Courts across the region have handed down sentences to a number of offenders involved in violent and serious criminal activity.
Here is a round-up of the Essex criminals jailed across the county so far this month.
Rasheed Abdul Rahman, 21, of Dunmow Close in Chadwell Heath, close to the Essex border, was sentenced to life in custody with a minimum term of 27 years after being found guilty of murder at Wood Green Crown Court on Wednesday, 27 May.
He was convicted of killing 55-year-old Mark Carroll in St Martin’s Gardens, Camden, in April.
Officers were called to St Martin’s Gardens at 1.37pm on April 10, where they found Mr Carroll with a stab wound.
He later died in hospital despite the efforts of emergency services.
During the trial, the court heard that Rahman and Mr Carroll did not know each other.
Rahman was also found guilty of possession of a bladed article, threatening with an offensive weapon, and robbery, for which he received a concurrent sentence of four and a half years.
A south Essex man has been jailed for assaulting a member of his own family.
Stevan Brownlie, 40, from Thurrock but of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to an assault on another man, causing him actual bodily harm (ABH).
The offence occurred in South Ockendon on May 24.
He pleaded guilty six days later on May 30.
Appearing at Basildon Crown Court on Thursday (September 3), he was sentenced by Judge Siew Loke to 20 months in prison.
She also imposed a five-year restraining order to keep him away from the relative he had injured.
Brownlie last appeared in the Echo in October 2022 as the subject of a missing person appeal, with Essex Police saying it was worried about him.
At that time, he was living in the Carnach Green area of South Ockendon.
In September 2013, he breached a suspended sentence imposed by Cambridgeshire Magistrates’ Court by using threatening words and behaviour.
A month later, in October 2013, he assaulted a police officer.
For those two offences, he was jailed for six weeks.
At that time, he was living in Love Lane, Aveley.
Ryan Buckley, 34, of Baker Close in Laindon, was also jailed for criminal damage and assaulting or ill-treating a child.
The offence against the child occurred in 2021 but Buckley only pleaded guilty in July 2026.
In the meantime, he had committed a string of further offences against Essex Police.
In July 2024, having been arrested, he caused criminal damage to the cell he was being held in at Grays police station.
After being charged over the assault on the child, he appeared at Basildon Crown Court in November 2025 and was granted bail, but ordered to return in April 2026.
He failed to turn up, chalking up a new offence of failure to surrender to court bail.
On July 10, when two police officers – one male, one female – encountered him in Basildon, he assaulted them both by beating them.
Two days later, on July 12, he assaulted another two police officers, again in Basildon. Both were male.
Buckley was remanded to HMP Peterborough and appeared at Southend Crown Court on Friday (September 11) for sentence.
Recorder Alun Eynon-Evans jailed him for 14 months.
Ryan O’Leary, 31, of London Road, West Thurrock, was caught with the drugs and weapon in Grays in September 2024.
On September 29 that year, he was caught in Schoolfield Way with a folding pocket knife with a three-inch blade.
He was also carrying a quantity of cannabis.
O’Leary would ultimately plead guilty to possessing both the cannabis and the knife, plus a third charge of being concerned in the supply of a Class B drug.
He appeared at Basildon Crown Court for sentence on Friday (August 28).
Judge Richard Conley sentenced O’Leary to a year in prison for the drug dealing, six months consecutive for the knife and no separate penalty for the cannabis possession.
He also ordered the deprivation of O’Leary’s phones, plus forfeiture and destruction of his drugs and related paraphernalia.
Police pulled the gang – from Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire – over in Ennismore Gardens, Southend, on July 1.
Inside their car, officers found a stash of drugs and knives.
Two of the drug dealers were sent straight to prison, but the other two walked free on suspended sentences.
The four men were:
Jaydon Ngounou, 21, of The Dart, Hemel Hempstead
Henri Eames, 19, of Bayford Close, Hemel Hempstead
-Peace Awoyemi, 24, of Washington Avenue, Hemel Hempstead
-Frankie Brinkhurst-Jones, 22, of Norton Road, Luton
Each of the four pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing a machete in a public place and one count of possessing a Class B drug – cannabis – with intent to supply.
They appeared at Basildon Crown Court on September 10 to be sentenced by Recorder Tony Badenoch.
He jailed Eames and Ngounou for 18 months each.
He sentenced Awoyemi to 15 months in prison, suspended for two years.
Brinkhurst-Jones got 12 months, also suspended for two years.
Paul Thompson, 33, of HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire, was caught with 10 images at Category A – the most severe level, depicting penetrative or sexual abuse of children.
He also had five images at Category B and eight at Category C.
He was additionally caught with 210 prohibited images of children – which are sexual images but not images, such as realistic drawings, cartoons or computer-generated images, such as AI fakes.
Thompson also entered a guilty plea to possessing 37 extreme pornographic images depicting humans having sexual intercourse with animals.
On top of the five images charges, he admitted six charges of breaching an existing Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
The breaches included possessing an internet-enabled Motorola mobile phone without notifying police, possessing SD storage cards capable of saving images, and using a TOR browser – an internet programme which disguises the user’s activities.
Sentencing Thompson at Basildon Crown Court on Thursday (September 3), Judge Richard Conley jailed him for 22 months.
Essex Police said it did not possess a mugshot of Thompson as it invited him for a voluntary interview, rather than arresting him.
Serial shoplifter Charlene Kirwan, 37, of Victoria Avenue, Southend, was given a second chance after being convicted of burglary.
She had appeared in the Echo in 2024, wanted in connection with two burglaries in Elm Road, Canvey Island.
But after walking free on a suspended sentence, she committed 24 shoplifting offences, every single one of which targeted the BP petrol station on West Street, Westcliff, which houses a mini M&S supermarket.
Between April 2025 and May 2026, she stole goods worth almost £1,500.
She sometimes committed thefts from BP on consecutive days – for example, goods worth £87 on January 11, £103 on January 12 and £32.20 on January 13.
On May 8, she carried out three thefts in one day, stealing items including meat worth a total of £157.63.
The highest value theft was on May 6, when she shoplifted £185.50 worth of meat.
After being charged and ordered to attend court, she committed two further offences: breaching bail and failing to undergo two mandatory Class A drug tests.
Sentencing her at Southend Crown Court, Recorder Alun Eynon-Evans activated 14 months of her previous suspended sentences and gave her four months consecutive for the shoplifting campaign – a total sentence of 18 months.
Adeel Khan, 32, of Waltham Forest, was sentenced to four years and six months after being found guilty of assisting an offender at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday, September 4.
He helped Daniel Khalife evade capture; Khalife was a serving soldier in the British Army when he was charged with spying for Iran and was on remand when he escaped.
Khalife escaped from HMP Wandsworth in 2023 by clinging to the underside of a food delivery lorry, using a makeshift sling fashioned from kitchen trousers.
The escape sparked a nationwide manhunt, and Khalife was arrested three days later near a Northolt canal.
Khan met Khalife in prison and stayed in touch with him by mobile phone after the escape.
He arranged for Khalife to receive £400 in cash while he was on the run.
Khan was later interviewed at HMP Wandsworth in October 2023 after officers found his details in a diary recovered from Khalife.
A second man, Imran Chowdhury, 26, of Chingford, was also charged with assisting an offender after CCTV showed him meeting Khalife and providing him with cash.
Chowdhury was found not guilty after a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
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