THESE criminals from across west Wales were locked up in September.
The defendants were charged with violent attacks on their partners and ex-partners, an unprovoked attack outside a takeaway, breaching sexual harm prevention orders, dealing cocaine, and growing cannabis.
They were jailed for 21 years and six months combined.
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Here’s a round-up of the cases.
Oliver Torkington
Cowardly bully Oliver Torkington was jailed after he launched a “brutal, sustained and merciless” attack on his then-girlfriend.
Torkington, 39, had denied charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and strangulation relating to the attack at an address in St Clears on March 23, but was found guilty at trial.
After a night out, Torkington attacked his girlfriend out of “paranoid jealously” after seeing her talking to a doorman when they were out, and as she had seen another man whilst she and the defendant had broken up.
Judge Paul Thomas KC described the incident as “a brutal, sustained and merciless attack”.
“She was very drunk and defenceless in your flat,” he said.
“You strangled her and punched her and stamped on her head.
“You also thrashed her savagely and repeatedly with a thin piece of metal.”
The victim suffered a broken finger, and the court heard that she still heard ringing in her ear from where Torkington had stamped on her.
After the attack, the defendant also took his partner’s phone so she was unable to call for help.
Judge Thomas branded Torkington “a coward as well as a bully”, and added that the defendant would pose “a real threat” to any woman “who has the misfortune” of entering in to a relationship with him.
“The simple fact is that you do not have the guts to admit what you have done,” he said.
“I wonder how you would feel if any man treated your daughter how you treated your partner in this case.”
Torkington was jailed for two years and nine months, and his ex-partner was granted a five-year restraining order against him.
Joshua Jones
“Serial woman abuser” Joshua Jones breached a restraining order several times, culminating in a horrific attack which left his ex-partner fearing he was going to kill her.
Jones was made the subject of a restraining order in August 2022 after he was sentenced for sending threatening text messages to his ex-girlfriend, with whom he shared a daughter.
However, earlier this year the defendant’s family convinced the woman to allow him to see their daughter because he had changed.
Jones showed up unannounced at the victim’s home on March 7 and asked her to sleep with him. She declined and told him to stop taking drugs, after which he “flipped”, threw a bottle of vodka at her, grabbed her by the throat and strangled her whilst going red in the face.
When he eventually stopped, he said: “Look what you made me do”.
“I thought Josh was going to kill me,” the victim said, via a statement read out in court.
The victim fled upstairs, but Jones followed her and pinned her face down on her bed.
After getting free, she hid in their daughter’s room. Jones punched a hole in the bedroom door trying to get inside, before going back in to the victim’s room and pouring foundation and disinfectant over her clothes.
The woman hid in her daughter’s room for over an hour until Jones left.
A week later, Jones again showed up at her home unannounced. The woman told him to leave, but he waited outside until she had to leave the house and then pushed past her, searching every room to see if anyone else was there. He then followed her as she went to pick her daughter up from school, and then followed her back home.
The court that Jones also send his victim a series of disturbing texts, threatened to get her child taken away from her by telling social services she was “a crackhead”, showed up at her home again, and requested to follow her on Instagram.
Jones, formerly of Ystradgynlais, was arrested on August 8, and pleaded guilty to six offences of breaching a restraining order, strangulation, and criminal damage.
The court heard that 23-year-old Jones, of no fixed abode, was jailed for a total of 30 months, and his ex-partner was granted a 10-year restraining order against him.
Brennin Davis
Brennin Davis punched another man unconscious in an unprovoked assault, breaking his jaw in two places.
Before launching a completely unprovoked attack Davis moved his friend’s arm out of the way in order to get a better swing. He then punched one of the young men to the pavement, knocking him unconscious and breaking his jaw in two places.
When another man went to help the injured victim, Davis turned on him, raining down blows in quick succession and wounding him above his right eye which caused him to need stitches.
The court heard that neither of the men knew Davis and that the attack was completely unprovoked.
Both victims said that they had had to have time off work because of their injuries.
After he committed the unprovoked assault, Davis had been assaulted by others at the scene and had ended up in hospital himself.
The court was told that Davis was a ‘softly spoken, articulate young man’ who was out with friends that night who were ‘looking for a fight’.
Davis was sentenced to 33 months in prison after admitting unlawful wounding and inflicting GBH with intent. One of his victims was also granted a five-year restraining order against him.
Paul Baker
Sex offender Paul Baker “blatantly and repeatedly” breached court orders told police it was ‘his life and he could look at what he wants to’.
Baker, of Rosemary Lane in Haverfordwest, was charged with three breaches of a sexual harm prevention order.
Police received a notification from the e-safe monitoring software on July 11 that Baker was looking at an illicit website which featured “3D nude child models”, and had also been using an incognito internet browser.
When asked by police, Baker said that he “only used Google search software”.
Further searches found that between October 19 and July 25 he had used seven different browsers that enabled anonymous browsing, and had been using an email account which had not been registered with police.
The officers also found searches for Wi-Fi router and sim cards, and Baker had deleted internet-enabled apps and their history from his phone between October 19 and August 1.
62-year-old Baker denied the offences, telling officers he had “forgotten” to tell them about the email account. He confirmed that he had deleted gaming apps from his phone.
He also told officers that it was his life and he could look at what he wants and that the police could not stop him.
He again denied using the incognito internet browser, and said he did not have Wi-Fi at his home.
Officers told Baker that analysis of his phone showed it had been connected to the Wi-Fi, to which he replied: ‘Is it? I didn’t think it would work’.
“When you were spoke to by police, you made a worrying comment,” said Judge Paul Thomas KC.
“They cannot stop you doing it and neither can the court. What the court can do is to keep you in prison for such a length of time that you are not able to access that material.”
Baker was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, and his sexual harm prevention order was extended indefinitely.
Flamur Vengo and Nertil Dallenga
Flamur Vengo and Nertil Dallenga were discovered after police uncovered a drugs operation capable of growing cannabis worth £767,000 at a Neyland industrial unit.
The pair, both of no fixed abode, were each jailed for two years.
Armed police raided the unit at Honeyborough Industrial Estate on August 10 and found a “sophisticated growing operation”.
Inside was a total of 914 cannabis plants that police experts estimated could have produced a yield of between 25 and 76 kilograms of cannabis – which could have had a value between £255,000 and £767,000 if sold in street deals.
Also inside the unit was two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, a fully-stocked fridge, an office area, and a washing machine.
Vengo, 41, was arrested in the roof of the unit, whilst 27-year-old Dallenga was found three days later – as officers continued dismantling the operation – hidden within the insulation of the unit. He was in such a bad condition that he had to be taken to Withybush Hospital before being arrested.
Vengo told police he had met a group of people in a London coffee shop who had offered him construction work in west Wales. When he discovered it was a cannabis farm, he said he was told he couldn’t leave and threats were made against his family back in Greece.
The judge, Recorder Simon Hughes, dismissed Vengo’s explanation to police as “pretty unbelievable” after hearing the group was reported to have been the same people involved in his previous offence.
The court heard that Dallenga was an Albanian national who had entered the UK illegally and was working at the unit to discharge his debt to a criminal gang.
Vengo pleaded guilty to producing cannabis, whilst Dallenga admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis.
The defendants will serve 12 months in prison before being released on licence for the remainder of their sentence, however Recorder Hughes said it was likely they would be deported upon their release from prison.
Benjamin Ashby
Cocaine dealer Benjamin Ashby was caught stashing £1,500-worth of cocaine in his van, just 18 months after police found drugs worth £6,400 at his home.
Police raided Ashby’s home on January 28 last year. No-one was at the address, but officers found 64.2 grams of cocaine, weighing scales, snap bags, and seized his mobile phone.
The cocaine was valued at between £5,120 and £6,400.
Ashby, of Folland Road in Garnant, later attended the police station and gave a no comment interview the following day. He was released on bail as police continued their investigations.
18 months later – on July 25 this year – police conducted a second raid at Ashby’s home, Ms Randall said.
The defendant answered the door and told the officers: “What you’re looking for is in my van”.
Inside the van, the police found 32 bags containing a total of 16.1 grams of cocaine – valued at between £1,240 and £1,550. They also seized three mobile phones.
The 37-year-old again gave a no comment interview.
Ashby was jailed for four years and ten months after he admitted two offences of possession with intent to supply cocaine.
Euwyn Draper
Paedophile Euwyn Draper breached a sexual harm prevention order and had a burner phone containing indecent images of children.
Draper, 21, formerly of Goat Street in Haverfordwest, had previously been convicted for making and distributing indecent images of children and last April was given a six month suspended sentence.
He was also made subject to a 10 year sexual harm prevention order which banned him from having any internet enabled devices not registered with the police, from deleting any internet history or applications, and from holding any social media accounts under other names.
The defendant told the police that he only had an Xbox and a mobile phone that were capable of accessing the internet. He was advised to delete his second Instagram account – which was under an anonymous name – and his Snapchat account due to the app deleting messages.
At an earlier hearing the court was told that between May 5 and July 10, the e-safe software on Draper’s phone flagged up multiple screenshots where the Snapchat logo was visible on the device bar, and the defendant was twice using the app.
Draper admitted to police that he had had Snapchat on his phone and then deleted it.
On a visit to Draper’s home, officers spotted a phone charger lead going under his pillow. They found a second secret phone with accounts that matched those on Draper’s registered phone.
He told the police that this was an old phone which he had ‘forgotten’ about and he didn’t think it worked.
Across his devices, officers found eleven indecent images of children. Seven of these were the most serious Category A images. There were also three Category B images, and one Category C image.
Draper, who has since been evicted from his home, admitted three charges of breaching a sexual harm prevention order and four offences of making indecent images of children.
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