This article explores various cases of couples who committed crimes together, highlighting their actions and the consequences they faced. From drug offenses to violent disorder, these stories shed light on the complexities of relationships and the legal ramifications of criminal acts.
For better, for worse, couples in love are expected to stick together through whatever comes their way. But what happens when your other half gets involved in crime? For these couples, that meant they joined in for the ride too. From burgling a friend to dealing drugs to a day out at the riots last summer, these people proved they were not just partners in life, but partners in crime too. We've taken a look at the most recent high-profile cases of couples in court at Manchester's courts.
Here, the Manchester Evening News has looked back on those couples who took their chance against the law, and ended up in court. John Firth and Aileen Cullinane Thieving couple John Firth and Aileen Cullinane set about on a spree of shoplifting and burglaries in an effort to fund their drug addictions. When their friend offered them a room for the night after discovering they were sleeping rough, they left the next morning, taking her TV, make-up and prescription tablets. Both were in the throes of a heroin addiction, with Cullinane, 35, spending up to £60 per day on the class A drug. 45-year-old Firth, who racked up a whopping 118 offences on his criminal record, had also stolen items including washing scent boosters and coffee to fund his addiction. Jailing him for 22 months, the Recorder of Manchester, judge Nicholas Dean KC told him: “If you continue the way you have been over the last few years you will either spend the rest of your life in prison or dead before you are 50.” Both were arrested and interviewed after police found them sleeping in a tent on Ordsall Lane, Eccles. They have since pleaded guilty to the following: Firth pleaded guilty to five offences of burglary and five offences of theft; and Cullinane admitted four offences of burglary, one offence of theft and one offence of the possession of class A drugs. Cullinane was handed a suspended sentence. Ben Gardner and Zoe Chrysanthou He was a cannabis ‘influencer’ and she was a drug ‘connoisseur’. It was a match made in crime. Both ran a café brazenly selling imported American ‘Cali weed’ from a ‘highly sophisticated’ Cheetham Hill industrial unit. The unit was transformed into the ‘Joint Café’, where members paid a £40 fee to gain access. As well as using cannabis, members could enjoy a bar serving food and drink and entertainment including pool tables and games consoles. Ben Gardner, 36, who was said to be a cannabis ‘influencer’, was involved in promoting the café on social media. Zoe Chrysanthou, 31, flew out to California to arrange for the importation of Cali weed to be served at the premises. When police descended upon the café, which had almost 1,800 paying members, they discovered about 70 people inside as many tried to flee. A judge said the café was a ‘determined and flagrant breach’ of drugs laws, ‘designed to generate thousands of pounds of profit'. Gardner and Chrysanthou’s lawyers both appealed for the pair to be spared jail, citing the ‘devastating’ effect it could have on their five-year-old child. But Judge Potter sentenced the pair to 31 months and 27 months in prison respectively. Both previously admitted conspiring to supply cannabis between June 2018 and April 2019. Tracy Pearson and Michelle Jibson They had been inseparable for over 25 years. But after spending an afternoon outside a hotel which was believed to be housing asylum seekers, with England flags wrapped around their waists, Tracy Pearson and Michelle Jibson were separated. They had turned up, alongside a large group, outside the hotel on Oldham Road, Newton Heath. Missiles were thrown towards the hotel as police tried to protect the building. A bus was also attacked, with the driver suffering injuries and being hospitalised. Pearson, 53, shouted ‘racist’ language while part of the mob, and Jibson, 45, ‘shoved’ a police officer in retaliation. The couple were held in prison on remand for more than a month, while awaiting punishment for their involvement in the riot on July 31 last year. Judge Patrick Field KC slammed the ‘deplorable’ actions of the ‘mob’ that day. “This level of intolerance was deeply shaming to everybody who was involved,” he said. But he said the pair had been involved at a low level, and that he could avoid sending them to prison for longer. Both are now due to be released and reunited with each other. Jibson and Pearson, both of Kingsbridge Road, Harpurhey, pleaded guilty to violent disorder. Pearson was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 12 months. Jibson was sentenced to an 18 month community order. Both were ordered to carry out 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days. Cameron Lee Hanson and Kirstie Hanson Cameron Lee Hanson and his wife Kirstie Hanson had respectable roles within Lancashire Police. He was a serving police officer, and she worked as a civilian worker. Both abused their roles. Former PC Hanson, 33, attended an address in October 2021 and found the body of 45-year-old James O’Hara. He recorded the horrific discovery at the property in Barrowford, Lancashire, on his body-worn video, but minutes after he left he sent audio messages about the incident and used his phone to take videos of Mr O’Hara to his wife. The following morning Kirstie Hanson,35, asked fellow civilian worker Charlotte Riley, 30, if she wanted 'to see video from a murder', Manchester Crown Court heard. Riley replied: “Yeh, of course I do,” and Kirstie Hanson sent her the footage with the message: “Don’t show anyone that, I’ll get in sh**”. Two days later, Kirstie Hanson was working in Darwen Police Station when she approached two other colleagues and showed them her husband’s recording of the body. The colleagues reported the matter to their superiors and an inquiry was launched. All three defendants pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to misconduct in a public office, while the Hansons also admitted unauthorised access to a computer. Kirstie Hanson and Riley also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to secure access to computer material. Cameron Hanson, of Packington Brook, Oswaldtwistle, was jailed for 32 months, Kirstie Hanson, of the same address, was jailed for 18 months, and Riley, of Carholme Avenue, Burnley, received a 12-month sentence suspended for two years. Robert Halliwell and Melanie Bullen A community was left in shock and confusion after the body of Kerry Newman was discovered outside a primary school in Rochdale. She was discovered face down and partially clothed, by members of the public on New Barn Lane. Following a post mortem, 40-year-old Kerry Newman's cause of death was said to be aspiration pneumonia due to drug toxicity. After a thorough investigation by the police, it became clear that Robert Halliwell, 48, and Melanie Bullen, 53, had been taking drugs alongside Kerry. During the evening Kerry sadly died, and in ‘panic’ the pair ‘bundled’ her into Halliwell’s car, drove half a mile away and dragged her body to an alleyway by Ashfield Valley Primary School and the Sandbrook Retail Park in Rochdale. Halliwell and Bullen both accepted perverting the course of justice. They were jailed for two years, of which they will serve half in prison and the other half on licence. Zaara Jamadar and Rafiq Jamadar Zaara Jamadar and Rafiq Jamadar were caught out by their own CCTV carrying out appalling crimes in front of their young children. They were captured bagging up Spice in their kitchen whilst ordering their teenage son to deal drugs on their behalf. Mobile phone evidence also showed that Zaara was supply crack cocaine and heroin. The pair have now been locked up following a hearing at Preston Crown Court. Zara Jamadar, 47, was sentenced to five years and five months in prison, while Rafiq Jamadar, 50, received a sentence of four years and nine months. Zaara Jamadar, of Higher Audley Street, Blackburn pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A and class B drugs. Rafiq Jamadar, of Brunel Walk, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply a class B drug
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