Here are the names and faces of the men and women who have been sentenced to prison time in May 2026.
Support worker stole from vulnerable man
Support worker James Huxted, 41, from Dartford, stole from a man with learning difficulties to fund his gambling addiction.
Huxted, who worked with vulnerable adults at a supported living facility in Bexley, repeatedly used a bank card belonging to a 63-year-old man with complex needs.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that he was initially suspected of stealing up to £16,000, but police could only prove around £2,000.
The victim was living semi-independently before the theft, but the court heard he has subsequently taken many steps backwards.
“He thought James was a friend. It feels like a bereavement to him. One minute he was there, the next he was gone,” said a care manager.
Huxted was sentenced to ten months in prison after he pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position.
Woman bottled boyfriend
Aisha McConnell, 41, from Crayford, attacked her boyfriend with a smashed wine bottle after she discovered he was a convicted sex offender.
She attacked her then-partner twice in Tower Hamlets last November.
In a letter to her sentencing judge, McConnell said she had been with the victim for two years and was deeply in love but discovered he had been lying to her and was a convicted sex offender.
Prosecutor Rebecca Lee told the court that the man – from South Ockendon in Essex – was convicted of a sex offence in 2021 and had been sentenced to a community order as well as a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, though she did not say what that crime was.
McConnell said: “I stayed with him believing his played-down version because I had to believe the man I loved.”
Her boyfriend told police McConnell smashed a wine bottle on the wall then repeatedly struck him with it.
McConnell was sentenced to two years and two months in prison for actual bodily harm, wounding, possession of an offensive weapon, and assaulting an emergency worker.
Read the full story – Crayford woman jailed for attacks on her boyfriend
Five murderers jailed
Five men who chased down and fatally stabbed a man to death in Walworth have been jailed.
On April 14, 2025, Giovanny Rendon Bedoya was cornered and attacked by the group after being pursued through an alleyway near Hillingdon Street and Langdale Close.
Police were called at just before 9.20pm and found Giovanny suffering multiple stab wounds behind residential flats.
Despite the efforts of emergency services, he was pronounced dead at 10.07pm.
Angel Gonzalez Angulo, Christian Batista Gonzalez, Joseph Jimenez, Bryan Villada Hernandez, and Zozoro Mohamed Olivier Boizo were all jailed for life with minimum terms between 21 and 22 years.
Read the full story – Five men chased and stabbed man to death in brutal south east London attack
Bexley car thief
Phillip Booth, 40, from Kidbrooke, was convicted of his hundredth offence after he stole a £28,000 Jaguar car from a driveway in Bexley.
He was sentenced to two years in prison for offences including theft of a car, possession of a knife in public and stealing an engagement ring.
In June 2024, a man returned to his home in Bexley to discover his Jaguar F-Pace had been stolen from his driveway.
He used the tracker fitted in the car to track it to an address in Lincoln Close, Erith.
From doorbell footage from nearby houses, officers recognised Booth as the person who had driven the car to the location.
Booth remained at large and went on to commit further offences.
Domestic abuser gets more time
Reice Bennett, 29, from Belvedere, has had his sentence extended after another ex-partner revealed he strangled her.
In February, Reice Bennett was sent to prison for three years after the Court of Appeal ruled his suspended sentence for violence against Eloise Bennett had been unduly lenient.
The 28-year-old was sentenced to an additional year and nine months behind bars in May after he pleaded guilty to two charges of strangulation against a second woman.
Bennett and the second victim began dating after he had been arrested for violence against Eloise but before he was charged.
The woman, who did not wish to be named, told this paper: “I was completely in the dark about the extent of the abuse, thinking Reice and Eloise were going to court to fight over custody of the children, not a domestic abuse case as horrific as this.”
Police or other agencies did not inform her about the investigation into her boyfriend and she’s urged any woman with concerns to request information under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme commonly known as Clare’s Law.
“I hope women use Clare’s Law. I wasn’t aware this existed until after our break-up. I wish I used it. But in order to use this, you have to ask,” Bennett’s second victim said.
Read the full story – Woman ‘left in the dark’ about Belvedere abuser’s past before he strangled her
GP boss
Christian Jennings, former practice manager at Camberwell Green Surgery, stole more than £150,000 of NHS money then sent menacing anonymous letters to a businesswoman he came to loathe on LinkedIn.
Jennings, 63, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison for fraud and stalking.
Jennings was practice manager at Camberwell Green Surgery when between 2013 and 2019 he raised false invoices and diverted genuine payments to his own bank account.
When he left the surgery in 2019, the new practice manager noticed suspicious payments and instructed a financial audit which revealed Jennings had stolen £151,841.
Whilst under investigation for those offences, Jennings went on to offend again when he developed a bizarre obsession with an accountant from Portsmouth.
Between January and August 2025, he sent six anonymous letters to Jeri Williams, who has 92,000 followers on LinkedIn and describes herself as an “accountant to the rich and famous”.
In one letter he called her a “total tramp”, while in another he included a picture of a dartboard and wrote “you are marked, darling”.
In a later letter he included a photo of her puppy and wrote “be extra careful when out with your little pup, anything could happen in that situation”.
Man stabbed at high street bank
Jason McKenzie stabbed a man inside a bank in Woolwich.
The 24-year-old stabbed the man in the back as he used a cashpoint inside a NatWest in Powis Street at around 1.30pm on June 13 last year.
The knifeman then chased the victim out of the bank branch – leaving terrified customers and staff behind.
McKenzie, from Plumstead, was given a seven-year extended sentence after he was found guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm.
The victim refused to co-operate with police and did not attend hospital, which is why the Crown Prosecution Service brought its case as an attempt.
Read the full story – Customers terrified as man stabbed inside Woolwich NatWest
Bully left woman wheelchair-bound
Gulaid Aden was given a 17-year sentence after he used a Mercedes as a weapon against his then-girlfriend.
Aden was “humiliated” when his partner found him sitting in her car with another woman in Greenwich on July 5 last year.
The 29-year-old deliberately rammed her into a zebra crossing beacon in John Harrison Way, before driving away.
Aden then returned 13 minutes later and gave various false explanations to paramedics, including that her injuries were caused when she tripped into the pole.
The victim’s life-changing injuries included fractures to three of her limbs, her back and bruising to both lungs – she is now confined to a wheelchair or using a walking stick.
Read the full story – Woman left wheelchair-bound by Greenwich bully who used Mercedes as weapon
Tech boss sexually assaulted child
Technology executive Sumesh Puthiyaveeti was jailed for sexually assaulting a child in Erith.
Puthiyaveetil, who lived locally before moving to St Albans, pleaded guilty to two charges of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that the sexual assaults took place a decade ago, but the child’s attempts to disclose the abuse were repeatedly shut down by adults who refused to believe them.
When Puthiyaveetil was eventually confronted about the allegations he admitted them but said he would kill himself if the police were told, Judge Charlotte Welsh said.
The judge described it as a “tragedy” that the child was disbelieved and then emotionally blackmailed in such a way.
Puthiyaveetil, 49, was sentenced to three years in prison.
Read the full story – Technology boss who sexually assaulted child in Erith is jailed
Drug network
Dawid Gasiewski, 32, from Kingston, was among five people jailed for their roles in a major drug importation network.
Gasiewski was sentenced to 14 years and four months in prison as part of a Met Police investigation into an organised crime group responsible for bringing cocaine and heroin worth millions into the UK.
The group operated a large-scale operation that smuggled more than 300kg of cocaine and more than 60kg of heroin, with a total estimated wholesale value of almost £8 million.
Detective constable Leon Ure, from Specialist Crime South, said: “This case has centred on a criminal venture planned on a gigantic commercial scale which would have likely caused violence and destruction on our streets.
“These offenders organised a significant drug line into London and the surrounding counties over a prolonged period of time.
“If people wonder why we are so relentless in going after those involved in drug supply, it’s because this criminality fuels violence and rips families and communities apart.”
Read the full story – Kingston man helped import millions of pounds of drugs
Man attacked his pregnant girlfriend
Worcester Park man James Billimore strangled his heavily pregnant partner, causing her to go into labour.
The 34-year-old subjected the victim to sustained physical, emotional and financial abuse, controlling her movements and monitoring her through a tracking app on her phone.
He used threats and intimidation to maintain control, including telling her while she was driving: “If you don’t listen to me, I’ll crash the car and we will both be dead.”
The court heard he regularly assaulted the victim and took control of her finances, forcing her to withdraw money for him and leaving her in debt.
She became isolated from friends and family, with no social life and feeling unable to seek help.
The abuse escalated further when, the day before giving birth to her son, Billimore strangled her and punched her in the stomach.
The attack caused her to go into labour the following morning.
He then told her: “You’re not going to hospital like that,” and forced her to stay at home until a friend later took her to hospital.
Billimore was sentenced to three years in prison.
