DRUG DEALERS, staff thieveing from their employers and men who committed shocking crimes against women.
These are some of the people who lived or worked in Berkshire who were sentenced at Reading Crown Court other local courts this month.
But not all of them were locked up.
Here’s who was sent down and who walked free…
Samuel St Fort
Samuel St Fort was jailed for seven years after threatening two girls with a knife and punching one of them with a boxing glove.
After escaping through a bathroom window having been taken hostage on a night out, hours earlier, one of the woman had to hide under a car to avoid being detected by St Fort, who was 20 at the time of the incident in August 2018.
In a victim statement, one of the girls said she was scared of returning to Reading following the frightening events.
St Fort’s prison term also stems from the ‘violent’ and ‘sadistic’ ways he treated another woman from August 2020 to April 2021, including whipping her with a charging cable and hitting her with a hammer.
The 23-year-old, formerly of Wensley Road, Reading, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for two counts of criminal damage, one count of engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour, two counts of assault, and two counts of false imprisonment.
William Thorpe
The grandson of a former prison governor will get another taste of jail life after he was locked up for raping a young woman.
William Thorpe, formerly of Bowyers Lane, Warfield, Bracknell Forest, has already spent time inside having assaulted the woman before he raped her in August 2019.
The 20-year-old will now spend at least three years and nine months in prison, however, after he was found guilty of rape following a trial in October 2021.
Reading Crown Court heard how Thorpe raped the woman at his Reading flat when he was 18-years-old.
She had made her way to his home to collect shoes and money Thorpe owed her at around 9 pm that evening but left without either item 20 minutes later.
In that intervening period, Thorpe raped the woman.
Thorpe will serve half of this sentence behind bars and has been barred from contacting the woman he raped for ten years after his release.
Louis Hosea
Louis Hosea, was jailed last month after he was caught with £44,000 worth of drugs in a Reading hotel room.
The 20-year-old was in a hotel room in Reading when he called police to tell them people were trying to break down his door with knives.
When police arrived, they found Hosea sweating and ‘not making much sense’.
Prosecution counsel John Sank said officers suspected Hosea was under the influence of drugs.
Police searched his backpack and found heroin with a street value of £12,850, cocaine with a value of £31,680, a small amount of cannabis and a zombie knife inside.
Defending, Mark Kinsey said: “This offence is somewhat bizarre in that it is the defendant himself who called the police.
“When the police arrived the defendant was in a state of paranoia, drug-induced or not.”
The 20-year-old, of no fixed abode, was handed a four-year prison sentence for two counts of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply, one count of possession of cannabis, and one count of possession of an offensive weapon.
Stephanie Williams
A police officer working for the Ministry of Defence in Aldermaston was spared jail after stealing more than £1,500 from her employers.
Stephanie Williams, of Carn View Terrace, Penzance, was gripped by a gambling addiction when she stole the money from the Ministry of Defence.
The 47-year-old, who left school at 16 to join the army, also attempted to steal £25,000 from her employers but this fraud was blocked by the MoD.
Reading Crown Court heard how Williams was working as a police officer in Aldermaston when in 2017 she started gambling at a time of “stress and difficulty” in her life.
Williams ‘made use’ of the Ministry of Defence’s travel and expenses scheme, taking a total of £1,528 for herself.
The Penzance woman also tried to take a further £25,000 but the MoD was able to stop this money from leaving its coffers.
Sentencing, His Honour Judge Dugdale handed Williams an eight-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months.
However, she will have to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and take part in up to 20 rehabilitation activity days.
Teenage drug-dealer
A county-lines drug dealer who cannot be named for legal reasons set up his own drugs line aged 16 after he forced vulnerable drug addicts to let him use their houses to ‘wash cocaine’.
William Eaglestone, prosecuting, said the man, 17, exploited vulnerable drug dealers in order to assist his operations.
One woman who gave evidence against the dealer said he would use her home to ‘wash cocaine’ -- meaning to make crack cocaine.
Sentencing, His Honour Judge Burgess said: “You were running a country line. The prosecution say you were playing a leading role. You were high up in that operation and you were basically running the line for yourself and were doing it to make a lot of money.
“You were selling drugs on a big scale to make a lot of money from it.”
With a guilty plea also taken into account, the man was sentenced to 50 months imprisonment.
The Slough man will serve half of this behind bars before being released from jail.
Nitin Gupta
An accountant stole £80,000 from the luxury hotel he worked at laundered the money by sending it to accounts under his wife and children’s names.
Nitin Gupta, of Eden Close, Slough, worked in the finance team at Macdonald Berystede Hotel in Ascot.
The 42-year-old stole the cash over a period of 22 months using false accounting practices, Reading Crown Court heard.
Despite this, the Slough man was spared prison and walked free from court after promising to pay the money back.
Christina Josephides, prosecuting, said Gupta got found out when during a stock take the finance team noticed a “discrepancy” related to £6,900 worth of missing liquor.
“Upon further investigation, it was discovered the defendant had been stealing money over a period of time [January 2018 - November 2019] and adjusting the books in order to conceal his activities.”
Ms Josephides said Gupta had paid back £35,000 of the £80,000 stolen.
But Gupta was spared a prison term after Judge Burgess told the court the defendant had shown “genuine remorse” for what he had done and that he was not a danger to the public.
Gupta was handed a 22-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.
He was ordered to pay the remaining £45,000 back to the hotel by Monday, February 7.
In addition to this, Gupta will have to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.
Liston Betteridge
A drug-addict told a 14-year-old girl he was sending sexual messages to that it was “okay” for him to talk to her as long as they did not have sex.
Liston Betteridge, of the Oaks, Bracknell, sent the girl separate videos of him and a woman masturbating and then encouraged her to do the same.
He then tried to hide his age by telling the girl -- who was really a woman running a decoy account to catch paedophiles -- that he was 18, despite previously telling her he was 32.
Now 34, Betteridge will serve at least another three months behind bars after being sentenced for the offences he committed in August 2019.
Her Honour Judge Nott handed Betteridge a 13-month prison sentence for one count of attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, one count of causing a child to watch a sexual act, one count of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, one count of attempting to incite a child to engage in a sexual act, and one count of failing to surrender to court.
As he will only serve half this sentence in custody, he could be out in three months having served a quarter of a year behind bars already.
In her sentencing remarks, the Judge told Betteridge she would not impose a sexual harm prevention order as she believed this incident was a “one-off.”
“This was out of character for you”, she said.
“There was no evidence you have a sexual interest in children.
“I think this was a one-off. When you looked at the [girl’s] image you thought it was an older person and when you learned she was 14 you just carried on.”
Keiran Lynch
A Reading builder who exposed his employees to asbestos has been handed a huge court bill after breaking health regulations.
Keiran Lynch, of Old Barn Close, Emmer Green, was prosecuted after it emerged the tradesman knew the Barnsdale Road house his staff were refurbishing contained the dangerous substance.
Two employees working for Lynch and Co, who had no prior experience of removing asbestos, were sent into the property without protective measures in place.
Once they had taken down boards affected by asbestos, they stored them inside the house for a further three months before they were moved into the front garden to be disposed -- something they should have had a licence for.
When inhaled over long periods of time, asbestos fibres become trapped in the body and can cause diseases such as lung cancer.
Following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive, Lynch was prosecuted and admitted to breaching Control of Asbestos Regulations.
At his sentencing at Reading Magistrates’ Court, he was handed a community order which requires him to take part in 25 rehabilitation activity days and carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
He was also told to pay £5,000 in costs and a £95 victim surcharge.
Samantha O’Grady
A shoplifter has been jailed after she was caught stealing jeans and meat from Marks and Spencer worth more than £100.
Samantha O’Grady, 47, of Stoke Poges Lane, Slough, has been sent to prison for 16 weeks after she admitted to shoplifting in Bracknell.
At Wycombe Magistrates’ Court on January 21, the court heard how on Christmas Eve, 2021, O’Grady lifted £135-worth of goods from M&S in the Lexicon shopping centre, including a pair of jeans and meat products.
At the court hearing, the magistrates heard how O’Grady, who has previously been described as a “prolific” shoplifter, was on bail when she committed this latest offence.
After hearing about her repeat offending, the magistrates sent O’Grady straight to prison.
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