Star Hobson's killer among those jailed this week in Bradford

A mother and her girlfriend who she allowed to murder her 16-month-old daughter were both jailed following an eight week trial.

Savannah Brockhill, 28, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years for killing Star Hobson on September 22, 2020, after being found guilty of murder.

Star’s mum, Frankie Smith, 20, was cleared of murder and manslaughter but was found guilty of causing or allowing her daughter’s death, and jailed for eight years.

During an eight week trial, Bradford Crown Court heard how throughout her life Star was neglected by her cruel mother and girlfriend, which descended into physical abuse in her final months.

On September 22, 2020, Brockhill inflicted a severe blow or blows, likely a punch, kick or stamp, on Star, lashing out in anger, and caused unsurvivable abdominal injuries, severing a major vein causing major internal bleeding.

Smith, who was in a different room of her flat at the time of the assault, had suspected Brockhill of injuring her daughter and seen her covered in bruises, yet still allowed her partner unsupervised access to her daughter.

The injuries to Star were described as like those seen in a car crash, and she died within minutes. After inflicting the blow, Brockhill waited 15 minutes before calling 999, instead trying to revive Star herself and getting Smith to search on Google how to bring a baby out of shock.

She then cooked up a story in an attempt to pin the injuries as an accident, coercing Smith into going along with the lie, a lie she maintained throughout the trial.

Smith decided she had to tell the truth midway through the trial, blowing Brockhill’s cover story out of the water and pinning her as the killer. Evidence presented during the trial repeatedly showed Brockhill’s evidence and story to be untrue.

Jailing Brockhill for life, Mrs Justice Christina Lambert QC said she had shown “no remorse” throughout the trial for her sustained violence towards Star and Smith – a victim of prolonged domestic violence and abuse – and was told she must spend the next 25 years behind bars before she is considered for release.

Smith was told she was a cruel, neglectful mother, more interested in her relationship with Brockhill or going out to get drunk than in caring for her daughter, and should have been aware of the injuries her daughter was receiving and that her behaviour towards Star was cruel.

Jason Mcilvenny

A career burglar who kicked and smashed his way into an 81-year-old widow’s home to steal her jewellery was jailed for three years and nine months.

Jason Mcilvenny and his accomplice Robert Dooley, both “third strike” housebreakers, raided the property in Shelf on the morning of May 26 making off with a gold ring and a pearl necklace, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Dooley, 61, of Hill Street, Wibsey, Bradford, had his sentence adjourned until January 17 after his barrister Clare Walsh said he was very unwell in the court cells.

He and Mcilvenny, 49, of Olicana House, Chapel Street, Bradford city centre, both pleaded guilty to burgling the house and entering the garage with intent to steal.

Prosecutor Paul Canfield said Mcilvenny had 32 convictions for 93 offences on his criminal record and had served jail sentences of six, five and three years for previous house burglaries.

He told the court that the victim left her home at 10am on the day of the burglary and returned at 12.15pm to find that she had been burgled.

Mcilvenny and Dooley had gone round the back at the address and taken it in turns to kick through a conservatory door and smash an interior door, causing £2,000 damage.

They made an untidy search of the house, opening drawers and tipping a handbag on to the bed.

They took the ring, necklace and a torch before finding the key to the garage and looking inside it but not stealing anything.

The police were alerted and an officer saw the burglars walking along a nearby street. Dooley was caught but Mcilvenny made off and went uninvited into two strangers’ homes while the police helicopter searched for him, Mr Canfield said.

One male householder pushed him out of his address and later found Mcilvenny’s red jacket in his wheelie bin. Mcilvenny then tried to persuade a woman to tell the police at the door that he was her grandson.

The burgled widow told the court she was just getting herself back together after her husband’s death when the raiders struck. She was left numb and shocked, sometimes breaking down in tears.

Mcilvenny’s solicitor advocate, Andrew Walker, said he had been in a cycle of drug use and crime since his teens.

Judge Neil Davey QC labelled Mcilvenny and Dooley career burglars.

Mcilvenny was on licence at the time and had a long-standing addiction to Class A drugs.

The break-in had caused the victim profound psychological harm.

Benjamin Fort

A BOMB hoaxer who threatened to “blow the heads off” Bradford police officers during a series of threatening and abusive phone calls was jailed for two years and three months.

Benjamin Fort, who was locked up for six months in February for shining a laser beam at a police helicopter, was on prison licence when he told the call handler they “didn’t have long left,” Bradford Crown Court heard.

Fort, 39, of Wenborough Lane, Holme Wood, Bradford, made 43 “bizarre” calls to the police between July 27 and 31, including three that included a bomb threat, prosecutor Nadim Bashir said.

Fort, who was remanded in custody in HMP Leeds, pleaded guilty to communicating false information, assaulting two security guards at Airedale Hospital, racially aggra-vated harassment against the men, and assaulting a police officer at Trafalgar House Po-lice Station.

During the 43 phone calls, he claimed someone was trying to kill him and that he’d shot himself and others with a gun. He also said there was a bomb at Trafalgar House Police Station and he’d “blow everyone’s head off.”

He assaulted the security guards acting as emergency workers after he was taken to Airedale Hospital in the early hours of July 29. He shut the toilet door on one man’s foot, swung his arms, kicked out, damaged a guard’s glasses and cut his nose.

The next day, Fort turned up at the hospital and hurled racial abuse at the same two guards in the accident and emergency department, in view of members of the public.

He had 26 previous convictions for 55 offences, including battery, making a malicious communication and criminal damage.

In February, he was jailed for six months for shining a laser beam at a police helicopter from his then address in Parkwood Rise, Keighley. Judge Jonathan Rose labelled him an idiot for temporarily blinding the pilot.

Fort’s barrister, Lydia Pearce, said the bomb threats were not taken seriously by the police.

“Members of the public were not alarmed by the Bomb Squad turning up,” she told the court.

Fort was suffering a mental health crisis at the time after coming out of prison to find that his flat had been burgled and ransacked, and then being mugged.

He apologised for the distress and injury he had caused.

Judge Neil Davey QC said the police may not have treated the bomb hoax threats with credibility but Fort had intended that they should.

Benjamin Knight

A CONVICTED paedophile who befriended what he believed to be a mother-of-three to rape and sexually abuse her young children was jailed for six and a half years.

Benjamin Knight made internet contact with an undercover police officer who pretended to have little girls aged ten and two and a boy of seven, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Knight, 41, wanted to know if the youngsters were “available” for sexual abuse and suggested meeting up, prosecutor David McGonigal said.

He told the woman he hoped to have his own family one day to “train” and said he had abused a small child several years ago.

After a series of messages and a phone conversation, between August 2 and 5, Knight was arrested at his home at Wisp Hill Croft, Grassington, near Skipton.

He appeared before Skipton Magistrates on August 6 and was remanded in custody in HMP Leeds.

Knight pleaded guilty to a total of 13 sexual offences, including three counts of arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sexual offence (two rapes and a sexual assault); two breaches of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO); and eight offences involving the distribution and storage of thousands of indecent images of children at categories A, B and C.

Mr McGonigal said Knight was jailed for 18 months at Aylesbury Crown Court in 2018 for making indecent images and made the subject of a ten-year SHPO.

Two phones hidden under his bed in August this year contained 1,180 category A images; 719 at category B and 1,384 at category C. There were also 307 extreme pornographic images and two prohibited images of children.

His barrister, Radhia Karaa, said in mitigation that there were no real children and Knight never intended to meet up with the fictitious family.

He had been working as a forklift truck driver after his release from prison.

When committing the offences “he believed he was doing little harm.”

Knight had now been in custody for four months, Miss Karaa said.

Judge Neil Davey QC said Knight’s sexual interest in children had escalated since his jail sentence. He had spoken in detail about what he wanted to do to three young children.

The phones hidden under his bed were kept secret from the police in flagrant breach of the SHPO.

Knight’s probation officer had found that he posed a significant risk of serious harm caused by the commission of further serious specified offences.

The SHPO continues and Knight must register as a sex offender for life.

Carl Scully

A MAN was jailed for two years and three months for attacking his former partner by punching her, banging her head on the wall and pinching her windpipe so she couldn’t breathe.

Carl Scully had caused the woman physical and psychological harm in the prolonged as-sault at her home in Bradford on February 3, the judge locking him up said.

Scully, 36, of Red Acre Lane, Mytholmroyd, was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after denying the offence at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court.

He was found guilty in September after a trial and sent to Bradford Crown Court for sen-tence.

Prosecutor Charlotte Noddings said that he was visiting the woman at her home when he became verbally aggressive in the early hours.

She had told the police the relationship had deteriorated in the months before the as-sault although he had never been violent before.

Scully had been drinking and was playing video games when he began calling her names.

When she went upstairs to avoid him, he followed and attacked her.

He punched her to the head and body, banged her head against the wall and put his hands round her throat, Miss Noddings said.

He then pinched her windpipe between his finger and thumb so she couldn’t breathe.

She told him to leave but he took her phone and went downstairs leaving her unable to call for help.

He was asleep on the sofa the next morning and she then alerted the police.

Her injuries included a swollen face, bruising, marks to her neck and painful ribs.

Miss Noddings said it was a persistent assault, involving strangulation and while Scully was under the influence of alcohol.

He had 18 previous convictions for 33 offences, including common assault and breach of protective orders, the court was told.

His solicitor advocate, Saf Salam, conceded that it was “a deeply unpleasant offence,” although the injuries were not perhaps the most serious.

Scully was a hardworking man with the offer of employment that would take him away from West Yorkshire.

Although he had previous convictions, none were for domestic violence.

Judge Neil Davey QC said the woman had suffered both physical and psychological harm.

She spoke of living in fear and said her mental health had deteriorated, with her seeking help from the doctor.

Judge Davey made a restraining order without limit of time banning Scully from contacting the woman.

Hashim Sajjad

A 20-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed for three years for a serious assault where he stood over a heavily injured teenager and "spat on" him.

Hashim Sajjad, 20, of Wheatlands Crescent in Daisy Hill, was handed a three year prison sentence for causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent to do GBH.

It was in relation to an incident in Bradford on April 8 this year, where a 17-year-old male - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was chased by a group of four males and attacked.

Bradford Crown Court heard this afternoon that the victim could barely walk following the attack and was coughing heavily.

It was suspected he had a collapsed lung, but it actually turned out to be fractured rib.

He also suffered a fracture to his right upper leg, to a bone in his foot and a dislocated kneecap, as well as cuts and general bruising to his face.

The Recorder of Bradford HHJ Richard Mansell QC said one of the "particularly sickening" facts of the assault was that one of the attackers took his phone out at one point and filmed it.

Sajjad was driving his Audi A1, with three others inside, when they came across the victim.

His assailants got out and chased the 17-year-old and Sajjad then joined them after he had parked up.

He is said to have then kicked and punched the victim, after the other three had got the better of him.

Brigid Bailey made a number of submissions in his defence.

She said: "Sajjad accepts that he's going to be sentenced as part of a joint enterprise.

"However it is incumbent on me to point out his role.

"He came to the scene slightly later, he did not have a weapon and at one point he did say 'enough'.

"He is extremely remorseful, he doesn't know what he was thinking and I submit that's evident from his letter."

But Mr Mansell QC quashed the idea that Sajjad had diminished responsibility due to him joining later and also that he didn't actually try stop the fight properly.

He said: "You were all in this together. When you turned the car round you knew you were after him.

"You had control over whether you went after him or not. You each must have known whether Person 1 had a weapon or not."

He added that Sajjad egged people on before telling Person 1 to stop.

Sajjad then went over to the victim, stood over him, threatened him and spat on him, the court heard.

Sajjad was also being sentenced for a dangerous driving offence he pleaded guilty to during an eight-day murder trial earlier this week.

He was sentenced to three years behind bars in total - three for the GBH and six months for dangerous driving to run concurrently.

Sajjad was also disqualified from driving for 23 months from today, to coincide with his prison sentence.

The sentencing came just two days after Sajjad was acquitted of murdering 19-year-old Muhammed Mujahid Hussain, in disorder on Duckworth Lane on April 22.

After an eight-day trial, a jury found Sajjad not guilty of murder and manslaughter.

Sajjad admitted to stabbing Muhammed, but said he acted in self-defence as the armed man came towards him.