
He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 46 years on March 1.
Read the full story - Lewisham man who murdered girlfriend and her family as ‘sacrifice’ jailed for life.
James Bainbridge
James Bainbridge, 28, from Bexley, tried to film a woman using the toilet just weeks after he was released from prison.
He has previously been jailed for attempting to meet a teenage girl for sex, sexually assault a child under the age of 13 and possessing indecent images of children.
In January this year he was released from prison on licence having served a three year sentence.
But within weeks Bainbridge was arrested again when a woman spotted a phone in a bathroom.
Police attended but the woman decided not to make a complaint against Bainbridge.
However, police looked through his phone and found four indecent images of children.
The phone had not been registered with police, making it a breach of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
He has now been jailed for 18 months.
Read the full story - Bexley paedo ‘hid camera to catch woman on toilet’ weeks after prison release.
Luke Jackson, Billy Harrison, Perry Lovejoy and Harry Sales
A gang of keyless car thieves who stole over 50 high end motors were jailed.
Luke Jackson, 28, of Shoreham Close in Croydon, Billy Harrison, 30, of Tollers Lane in Coulsdon, Perry Lovejoy, 29, from Horley, and Harry Sales, 28, of Cornwall Road in Croydon were all jailed for their roles in the thefts.
The gang's thefts took place over the course of a year across multiple counties in the southeast of England.
Officers discovered that the gang used the ‘relay attack’ technique to target keyless luxury vehicles including Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Land Rovers, Range Rovers and Alfa Romeos.
The method involves using a master device to copy the signal of a vehicle's key and transmitting it to a second smaller device, which replicates the key and unlocks the car.
Perry Lovejoy was sentenced to three years in prison and handed a nine-month consecutive sentence for admitting being concerned in the supply of cannabis, after officers found incriminating messages on his phone.
Harrison and Sales were locked up for three years each.
Read the full story - South London keyless car thieves stole 50 luxury motors worth nearly £4million.
Houcine Argoub
In September 2023 they met in a layby near Sandwich in Kent.
Officers saw Argoub park a van next to Elkhadir’s Moroccan registered lorry and a number of people were seen to climb from Argoub’s van into the back of the lorry.
National Crime Agency (NCA) officers intercepted the lorry, which could only be opened from the outside, when it arrived at the docks in Dover.
Officers found 39 North African migrants in the back, including a family travelling with their six-year-old son and a teenage girl.
Elkhadir was arrested at the dock but Argoub was arrested at his home in Bromley two months later.
Both Elkhadir and Argoub pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration when they appeared at Canterbury Crown Court,
Elkhadir was sentenced to six years and nine months imprisonment and Argoub received a prison sentence of five years and three months.
Read the full story - Bromley man tried to smuggle boy, 6, out of UK in back of refrigerated lorry.
Graham Manser
He was arrested at his family home after he sent a photo of his penis and asked the girl to send him naked videos.
Fortunately, the girl that Manser was messaging was actually a decoy posing as a young girl.
When Manser messaged the fictitious ‘girl’ in October last year she immediately told him “I’m 13 years old”.
Manser replied: “I bet you look cute”.
On March 4 he was jailed for two years and eight months.
Read the full story - Bromley dad who sent filthy photos and messages to ‘13-year-old girl’ is jailed.
Darren Soyemi, Tashan Bailey-Brown, Kevaniel Perkins-Robinson and Darren Soyemi
Four south London men were jailed after a brutal knife assault in Southwark which left a victim with more than 60 stab wounds.
On New Year's Day 2023, Tashan Bailey-Brown, Denzel Ealmeida, Darren Soyemi and Kevaniel Perkins-Robinson attacked an 18-year-old in Seeley Drive at 11.40pm.
Paramedics transported the severely injured victim to hospital, where it was discovered that he had over 60 stab wounds.
Bailey-Brown, Ealmeida, and Soyemi tried to flee from the officers in a car but were stopped in East Dulwich’s Lordship Lane.
They then tried to flee on foot, but were stopped and detained.
Tashan Bailey-Brown, 23, of Meadowview Road, SE6, was jailed for 24 years; he was also given a five-year extended licence of release.
Denzel Ealmeida, 22, of Elam Close, SE5, was jailed for 31 years.
Darren Soyemi, 25, of no fixed abode was jailed for 31 years.
Kevaniel Perkins-Robinson, 24, of Cato Road, SW4 was jailed for 31 years.
Read the full story - Gang jailed for stabbing victim more than 60 times in south east London knife attack.
Lewis Falegan and Reis Bhandal
On September 4, 2023, officers were on patrol in Gravesend when they noticed someone driving a Ford Kuga erratically on the road.
It sped away from the officers who chased it up the A2 towards London until Station Road, Belvedere, where the car came to a halt.
The two 23-year-old's then fled on foot but were caught by officers.
The vehicle was displaying false number plates, and it was later discovered that it had been stolen from Dulwich.
Officers seized more than 40 wraps of cocaine and heroin which they found in and around the car as well as four mobile phones.
Cash was seized from a bag Bhandal was wearing and around £10,000 was recovered from his home address.
On March 1 they were each sentenced to five years and seven months in prison.
Read the full story - Belvedere and Dartford county line drug dealers jailed.
Mukhtar Jama
Mukhtar Jama, 35, sexually assaulted a woman in a wheelchair at St Mary’s Hospital.
The female patient was being wheeled back to a ward when Jama approached her, a court heard.
He took her right hand and kissed it while asking if she was ok, before he moved closer and groped her breasts.
The court heard that Jama had four previous convictions for sexual assaults.
He sentenced Jama to one year in prison after concluding that an immediate custodial sentence was necessary due to the threat he poses to women.
Read the full story - Man sexually assaulted woman in wheelchair at hospital.
Stephen Dynan
Evidence showed that he was using an encrypted device to try and hide his criminal activities and was involved with a plan to import and supply drugs from overseas.
Officers analysed the messages on the encrypted device and found that Dynan was using the name ‘Hastybasil’ in the conversations.
Read the full story - Croydon dealer planned to obtain machine gun and falsely imprison people.
They revealed discussions of large amounts of drugs being imported and moved by Encrochat, which was a Europe-based communications network and service provider that offered modified smartphones allowing encrypted communication.
He was also involved in the planning of a burglary which would involve falsely imprisoning multiple people.
Dynan was given a 12 year sentence.
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