Over the last week, a number of criminals have faced justice for terrorising London’s streets and will spend the next several years locked behind bars. A number of disturbing cases have been heard in court, including that of a Romanian couple who trafficked 10 women to work in a brothel in Barking, where they were forced to have sex with 10 to 15 men each night.
A violent predator has also been imprisoned after he followed a woman off the bus at 4am, before beating her and attempting to rape her. A judge also jailed a London businessman who had agreed to travel to the Netherlands to murder in activist, in order to receive a financial reward.
READ MORE: Boy, 16, ‘chased by kids armed with Rambo knife and batons’ before being stabbed to death
Here is MyLondon’ s roundup of the cases that concluded last week.
5 men jailed for murder and burglary
Ali Coulibaly was jailed for 11 years after pleading guilty to manslaughter
(Image: Met Police)
A group of criminals were jailed for a combined total of more than 34 years after a man was stabbed to death in a cannabis factory. Skender Ismaili, 30, was murdered in the early hours of July 17, 2020 in Enfield, after five men attempted to burgle a drug den he was involved with.
Ali Coulibaly, 21, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated burglary, after Ismaili was killed by a single stab wound to the chest. He appeared at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Four other men were also jailed after admitting their roles in the aggravated burglary, whilst a sixth man had pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.
For their parts in the crime, Mason Harris-Williams was jailed for six years four months, Daniel Fletcher was jailed for five years, Ahmed Yamac for five years five months and Jazeel Lewis received a prison sentence of seven years. Haseeb Nadeem received a two year suspended sentence for assisting an offender.
Detective Inspector Neil Cramer, specialist crime, said: “As a result of a painstaking investigation, five people were charged in connection with either the killing of Skender Ismaili or the associated burglary at Lytton Avenue. A sixth was charged with assisting an offender. Such was the weight of evidence against them, they had no option but to enter guilty pleas.
“Mr Ismaili paid too great a price for his involvement in the cultivation of cannabis at the property. Anyone who buys illegal drugs should reflect on this human cost when considering the choices they make around drug use.”
Muhammad Gohir Khan
Muhammad Gohir Khan conspired to murder a Pakistani activist
A former East London businessman was jailed for life on Friday (March 11) for conspiring to murder an outspoken Pakistani blogger and activist. Muhammad Gohir Khan, 32, travelled to Rotterdam to kill his victim but failed to find him, and was arrested upon his return at St Pancras.
Khan, who was working at a supermarket in Newham, believed he would receive £80,000 for murdering the outspoken blogger. Border force control officers in the Netherlands had voiced concerns over Khan as he was travelling back to London and he was stopped by officers. After refusing to provide them with the PIN for his smartphone, he was arrested and an investigation was launched.
Police found more than 2,000 Whatsapp messages between Khan and a co-conspirator where they discussed and agreed to the contract killing. Communications began on February 17, 2021, where they discussed the price of the killing, travel arrangements, details of the victim’s daily habits and what he looked like.
Khan then travelled on the Eurostar to Paris on June 17, before travelling onwards to Rotterdam. He stayed there for a few days but was unable to find his victim, and returned to London on June 23. After he was arrested, he maintained he never had an intention of carrying out the murder, but had hoped to profit from his co-conspirator, a man named ‘Mudz’.
However, following a trial at Kingston Crown Court, he was unanimously convicted of conspiracy to murder. He has now been jailed for life with a minimum term of at least 13 years.
Husband and wife jailed for trafficking
Rodica Gheorghe (left) and her ex-husband Nicusor Gheorghe forced women into “sad and sordid” prostitution
(Image: Met Police)
A husband and wife who had trafficked vulnerable women to work as prostitutes in an East London brothel have been jailed. Nicusor and Rodica Gheorghe exploited 10 Romanian women, some as young as 18, and forced them to have sex with multiple men each night.
The couple were eventually arrested after they came under the attention of Romanian police, who had intercepted phone calls. Detectives from the Met Police were alerted and they subsequently discovered that the couple have been involved in the running of sexual services and trafficking since 2010.
In one heartbreaking case, Nicusor had told a woman in her late teens that he could help her secure a waitressing job in London and he paid for her ticket. He then informed her that the restaurant work was no longer available, but that he had found her a role having sex with men for money. With no money to return to her family, she started as a sex worker and was made to see 10 to 15 men each night.
She was forced to give half her money to a woman at the brothel and then split the rest with Nicusor, leaving her with only £20 from the average £500 plus she would earn in a week. The victim was also raped by Nicusor, who told her that her family in Romania would suffer if she did not do as she was told.
The women, aged between 18 and 37, were fined £50 if they fell asleep during their working hours, despite having to provide sexual services from 2pm to 6am. The Gheorghes also kept a close watch on them, and they were forbidden from leaving the house during work hours.
Following a raid at 5am on the brothel in Barking on March 26, 2019, officers found seven women in one locked room and 14 mobile phones which had been used to arrange sexual services. Following a 5-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, Nicusor, 34, received 15 years imprisonment after being convicted of rape, eight counts of human trafficking into the UK for sexual exploitation, 10 counts of controlling prostitution for gain and one count of removing criminal property.
Mum-of-two Rodica, 33, was jailed for five years after being found guilty of two counts of human trafficking, eight counts of controlling prostitution for gain and one count of removing criminal property.
Awadh Saleh and Rameh Williams
Saleh (left) and Williams (right) were found unanimously guilty of all charges
(Image: Met Police)
Two gang members have been jailed after they tried to murder their rival during a frenzied attack in a Canning Town shop. Awadh Salah, 22, and Ramah Williams, 18, were seen arriving in a Range Rover on February 27, 2021, and followed their victim into a shop on Fife Road, both of them armed with knives.
Once there, they pushed the shopkeeper out of the way and attacked him, before he was able to escape through the storeroom and lock himself in the toilet. After realising they could not gain access, the two thugs fled the scene whilst emergency services were called. Paramedics from the London Ambulance Service found the victim with four stab wounds, whilst police tracked down the criminals by inspecting CCTV footage.
Williams was arrested and charged the following day, whilst Saleh was arrested two months later on May 8. Both had denied their involvement but a jury found them unanimously guilty of all charges following a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Last Monday (March 7), Saleh was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment, with a further five on extended licence, whilst Williams received a 12 year sentence, with an additional five on licence.
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Dorin Varga
Dorin Varga repeatedly punched his victim and left her with a bloodied face
A violent sex attacker who tried to rape a woman after she rejected his advances was jailed for life. Dorin Varga, 35, had followed his victim off the N18 bus on August 8, 2020 and had punched her repeatedly before sexually assaulting her.
He had first approached the woman at the Green Man pub in Harlesden before later sitting next to her when she boarded the bus to travel home. During this journey, he continued to touch and kiss her whilst she protested, eventually leaving the bus to escape him. He followed her and then violently attacked her, smashing her head against a brick wall.
The incident, which occurred at 4am, left his victim with facial injuries that required stitches and a bloodied face. After the attack, he stole her mobile phone and fled the scene, with police officers eventually able to track down his identity through CCTV footage. Varga was also traced through his Oyster card and photos of him at the pub where he had first approached the woman.
When he was arrested on August 15, police found the victim’s mobile phone at his home address. Last Thursday (March 10), he was sentenced to life imprisonment at Harrow Crown Court, with a minimum term of eight years. He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to sexual assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, robbery and attempted rape.
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