Judges very often recognise wider societal problems and always take the opportunity to highlight the need to address certain types of rising crime by sending out a message that such offending will not be tolerated.
Here are several cases involving serious offending including guns, knives and drugs or attacks that warranted not only custodial sentences but damning comments from the judges involved.
Such sentencing remarks help to deter future offending and serve to reassure the public that cases are being addressed with a wider understanding so both the judicial system and the police can better fight the most serious types of crime.
Here are several cases involving serious offending including guns, knives and drugs or attacks that warranted not only custodial sentences but damning comments from the judges involved.
![Judge Jeremy Richardson dubbed thug Emmanuel Johnson, pictured, a “nasty piece of work” during a sentencing hearing at Sheffield Crown Court after he repeatedly abused and controlled his partner. The court heard how Johnson, aged 26 at the time of sentencing, monitored his partner’s finances and social media activity and verbally and physically abused her during a brief relationship in Sheffield. Johnson, of Kingswood Road, in Moseley, Birmingham, who has previous convictions, pleaded guilty to coercive and controlling behaviour. Judge Richardson, who sentenced Johnson to 18 months of custody and made him subject to a ten-year restraining order, told him: “You were and almost certainly remain a thoroughly nasty piece of work.”](https://www.thestar.co.uk/webimg/b25lY21zOjYxOTYxMDhhLThmOGQtNGRhMy05YWZkLWVhMTRjMDlhNWViZDoyMzkxNWIwMi0zYTljLTRjODUtYjZmNS0wMTg0MTM0NDY5Nzg=.jpg?crop=3:2&width=640)
9. Emmanuel Johnson
Judge Jeremy Richardson dubbed thug Emmanuel Johnson, pictured, a “nasty piece of work” during a sentencing hearing at Sheffield Crown Court after he repeatedly abused and controlled his partner. The court heard how Johnson, aged 26 at the time of sentencing, monitored his partner’s finances and social media activity and verbally and physically abused her during a brief relationship in Sheffield. Johnson, of Kingswood Road, in Moseley, Birmingham, who has previous convictions, pleaded guilty to coercive and controlling behaviour. Judge Richardson, who sentenced Johnson to 18 months of custody and made him subject to a ten-year restraining order, told him: “You were and almost certainly remain a thoroughly nasty piece of work.” Photo: SYP