Leeds Crown Court: Criminals jailed this week include a ‘smirking’ paedophile and rapist former Leeds United footballer

Other criminals brought before the court for sentencing this week included a thug who ripped out clump of partner's hair in Leeds New Year's Eve assault, a vengeful teenage dealer fired shotgun into Land Rover in Leeds before bragged about it in a selfie video and a ‘laughing gas' dealer told Leeds police he was heading to a party.

Lucas White and Lucas Dickinson

A teenage drug dealer who fired a sawn-off shotgun into a car in a revenge attack in Leeds was caught after a selfie video was found of him “bragging” about the weapon.

Lucas White had an “ongoing feud” with his mother’s ex partner and fired the live ammunition into the Land Rover where two people were sat. The blast damaged the car but luckily missed the occupants.

When the 19-year-old was arrested for selling heroin and crack, analysis of a phone found a video he had taken of the gun and was heard to say it was for the victim.

He appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week, alongside his friend Lucas Dickinson, after the pair were arrested following a police chase last year.

Judge Christopher Batty jailed White for six-and-a-half years, and Dickinson for three-years-and-eight-months and banned him from driving for 58 months.

Stephen Scholes

The former Leeds United footballer has been jailed for 17 years for the “depraved” rape of a teenage girl.

The 55-year-old, was jailed for four counts of rape of a woman aged 16 or over and four counts of assault by penetration.

Following a trial in January this year Scholes was found guilty of all eight offences, which happened in the early hours of January 25, 2020.

Graham Vickers

A “smirking” paedophile who sexually assaulted two young girls at a flat in Leeds more than 30 years has been brought to justice – after trying to force a witness into having the charges dropped.

Pensioner Graham Vickers targeted the girls at his Harehills home in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They between the age of seven and 12 at the time.

He was given a 10-year jail sentence at Leeds Crown Court, made up of eight years’ custody, and two years on an extended licence.

The retired kitchen porter, who is now 68, is deaf and needed a sign-language interpreter during the recent trial. He was cleared of two charges, but found guilty of two counts of indecent assault.

Owen Sealy

A thug who ripped a clump of hair from his partner’s head during a drunken New Year’s Eve attack was accused of “only being sorry because he got caught”.

A judge told Owen Sealy that he “took no responsibility” for the assault having turned up at the woman’s house in Leeds and got into an argument, before he threw against the wall and tore her hair out.

Sealy, formerly of Bramley but now of Park Avenue, Abergaveny, south Wales, admitted actual bodily harm and criminal damage. He appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds where he was being held on remand.

Judge Simon Batiste jailed him for two years and said: “You have a bad record for offences of violence. You may have been sorry you were caught, but you do not accept responsibility whatsoever. Only an immediate sentence can be justified.”

Bradley Starkey

A “dangerous” Leeds paedophile with a “tendency to prey on young girls” has been handed an extension to his jail term after he targeted an underage teenager on Instagram.

Bradley Starkey, who is already serving an 11-year sentence for torching a student halls building in Woodhouse in August 2020, told the young teenager that he was just 15 when he began talking to her over the social media platform in 2019.

Starkey, who is serving his current sentence in HMP Stocken in the East Midlands, appeared in court via video link and admitted a charge of sexual activity with a child. He had initially denied the charge.

Judge Andrew Stubbs KC jailed him for three years, which will run consecutively to his existing 11-year sentence. He also gave him a lifelong sexual harm prevention order (SHPO).

Muhammed Kiani

A dealer caught with more than 500 cannisters of “laughing gas” in Morley tried to convince police he was on his way to a party.

With lockdown in force in October 2020, officers noticed four people in a Ford Fiesta being driven by Muhammed Kiani, so flagged them down on Fountain Street.

Smelling cannabis from the car, they searched the occupants and found 12 bags of skunk cannabis in the vehicle and on Kiani worth £420 along with 504 cannisters of nitrous oxide in his boot worth £312.

Judge Tom Bayliss KC jailed him for 35 months and said: “You told police the drugs were not for sale and you going to party, which you weren’t at all."