The biggest Sheffield court cases this week - including a teenager jailed over a double shooting

KAI SMITH: 60 years' jail for trio behind shooting which left mum with gunshot wound to face

Kai Smith, aged 19, was sentenced on Tuesday, March 29, for his involvement in a double-shooting that was carried out in the Manor area of Sheffield on January 6 last year.

Smith’s co-accused, Connor Hadi, 27, formerly of Toll Bar Avenue, Gleadless, Sheffield, and Bradley Jenkins, 30, formerly of Waverley View, Rotherham, were jailed for 27 years each in September last year, following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court in which jurors found the pair guilty of attempted murder and firearms offences.

Judge Peter Kelson QC sentenced Smith to six years in a young offenders’ institute for his involvement, bringing the trio’s jail time to a combined total of 60 years.

Prosecution barrister Jonathan Sandiford QC said on the evening of the shooting, Smith, along with Hadi and Jenkins, and a fourth, unidentified man, went searching for a 23-year-old man known to the group, armed with a shotgun and ammunition.

The group were travelling in a stolen black Nissan Qashqai, fitted with false plates; and after locating the man on Castledale Croft, shots were fired into the group of people he was with, hitting the mother of their intended target in the face and shoulder.

Their intended target was shot at a short time later and was hit in his arm.

Smith, Smith, of Villiers Close, Arbourthorne, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life

Hadi and Bradley were jailed previously after a jury at Sheffield Crown Court found them guilty of charges including attempted murder.

STUART PRICE, NATALIE MACKAY AND LISA BEARD: Three "down-and-out drug-users" preyed upon a "generous" woman in Sheffield city centre

A trio who robbed and assaulted a 24-year-old woman who was in the process of giving them some money are now behind bars.

Stuart Price, Natalie Mackay and Lisa Beard stole from the kind-heartened woman on April 13 last year, when she walked past a group sat on the ground in the Peace Gardens on Pinstone Street. The group, which included Beard and Price, asked her for some change.

DS Matthew Penn said: “The victim kindly agreed to give them some money, but said she first needed to get some change. The victim headed to the nearby post office to get change, but was followed by Price.

“The victim generously handed over some money to Mackay, but Mackay then demanded more. Price inappropriately groped her and also demanded she hand over more money.

“Out of sheer fear, the victim gave Price a further £20, but that didn’t stop the group, who launched an attack on the victim, violently striking her multiple times and stealing her phone and jewellery.”

Price, aged 32, of Fellbrigg Road, Arbourthorne, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was handed a 38-month sentence and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.

Mackay, 42, of Derby Street, Heeley, pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to 35 months behind bars.

Beard, 36, of Erskine Crescent, Heeley, pleaded guilty to affray and was handed a 12-month community order along with a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and a Drug Rehabilitation Requirement.

HILARY ALFLATT: Bishop describes former Sheffield vicar's decade of abuse as matter of 'deep shame' for church

A sadistic former vicar from Sheffield was found to have beaten a vulnerable woman with a bamboo cane during a decade-long period of abuse, following a court hearing.

Hilary Alflatt, aged 87, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to suffering from dementia, so a hearing was held for a jury to decide whether he had committed the offences he was accused of.

During the hearing, it emerged that the church authorities had received two complaints about Alflatt’s behaviour in the 1990s, but the issue was “swept under the carpet” to avoid “scandal”.

Alflatt, who is in a nursing home in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was found to have committed actual bodily harm over a decade during the 1980s when he was working in Sheffield, and would repeatedly hit a woman with a bamboo cane.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on a charge that he branded the vulnerable woman with a hot needle.

He was cleared of two counts of false imprisonment.

The prosecution said the offending was “about power, control, depravity and sadism on his part.”

Louise Reevell, prosecuting, referred to two complaints that were made in 1994 and 1998 about Alflatt’s behaviour towards the woman.

She told the court: “I am afraid the Church of England just swept it under the carpet and did not want a scandal.”

But in more recent years there was a “clean-up operation” by the church which led to this investigation, Miss Reevell said.

Judge Sophie McKone will decide how to deal with Alflatt at a hearing on May 3.

Her options are to give an absolute discharge, make a guardianship order or a hospital order as he cannot be given a criminal sentence as he was unfit to take part in his trial.

NABEEL KHAN: Former police office in court on drugs charges

A former South Yorkshire police officer appeared at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court after being charged with supplying drugs to members of the public.

Nabeel Khan, who was based in Barnsley when he served as a PC, was arrested in February 2021 following an investigation by the force and the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Khan, of Struan Road, Millhouses, Sheffield, is alleged to have supplied the drugs to members of the public between March 2020 and February 2021, the IOPC said.

He is due at court again on April 12.

STEPHEN JOYNES: Dad jailed after son is killed in dog attack

A father whose newborn son was killed by his “ferocious” dog was jailed for four years at Sheffield Crown Court.

Elon-Jase Ellis-Joynes was 12 days old when he was attacked by a Chow-Chow-Alsatian cross at his home on Welfare Road in Woodlands, Doncaster, on September 13, 2020.

A court heard that in the months before the baby's death, the dog had bitten one of Elon's older siblings and regularly escaped to get into neighbours' gardens.

In December last year, Elon's father Stephen Joynes, 36, pleaded guilty to a charge of being the owner of a dog which caused death when dangerously out of control.

Elon's mother Abigail Ellis, 28, was initially charged with the same offence but the case against her was dropped.

Edward Moss, representing Joynes, said he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following his son's death and was having counselling.

He said: “What punishment could anyone give to this man that is greater than the punishment he has already been given, and will have for the rest of his life?”