Here we take a look at some of the criminals locked up during the final four months of 2025.
All of the information below comes from either Sussex Police or our reporters attending court in person.
41. Locked up in Sussex 2025: These are some of the criminals jailed between September and December
Prolific shoplifter Lee Cummings, 23, has been banned from entering a number of shops across the county. This follows a spree of numerous offences that all took place within a month. Between November 3 and November 28, Cummings stole over £940 worth of goods including 28 bottles of wine, four crates of beer, multiple bottles of spirits, 22 packs of laundry products, eight beef-joints and other meat products, seven Yankee candles, and multiple boxes of Lego. On November 28, Cummings was arrested in connection with the reports. The following morning, he was charged with 16 counts of theft from a shop and appeared at Brighton Magistrates court. He pleaded guilty to all offences, and was sentenced the same day. Lee Cummings, 23, of Ivy Arch Road, Worthing, was jailed for 20 weeks and given a three-year Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) banning him from entering any Co-Op, B&M or Marks and Spenser store in Sussex for the duration of the order. He was also ordered to pay a £184 surcharge. Photo: Sussex Police
42. Locked up in Sussex 2025: These are some of the criminals jailed between September and December
A drug-driver who killed one person and seriously injured two others in a head-on collision has been jailed. Niall O’Malley was driving his black Audi S3 when – for reasons unknown – he veered onto the wrong side of the road and into the path of an oncoming car. The incident occurred on the A26 at Ringmer around 7.25pm on May 26, 2024. The driver of the Peugeot 2008 involved – a woman from Uckfield – tragically died from her injuries in hospital four days later. She was 28. Her partner and front seat passenger – a 30-year-old man from Uckfield – was able to extract himself from the vehicle but sustained serious injuries. O’Malley also sustained serious injuries, as did his front seat passenger – a 24-year-old woman from Uckfield. While in hospital, a blood sample was taken from O’Malley which confirmed he had 2.9 microgrammes of cannabis per litre of blood in his system. The legal limit is 2 microgrammes. The 30-year-old, of Nevill Road, Uckfield, was subsequently charged with causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit for cannabis, and two counts of causing serious injury by careless driving. He pleaded guilty to all offences and appeared before Hove Crown Court on November 28, where he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and disqualified from driving for 89 months. His Honour Judge Gold commented that there was a “brief but avoidable distraction” resulting in O’Malley crossing into the opposing carriageway and colliding with another car, and that the “consequences were tragic”. The Judge said that the sentence would have been eight years, but he reduced it due to O’Malley’s early guilty plea. Photo: Sussex Police
43. Locked up in Sussex 2025: These are some of the criminals jailed between September and December
An Eastbourne man convicted of 11 counts of child sexual abuse has been jailed. John Simpson, 52, of Sheffield Park Way in Eastbourne, appeared at Lewes Crown Court on November 13, where he was jailed for a total of nine years and six months. In 2011, Simpson groomed and repeatedly sexually abused a teenage girl, convincing her they were in a ‘normal relationship’. The abuse continued for a number of months, before the victim was able to cut contact with Simpson. The victim reported Simpson’s offending to police as an adult in 2021 and was supported by specialist officers while an investigation was carried out. Simpson was subsequently arrested and charged with 13 counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of causing/inciting a child to commit sexual activity. At Lewes Crown Court on September 3, 2025, he was found guilty of nine counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of causing/inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. He was found not guilty of four counts of sexual activity with a child. Simpson was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison, will be a registered sex offender for life and was given an indefinite restraining order against the victim. Photo: Sussex Police
44. Locked up in Sussex 2025: These are some of the criminals jailed between September and December
A domestic abuser who attempted to strangle a woman has been jailed. Thomas Taylor, 30, left the victim, a woman known to him, in fear over his actions. He strangled her, and threatened to disclose private intimate images in an effort to control her. The victim came forward and reported her experience to Sussex Police. Taylor was arrested and charged, but continued to try to intimidate the victim while on remand in prison. She said: “I am still impacted by the trauma he caused and the ongoing fear of what he will do next.” At Lewes Crown Court on November 21, Taylor was sentenced for intentional strangulation, witness intimidation, and for threatening to disclose a private photograph or film in an intimate setting. He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison, and will serve an additional three years on licence because of dangerousness. This means he will not be automatically released halfway through his sentence on licence, but will instead only be able to apply for parole after serving two thirds of his sentence. If granted parole, he will remain on licence to serve the remainder of his sentence for an additional three years. Taylor, of West Court Place, Broadwater, was found guilty of intentional strangulation after a trial in September. He admitted the second charge of threatening to disclose a private photograph or film of a person in an intimate setting. The victim said Taylor committed the offences after consuming drugs such as cocaine. The victim said: “His behaviour became more volatile, frightening and dangerous over time. I lived in a constant state of alert, afraid of how he would act, what he was planning to do, and who he was going to terrorise next because it wasn’t always me, but it would be my fault somehow due to his cocaine-fuelled delusions. I am still impacted by the trauma he caused and the ongoing fear of what he will do next.” Taylor has been made the subject of a restraining order that prevents him contacting the victim, and the order lasts until 2040. Photo: Sussex Police