A MAN who preyed on young girls, two construction bosses who allowed a man to fall to his death and several drug dealers, including one who was found with more than £4,000 worth of Class A drugs in his home, were among those jailed across Sussex in June.
Christian Charles Turner, 30, of Little London Road, Horam, was sentenced at Hove Crown Court to a total of three years and four months, having previously pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity against a girl aged 13.
He also pleaded guilty to six counts of voyeurism involving another girl, then aged 11 and 12.
He admitted making a series of nearly 4,000 indecent images of children, all taken from the internet and none believed to be of local children, found on his two mobile phones when officers arrested him last year.
Turner will be a registered sex offender for life and the court also gave him a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which will severely restrict his access to children and digital devices.
Also jailed in June was Dean Payne, who was imprisoned after police found more than £4,000 of Class A drugs hidden in his home.
On January 11 last year, officers searched a property linked to the 38-year-old of Battle Road, St Leonards, as part of a separate investigation into drug dealing in the area.
A sniffer dog picked up a scent beneath a kitchen unit, hidden under which was 32.8 grams of high purity cocaine, 22.3 grams of high purity MDMA and 29.6 grams of herbal cannabis.
Scales, deal bags, cash and multiple mobile phones were also found in the property – all items commonly linked with the sale and distribution of drugs.
The drugs were estimated to have a street value of around £4,500.
Payne was arrested and subsequently charged with two counts of possession with the intent to supply Class A drugs and one count of possession with intent to supply Class B drugs.
He pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to a total of 32 months in prison at Lewes Crown Court.
Several other drug dealers – including one who sold heroin to vulnerable users – have also been jailed.
Jordan Catt, of Park Croft, Polegate, operated the “CJ” telephone line in Eastbourne to supply the Class A drug between September last year and February.
He pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of a Class A drug and at Lewes Crown Court was sentenced to six years in prison.
The unemployed 27-year-old was arrested at an address in Pevensey Road in Eastbourne on February 10, with officers seizing “burner” phones and his own personal phone in his room.
Police found evidence from the phones which proved he was the person operating the line, with the burner phones sending bulk marketing messages to potential drug-using customers in Eastbourne.
Meanwhile, a man who exploited a vulnerable 16-year-old girl and manipulated her into dealing drugs on his behalf is also now behind bars.
Giuseppe Carella, 26, formerly of Baker Street in Brighton, was sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on June 10 to a total of six years in prison after pleading guilty to facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation.
Officers from Brighton’s Community Investigation Team observed a 16-year-old girl, who was sought as a vulnerable missing person, drug dealing around St Mary’s Passage and Eastern Road in Brighton in February last year.
Police followed her back to a hotel room in Upper Rock Gardens, where they found Carella and arrested him on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs and trafficking a victim for exploitation under the Modern Slavery Act
Meanwhle, Tonderai Magaya was jailed after 7kg of cocaine, 2kg of heroin and £300,000 cash were seized in police raids.
Magaya was arrested on May 4 at his home in Hastings and was charged with being concerned in supply of cocaine.
The arrest was part of a series of dawn raids at addresses in Eastbourne, Hastings and London.
Sussex Police led the execution of 19 drugs warrants, resulting in 18 arrests on suspicion of involvement in the supply of Class A drugs.
Around 5,000 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin were seized during the raids, as well as 7kg of cocaine, 2kg of heroin, £300,000 in cash and four phones suspected of being used in the running of county drugs lines between Sussex, Surrey and Norwich.
Magaya pleaded guilty at Hastings Magistrates Court and was sentenced to 56 months in prison.
The 23-year-old was also sentenced to a further suspended sentence was reactivated for 12 months, which he will serve consecutively at Lewes Crown Court.
Magaya, of Norcross Close, Hastings, also received a forfeiture and destruction order for drugs seized, paraphernalia and mobile phones and will also pay a victim surcharge of £156.
And finally, two construction company bosses were jailed after a worker fell two storeys to his death.
Graham Tester, 60, died when he fell from height at a building site at the former Lansdowne Place Hotel in Lansdowne Place, Hove, in July 2018 after a ladder was not secured properly.
Mr Tester, of Lewes, was described in court by his family as a “real people pleaser”.
Steven Wenham, 48, of Charlotte Street, Brighton, was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter and his company Total Contractors Ltd was convicted of breaking two health and safety laws over the accident at an earlier hearing.
Wenham was jailed for five years for gross negligence manslaughter at Lewes Crown Court.
Wenham also received prison sentences of 18 months each for two counts of breaching health and safety laws, to run concurrently.
Total Contractors Ltd, the company for which he was a director of when the accident happened, was fined £190,000 and ordered to pay costs of £30,000.
John Spiller, 52, of Fishergate Close, Portslade, who runs roofing company Southern Asphalt Ltd, had been found not guilty of manslaughter at an earlier hearing, but was convicted of a health and safety charge for failing to properly safeguard against serious injury of death from a fall from height
He was jailed for 15 months. Judge Wall told him that he had to consider imposing a suspended sentence but had decided against it due to the lack of care he took for the work of Mr Tester on the day of the accident.
Southern Asphalt was fined £120,000 and ordered to pay costs of £20,000.
Wenham sat in the dock with his head in his hands while Spiller stared straight ahead as sentence was passed by the Honourable Mr Justice Mark Wall, who severely reprimanded both men for failing to adequately protect Mr Tester.
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