Jailed this week in Bradford: gunmen, burglars, and sex offenders

A MAN and two teenagers were locked up for a total of more than 33 years for a shooting at a house in Thornton  in the early hours of October 20, 2017. 

Michael Webster, 28, of Hill Crest Swillington, Leeds, was jailed for 20 years for his role as the “organiser and orchestrator” of the attack on the home of his former partner and her new boyfriend. 

Byron Kiloh, 19, of Broadstone Way, Holme Wood, was sentenced to nine years and four months in a Young Offender Institution for his role in the attack and a subsequent charge of dangerous driving. 

A third defendant, a boy aged 16, who cannot be named because of his age, received four years. 

The trio were found guilty of possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life by a jury at Bradford Crown Court. 

They used an automatic “AK-47 style” rifle with “full metal jacket bullets”.  

Of the 7,841 firearms discharges recorded in Britain between 2008 and 2018, just 12 have been using automatic rifles. 

 A “wicked and evil” former Scout leader may die behind bars after he was given a second life sentence for the horrific abuse of six boys. 

Philip Longbottom, 69, “systematically sought out and hunted down” his victims as his prey, Bradford Crown Court heard. 

Longbottom was jailed for life in September 2016, with a minimum term of seven years behind bars, for multiple counts of rape, serious sexual assault, and indecent assault against boys over a period of 40 years. 

He returned to the court from prison this week to be given a second life term in which he will spend at least six years in prison for 15 further offences. 

Judge Jonathan Rose warned Longbottom, formerly of Oakdale Drive, Wrose, Shipley, that he would not be released until the Parole Board considered that he was no longer a serious risk of causing serious harm. 

Longbottom pleaded guilty to five charges of buggery, involving three boys, and ten offences of indecent assault. 

A DANGEROUS predator of old and vulnerable people was jailed for nine years for robbing an 84-year-old Bradford woman at knifepoint. 

Shaun Jordan drew the cleaver-type blade after sticking his foot in the door of his victim’s bungalow and demanding money, Bradford Crown Court heard. 

Jordon, 25, of no fixed address, fled with £70 from the address in Woodside after the plucky pensioner fought him off by grabbing his hood and scratching him. 

DNA from under her fingernails led the police to Jordan who was on prison licence and had served long jail sentences for a string of distraction burglaries and a robbery of elderly people. 

Jordan, who confessed to the police he had gone out with a knife to target a vulnerable person, had 19 previous convictions for 36 offences. 

Judge Jonathan Rose labelled Jordan a dangerous offender, saying he had “an utterly, utterly dreadful” record for distraction burglary and theft from elderly and vulnerable people. 

“You have made a conscious decision to live your life on the wrong side of the law,” he said. 

Jordan was given a four-year extended prison licence period. 

A growling sex attacker who told one of his terrified victims that God had given him the power to eat people was jailed for more than six years. 

Marius Simkus was labelled “uncontrolled, aggressive and abusive’ after he abused two women on first dates. 

Simkus, 35, of Wootton Street, West Bowling, Bradford, pleaded guilty to four offences of sexual assault, assault by penetration, two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and an assault by beating. 

Prosecutor Stephen Wood said Simkus stroked one woman’s neck, growled, kissed her and then slapped her hard on the face. 

He pulled her into the bedroom, grabbed her thong and sexually abused her.  

When the woman went to check on her young daughter, Simkus leapt on to the child’s bed and then slapped the woman, causing her nose to bleed. 

“He was growling like an animal and crawling round on all fours,” Mr Wood said. 

Judge Colin Burn told Simkus: “Your behaviour was worryingly bizarre.” 

Simkus was jailed for seven months for the first incident and for five years and seven months for the second incident. The sentences ran consecutively. 

A burglar struggled with a householder for possession of a stolen axe after telling him he was “taking a few things,” Bradford Crown Court heard. 

Ryan Hardaker was caught-red handed raiding a family’s garage in St John’s Crescent, Fairweather Green, Bradford, when he was on prison licence and had discharged himself from hospital. 

Hardaker, 39, whose address was given as HMP Wealstun, had 12 house burglaries on his record as well as offences of possession of an offensive weapon, theft and affray. 

He was jailed for three years and two months after pleading guilty to stealing a bicycle, a tool box and an axe from the garage on June 6 last year and possession of the axe in a public place. 

Prosecutor Abdul Shakoor told the court that Hardaker had 26 previous convictions for 46 offences. 

In October 2015, he was locked up for six years for seven house burglaries, an attempted burglary and handling stolen goods.  

A MAN caught tending an “industrial” scale cannabis factory in Bradford was jailed for 40 months. 

Adrian Lenkiewicz told the police he was threatened with a gun to his head and ordered to guard the £150,000 crop to pay off a heroin debt. 

Lenkiewicz, 25, was homeless when he was given accommodation in the three-storey mill complex, with an airbed, television set, laptop computer, PlayStation and well-stocked fridge, Bradford Crown Court heard. 

He pleaded guilty to production of cannabis at Downham Street, off Leeds Road, after he was apprehended in the building on November 23 last year. 

Prosecutor Michael Smith said: “The scale, sophistication and level of criminality was industrial.” 

The crop was being grown in rotation, with each grow estimated to yield 36 kilos of cannabis with a street value of £150,000. 

Judge Jonathan Rose told Lenkiewicz: “You had a dream that the streets of Bradford were paved with gold only to find the truth was very far from that.” 

The dream turned sour when Lenkiewicz became addicted to drugs and was pressured to tend the cannabis plants. 

A KNIFE-CARRYING night-time burglar who carried out a spate of offences in Skipton was jailed for almost five years. 

‘Third-strike’ housebreaker Simon McMinn was desperate for drugs money when he stole treasured and irreplaceable items to flog for “a few measly pounds” to fuel his addiction, Bradford Crown Court heard. 

McMinn, 41, of Bennett Street, Skipton, pleaded guilty to attacking three homes in the town, between January 29 and February 9. 

He struck first in Byron Street, trying a house door at midnight, and pushing at it to try to get in. 

The following night, McMinn burgled an address in Lambert Street while a couple was sleeping upstairs. He got in through an insecure door to raid two laptop computers, a wallet, a handbag, a rucksack and a set of keys to the total value of £900. 

McMinn’s next burglary was in Cromwell Street. He was disturbed by the householder who caught him helping himself from the fridge. 

McMinn was arrested on Newmarket Street in Skipton shortly afterwards, with a Stanley knife and long-nosed pliers in his possession. 

He pleaded guilty to two offences of burglary, an attempted burglary and a burglary with intent to steal as well as possession of a lock knife and a Stanley knife and equipped for burglary. 

Judge Jonathan Rose jailed McMinn for a total of four years and eight months.