However there have been some subtle changes.
Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service has become His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, and senior barristers who have ‘taken silk’ and been appointed by Queen Elizabeth II to become part of Her Majesty’s Counsel have seen the title change from Queen’s Counsel to King’s Counsel.
Among the defendants who have been sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court over the last week are two arsonists, a rapist and a dangerous driver who killed a beloved pensioner in a head-on collision as he raced to get to work.
1. Rachel Marshall: Sheffield arsonist foolishly poured vodka over a blaze at a house to put it out
Sheffield Crown Court heard how Rachel Marshall, aged 38, formerly of Moncriefe Road, at Nether Edge, Sheffield, had set fire to a bin which had spread to other bins and the front door of a property damaging the interior with smoke spreading upstairs. Prosecuting barrister Graham O’Sullivan said Marshall knew the occupant and he had returned home to find the fire service and police at his property. Mr O’Sullivan added that the fire had been started from an outside black bin causing damage to the door and interior of the property and it would have spread to adjoining properties if it had not been for the fire service. He said: “The fire service could not say if accelerants were used but the defendant said - in interview – she poured vodka onto the fire but she said that was to put it out.” Marshall, who phoned the emergency services, also said she had started the fire to keep warm. The defendant, of no fixed abode, who has 18 convictions for 50 offences, pleaded guilty to causing arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered after the incident in January, 2021. Marshall was also previously found guilty in her absence of threatening to destroy property, attempting to cause criminal damage and assault by beating after she committed these offences in November, 2021. She also admitted failing to surrender to court. Marshall also pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, failing to stop after an accident, and to using a vehicle without insurance after she took responsibility for a collision with another vehicle in December, 2021. Mr O’Sullivan said Marshall had taken her on-off partner’s Mazda 6 without his permission and collided with a car near Derek Dooley Way, Sheffield, which left the driver of the other vehicle with concussion, whiplash and blurred vision. Judge Peter Kelson QC sentenced Marshall to three years of custody and disqualified her from driving for 12 months which will be activated upon her release. Photo: SYP
2. Aiden Bierton: Drug-fuelled Sheffield thug threw knives towards police officers during siege
Sheffield Crown Court heard on September 13 how Aiden Bierton, aged 40, formerly of Colley Avenue, Parson Cross, Sheffield, prevented police from entering a property where he had been staying so officers had to force their way in and were threatened by the defendant. Photo: SYP
3. Brandon Woolven: Rapist jailed over attack on woman who feared she was going to be killed
Brandon Woolven, aged 22, has been jailed for 11 years after admitting violently attacking and raping a woman, before two brave passers-by came to her aid. At 10am on Thursday, April 14, Woolven grabbed his victim, a woman in her 20s who cannot be named for legal reasons, as she walked her dog in woodland near to Pontefract Road, Barnsley. Woolven dragged his victim further into the wooded area and began physically and sexually assaulting her, before going on to rape her. Detective Constable Becky Robinson, from Barnsley CID, has spoken of the horrific circumstances of the case. She said: “I have been working as a police officer for 16 years now and in all my service have never been faced with an investigation quite as horrifying as this one. “Woolven attacked his victim at random, in broad daylight, and subjected her to the most brutal and sustained physical and sexual abuse imaginable. She has since told us that she believes that without the intervention of the two passers-by, she would have been killed – such was the ferocity of Woolven’s assault. Woolven, of no fixed abode but from the Brighton area, pleaded guilty to rape, two counts of sexual assault and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing. At Sheffield Crown Court on Friday, September 9, he was sentenced to 11-and-a-half years in prison. Woolven was also handed an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order. Photo: SYP
4. Giovanni Bearder: Jail time for arsonist who torched Sheffield pub with 'Molotov cocktail' while landlady slept upstairs
Giovanni Bearder set fire to The Sheaf House Hotel pub on Bramall Lane twice in the dead of night on August 24, 2021 and September 5, 2021, while the landlady and her partner were sleeping upstairs on both occasions. During a September 9 sentencing hearing, prosecuting barrister, James Gelsthorpe, told Sheffield Crown Court that a short time after the first blaze was started at 1.30am on August 24 the landlady and her partner were awoken by the fire alarm sounding, the latter of whom came downstairs to investigate. "When he came into the bar area he could see a fire in a seating area in front of a bay window. The flames were two metres high,” Mr Gelsthorpe said. Mr Gelsthorpe told the court that when the emergency services arrived, police determined that a brick had been thrown through a window of the Sheaf House Hotel; and a beer bottle found to contain petrol and fabric used as a wick had subsequently been lit and thrown through the window to start the blaze. The second blaze was started just before 5am on September 5, as the landlady, her partner, one of her children and some friends slept upstairs; and once again her partner came downstairs after being awoken by the fire alarm. Mr Gelsthorpe said: “Again, he found a fire at the front of the pub...on this occasion it was more developed that the first time. He describes how he struggled to put it out, but did manage to extinguish it.” Bearder was subsequently arrested and charged with two counts of arson with intent to endanger life, but later pleaded guilty to two counts of the lesser charge of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered, which was accepted by the prosecution. Judge Graham Robinson jailed Bearder for 56 months Photo: SYP