Here we take a look at some of the criminals locked up during the summer of 2024.
All of the information below comes from either Sussex Police or our reporters attending court in person.
37. Locked up in Sussex 2024: These are some of the criminals jailed between May and August
A Worthing sex offender has been jailed for possession of indecent images of children. Lewis Peters was arrested at his home address in Worthing on June 3 following an intelligence led operation by Sussex Police’s OCAT (Online Child Abuse Team). Peters attempted to conceal a small memory card which featured 250 category A indecent images and videos of children. His phone was examined, which was found to contain 32 Category A, 74 Category B and 12 Category C images. Peters was already subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), which he was handed in April 2023. Being in possession of these images put him in breach of this order. The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to three counts of making an indecent photo of a child, four counts of breaching a SHPO and possession of extreme pornographic images, when he appeared before Hove Crown Court on July 5. He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment at Hove Crown Court on July 16. Photo: Sussex Police
38. Locked up in Sussex 2024: These are some of the criminals jailed between May and August
A man from St Leonards who preyed on young girls using an online messaging app has been jailed. Anthony Everton, 35, contacted girls aged between 13 and 15 via Snapchat while posing to be a child himself. Exchanging phone numbers with the girls, he would then request they send him sexually explicit images before threatening to send those images to their families. Everton would call and text the victims to engage in sexual conversations. If they tried to stop speaking with him, he would make threats to kill them or burn their houses down. After receiving reports from parents who had intervened in the activity, police arrested Everton in April 2023. He was released on bail with strict conditions while enquiries, including analysis of his digital devices, continued. Despite Everton’s attempts to destroy his mobile phone when he was arrested, police found evidence of indecent images and videos on it, including a large number of explicit images of a girl that Everton had sent to her relatives via social media. In September 2023 while this investigation was ongoing, police began receiving multiple reports of a man masturbating in the front window of an address in St John’s Road, St Leonards. The man was in full view of the public and a nearby children’s playground. Police identified the address as that of Anthony Everton and he was further arrested. Everton was subsequently charged with 12 offences – one count of outraging public decency; seven counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child; and four counts relating to the possession and distribution of indecent images of children. He was found guilty at Brighton Crown Court on March 19, 2024. At Hove Crown Court on July 19, he was handed an 11-year sentence consisting of six years in prison and a further five years on extended licence. He was also issued with an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for life. Photo: Sussex Police
39. Locked up in Sussex 2024: These are some of the criminals jailed between May and August
A drug dealer has been sentenced after admitting his latest offences in Brighton. Shy Ponsonby-Way, 19, was seen dealing drugs in central Brighton earlier this year. Officers from the Specialist Enforcement Unit arrested him after they carried out patrols to disrupt the supply of drugs. He was supplying class A drugs including crack cocaine and heroin. When arrested officers found him with 90 wraps concealed in his groin. Following an investigation by the Brighton Community Investigation Team, he was charged. At Lewes Crown Court on June 21, Ponsonby-Way was jailed for three years and four months. Ponsonby-Way, formerly of Surrenden Crescent, Brighton, admitted four counts of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply, two counts of possessing a knife or bladed article, two counts of assaulting emergency workers, and one count of possessing criminal property. The court heard how he assaulted a police officer in custody at Crowhurst Road in Brighton in October 2022, and assaulted a police officer in George Street, Brighton, on August 5 last year. In July last year he was found in possession of a knife in Trafalgar Street, Brighton. Then this year, officers from the Specialist Enforcement Unit were carrying out proactive patrols around St James’s Street on January 4. They observed Ponsonby-Way exchanging with a suspected drug user in an alleyway. He was then further observed completing another deal in an alleyway behind North Street. When stopped, the SEU officers found him in possession of a golf ball sized package containing 90 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin, a burner mobile phone, and cash. Then on March 11 this year he was stopped in Elms Avenue where he was again found with heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and in possession of a lock knife. Photo: Sussex Police
40. Locked up in Sussex 2024: These are some of the criminals jailed between May and August
A man who raped and sexually assaulted a woman has been jailed for seven years. David Pacera, 42, of no fixed address, was convicted of four serious sexual offences after his victim was able to record the attack on her phone. On January 3, a woman reported she had been raped and sexually assaulted by Pacera at a property in Worthing. The victim, who has lifelong anonymity, was safeguarded and supported by specialist officers while an investigation was swiftly launched. Pacera was arrested later that day and subsequently charged with rape, attempted rape, digital penetration and sexual assault. During a five-day trial at Chichester Crown Court, an audio recording of the incident was played to the jury which included the victim saying ‘no’ multiple times. Pacera was found guilty on June 28 of all counts. Photo: Sussex Police