A gun-running gang and a teenage killer were among the criminals jailed at Reading Crown Court this year.

Here, we list some of the offenders.

JACK PATTERSON

19-year-old Temur Qureshi was stabbed in the Langley area of Slough on September 30, 2023.

As he bled out, he called 999, telling the call handler: "I've been stabbed. I'm going to die."

The young man died within an hour of the stabbing - but was able to name his killer.

Jack Patterson, 18, of Stile Road, Slough, was found guilty of manslaughter at trial in April this year.

Jurors were told how he followed Mr Qureshi on a motorised scooter, before plunging a 'Rambo knife' into his chest.

He then fled to Birmingham, where he was apprehended shortly after.

A judge at Reading Crown Court sentenced Patterson to nine years in a young offender institution.

PETER BURNINGHAM

Peter Burningham, 39, worked as a team leader for the London Ambulance Service, winning praise for his service during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In January 2023, police raided his home in Cumberland Road, Reading.

A subsequent investigation would expose Burningham as a depraved paedophile.

On electronic devices belonging to the paramedic, police found hundreds of images of minors - some of them babies - being abused.

Burningham had trawled the Internet for illicit material, using search terms like 'kid sex' and 'baby boy rape.'

In messages to another paedophile, he suggested taking up work at a maternity ward so they could abuse the infants there.

In May this year, Burningham was jailed for two years and four months.

NATHAN MUSHIDI AND BILLY-RAY BARCLAY

In April last year, Nathan Mushidi, 24, of Byegrove Court, London, was selling drugs to a veteran of the War in Afghanistan.

The man allowed Mushidi to use his car - but the dealer ended up accruing £160 of penalty tickets on the vehicle.

There was a dispute between the two men, who agreed to meet in Bracknell to settle their differences.

However, Mushidi ended up bringing an associate to the meet - 36-year-old Billy-Ray Barclay, from Camberley.

Unlike Mushidi, Barclay had a history of violent offending.

The two men ambushed the veteran and set upon him with knives.

He was stabbed in the back, and only survived due to life-saving surgery at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

At Reading Crown Court in May, Mushidi and Barclay received jail sentences of six and eight-and-a-half years, respectively.

In a victim impact statement, their victim said: "I did not deserve to be stabbed. I could have died, and I'm now trying to turn my life around for the better."

RANJIT SINGH

Ranjit Singh, 42, of no fixed abode, was found guilty in February of perverting the course of justice after falsely accusing another man of sexually abusing him.

A judge jailed him for two years.

Jurors in the case heard how Singh claimed he had been raped in an alleyway near the Slough Jobcentre.

However, when interviewed by police, he repeatedly changed his story.

As a result of these allegations, the innocent man who Singh accused of attacking him ended up spending the night in a police cell.

Investigators soon established that Singh had a history of outrageous lying.

On one occasion, he accused his neighbours at a hostel of holding him at gunpoint - which also led to them being arrested.

DAMON DENHAM, CHAD BLACKWELL AND DANIEL BOYD

Three men were jailed in March for their role in a sophisticated gun-running operation based out of Berkshire.

A ground-floor flat in Datchet belonging to 42-year-old Daniel Boyd was used as a 'gun factory,' where deactivated firearms were converted for sale to criminals.

Police raids on the flat - and on a Windsor garage belonging to Boyd's cousin - netted 74 illegal handguns.

Boyd was arrested alongside Damon Denham, 36, of Common Road, Slough, and Chad Blackwell, 34, from Ashford, Surrey.

The scale of the gang's activities was revealed at a sentencing hearing at Reading Crown Court.

A pistol with Boyd's DNA on it was used in a shooting in Peckham - while another gun linked to the Berkshire ring was seized from criminals in the Merseyside area.

Nevertheless, police were unable to determine what specific role each of the three men played in the conspiracy - and there is evidence they were part of a much larger criminal network.

Denham was jailed for 13 years and one month, Blackwell for 11 years and three months, and Boyd for eight years and three months.