Each of the women pictured here have been sent to begin lengthy prison sentences during Sheffield Crown Court hearings held over the last 17 years.
The longest sentence passed down is to Sarah Barrass, who, in 2019, was ordered to serve a minimum of 35 years behind bars for the murder of two of her sons, Tristan and Blake, aged 13 and 14 respectively. She killed the boys alongside her half-brother and lover Brandon Machin, who fathered all six of her children, after they became concerned social services may have learned of their unnatural relationship. The murderous pair also attempted to kill their other four children.
Also included are Zoe Rider and Nicola Lethbridge who were jailed for a combined total of 52 years last year for the “callous” and “sadistic” murder of their neighbour, 60-year-old Stephen Mark Koszyczarski. The two women “invaded his home, intent on helping themselves to his property” by threatening and using violence against him , before “setting about him in the most brutal, heartless and despicable manner.”
Leonie Mason was just 23-years-old when she was jailed for life in 2017, to serve a minimum of 19 years behind bars, for the murder of her on-and-off again ex-boyfriend, Craig Preston. She teamed up with her jealous new lover Shiraz Bashir, along with three teenage accomplices, to kill Mr Preston, before disposing of his body in a lay-by, off Town Lane, Rotherham.
Amanda Spencer was also just 23 when she was first convicted of multiple crimes in 2014 after she forced vulnerable girls who visited Sheffield’s Castle Market, which has since been demolished, into prostitution. Three years later, Spencer had more time added to her sentence - taking her total sentence to 15 years - after she was convicted of further offences relating to child prostitution at the conclusion of a 2017 trial.
1. South Yorkshire's most infamous female criminals
Each of the women pictured here have been sent to begin lengthy prison sentences during Sheffield Crown Court hearings held over the last 17 years. Top row, left to right: Leonie Mason; Carol Dawson; Sabrina Hirst and Kerry Taylor. Middle row, left to right: Zoe-Rider; Nicola Lethbridge; Josie Hollis and Rebecca Moore. Bottom row, left to right: Amanda Spencer; Sarah Barrass and Alison Moss | Adobe/South Yorkshire Police/3rd party
2. Leonie Mason: Jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 19 years for murdering ex-boyfriend
In 2017, Leonie Mason was found guilty of murdering Craig Preston, aged 34, in a lay-by off Town Lane, Rotherham, in August 2016. Her then boyfriend Shiraz Bashir, then aged 42, was also found guilty of Mr Preston's murder, and they were both handed life sentences. Mason, then aged 23, was Mr Preston’s on-and-off again girlfriend, while Bashir was her jealous new boyfriend. The court heard after they and three teenage accomplices subjected Mr Preston to fatal injuries, Mason and Preston then travelled to a disused tunnel near the Woodhead Pass in Derbyshire where they stripped him from the waist down and threw his body into a ravine. Mason and Bashir, both formerly of Holme Park Court, Huddersfield, were found guilty of MrPreston’s murder after a 13-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court. Their teenage accomplices, two 15-year-old boys and a 16-year-old boy were found guilty of manslaughter. Mr Justice Males told Bashir, who was on bail for an allegation of sexual assault atthe time of the offence, he played a greater role in the ‘painful and degrading’ murder and must serve at least 22 years behind bars. He said: “I consider that you are significantly more culpable. You are older and more mature, and to some extent Leonie Mason was under your spell.” Justice Males told Mason she must serve a minimum of 19 years, adding that her troubled background provided some mitigation. Boy A, 15, was jailed for four years; Boy B, 16,was given three years, four months in prison and Boy C, 15, was given three years. | SYP
3. Carol Dawson: Jailed for life to serve a minimum of 26 years for murdering neighbour
Gary Dean’s body was found in woodland near to his home in Silkstone Common, Barnsley on September 6, 2018. He was killed by mother and son, Carol Dawson and Scott Dawson, the latter of whom owned a plot of land near to Mr Dean’s home. After guilty verdicts were returned in the Sheffield Crown Court trial of Carol and Scott Dawson in August 2019, Mr Dean’s wife, Caroline Dean, read out a moving statement to the court. She said: “The murder took away my future, my sense of personal identity and my sense of purpose. I have been with Gary all of my adult life. That life was full of colour, adventure and laughs. For myself and many of his friends, it has been like a light going out, making the world a much dimmer place.” During an August 2019 hearing, The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, jailed Carol and Scott Dawson for life, sentencing Scott to a minimum term of 31 years and Carol, then aged 72, to a minimum term of 26 years. | SYP
4. Sabrina Hirst: Jailed for 12 years for the manslaughter of her three-year-old daughter
Sabrina Hirst was sentenced to 12 years behind bars in 2008 after she admitted the manslaughter of her three-year-old daughter Tiffany Wright, who was so badly neglected that she had been dead for at least two days before her mum and stepdad raised the alarm. Tragic Tiffany starved to death in the flat above the pub her mum and stepdad, Robert Hirst, ran – the Scarborough Arms in Upperthorpe – in 2007. The toddler’s body was covered in insect bites after suffering a 'prolonged period of malnutrition' and 'utter neglect,' a report into her death revealed. The flat was found covered in dog faeces when it was examined after Tiffany’s death. Tiffany’s mum, who was 22 at the time of the court case into the death, was sentenced to 12 years after admitting manslaughter and child cruelty. Her then 44-year-old husband admitted two counts of child cruelty and was jailed for five years. Sheffield Crown Court heard the couple they had kept Tiffany in “squalor, filth and degradation” and “entirely neglected” her. Tests revealed Tiffany had not eaten or drunk anything for at least 20 hours before her body was found. The sentencing judge, The Recorder of Sheffield, Alan Goldsack, expressed his surprise at the time that the Crown Prosecution Service had accepted Tiffany’s mum’s guilty plea to manslaughter when she was initially charged with murder. He described the case as “about as bad a case of child manslaughter as there can be” and said had the mum been convicted of murder, he could have sentenced her to to 22 years behind bars. | SYP