These are some of the most serious, high profile and prolific offenders who were jailed in the sixth month of 2024.
All information comes directly from Sussex Police.
13. Locked up in Sussex: These are some of the criminals jailed in June 2024
Following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE), a 19-year-old man has been sentenced for offences including possessing plans for carrying out an attack on a synagogue near Brighton. On Friday, June 14, at Winchester Crown Court, Mason Reynolds, of Moulsecoomb Way, Brighton, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment with five years on extended licence. He will also be subject to a notification order for a period of 15 years. At a trial in April, he was found guilty of one count of possessing an article for the purpose of terrorism, contrary to Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He also previously pleaded guilty to five counts of collecting information which could be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and five counts of dissemination of terrorist publication, contrary to Section 2 of the Terrorism Act 2006. Reynolds was arrested by CTPSE officers on June 27 last year. An examination of his mobile phone revealed a note detailing a plan to attack a synagogue near Brighton. The note included information about the entrances and exits of the synagogue, security cameras, a video of the location taken from Google Maps as well as key Jewish holidays. On Reynold’s devices, officers also found material that was neo-Nazi and anti-semitic in nature alongside manuals, one of which detailed how to make a bomb. Additionally, Reynolds was part of an online group who shared neo-Nazi material and posted extreme right-wing content that encouraged terrorism. He was charged on July 3 last year. Photo: Sussex Police
14. Locked up in Sussex: These are some of the criminals jailed in June 2024
A drug dealer who blackmailed and assaulted a man in Bognor Regis over a £3,000 debt has been jailed for 11 years. On Wednesday, July 19, 2023, police received a 999 call from a concerned father, who had received desperate messages from his son saying he had been kidnapped. Officers visited his property as the victim – a 22-year-old local man – returned home shortly after 9pm. He reported having been taken in a van from a cemetery in Hawthorn Road at around midday, threatened with extreme violence and driven to a property in Bognor. From there he was able to send messages to this father, before being bundled back into the van and stabbed in the leg with a screwdriver. He managed to escape when the van stopped at traffic lights, before making his way home. Two days later, on July 21, 29-year-old Lashaun ‘Jay’ Kwatia was arrested in Bognor. A separate investigation by the West Sussex Community Investigation Team found Kwatia had been running the JAY county drugs line, supplying crack cocaine and heroin. A search of an address in Bognor found Class A drugs, cash and multiple mobile phones linked to Kwatia. Kwatia, of Linden Grove in Southwark, was later charged and convicted of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, blackmail and causing actual bodily harm. He was found not guilty of kidnap. At Lewes Crown Court on Thursday, June 6, Kwatia was jailed for 11 years and given a restraining order of 20 years against the victim and another man. Photo: Sussex Police
15. Locked up in Sussex: These are some of the criminals jailed in June 2024
A man has been handed a criminal behaviour order to curb his shoplifting following six incidents in Worthing. Linton Woolley was sentenced on May 31 at Crawley Magistrates’ Court to 18 weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months and given a five-year Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO). The order means he must not remain on any retail premises in Sussex if he is asked to leave, enter any Tesco store in West Sussex, enter any co-op store in Sussex, or a number of different named stores in Worthing. Woolley’s sentencing follows a number of shopliftings between April 2 and April 30. It was heard Woolley entered Co-op, Manor Parade on five different occasions and stole a number of different items worth hundreds of pounds in incidents between April 2 and April 24. He then stole three bottles of alcohol from B&M, Guildbourne Centre on April 30. Woolley, 36, of no fixed address pleaded guilty to all six offences. Photo: Sussex Police
16. Locked up in Sussex: These are some of the criminals jailed in June 2024
A County Lines drug-dealer was arrested just three weeks after he started distributing illegal substances in Brighton. Ermir Murataj frequently travelled from his home in Goldbeaters Grove, London, to the Sussex coast throughout June and July 2023, where he would offer heroin for sale. He was arrested after a Misuse of Drugs Act warrant was executed at his address on October 13. A number of mobile devices were seized, and expert analysis revealed the Jimmy drug line phones he operated were completely inactive while he was in London; they became heavily active whenever he travelled to Brighton, when he would send out bulk messages to vulnerable users. The 35-year-old was charged with being concerned in the supply of heroin. He denied the offence and the case went to trial, where a jury returned a guilty verdict. At Lewes Crown Court on May 17, Murataj was sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment. Photo: Sussex Police