In a busy October for the county’s courts, here are five Hertfordshire criminals who have been jailed this month, including a police officer sentenced to 18 years behind bars for raping a child.
1. James Ford
James Ford, a Hertfordshire Police officer, was sentenced to 18 years and three months in jail for raping a girl under the age of 13.
The 31-year-old was found guilty of 10 counts of sexual abuse against the same child, including four counts of rape, four of sexual assault and two of causing or inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activity.
The defendant was also found guilty of one count of perverting the course of justice by deliberately wiping information from his mobile phone.
The offences occurred between 2019 and 2021, with Ford joined the police force in December 2019, before being suspended in November 2021.
In a victim’s impact statement read to Cambridge Crown Court by prosecutor Isobel Ascherson, the girl’s mother described Ford as a “disgusting excuse of a human being”, adding: “No prison sentence is ever going to be long enough for what happened.”
The woman described her child as a “sweet, innocent, chatty, friendly girl” but said that she is “no longer the happy, sociable girl she was before”.
2. Louise St. John Poulton
Louise St. John Poulton was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for running a criminal enterprise that fraudulently imported and sold puppies.
Formerly of High Grove, St Albans, she used the alias Phoebe Dobbs to sell more than 400 puppies, many of which were sick.
The 48-year-old - who now lives in Spain - is believed to had defrauded the public out of around £300,000, and was sentenced on Monday, October 17.
RSPCA investigator Vikki Dawe said: “Poulton and an accomplice worked together to buy in, advertise and sell on puppies which were considered valuable in the market.
“Over a period of between six months to a year, 59 adverts were placed that we’ve been able to connect to the duo.
“Each advert included an average of seven puppies - so that’s a total of more than 400 dogs.”
3. Marvin Bacon
Marvin Bacon, who was once jailed for "interfering with vehicles", has gone back to prison for the same offence.
The 40-year-old, of Woods Avenue, Hatfield received a suspended prison sentence on Wednesday, September 28, but this has now been activated after he was seen trying car doors in Redhall Drive, Hatfield just days later on Saturday, October 1.
Bacon was previously sentenced to eight weeks in prison after he admitted to interfering with several vehicles in Bricket Wood, near St Albans, in November 2021.
After his latest arrest, he was brought back before magistrates in St Albans on Monday, October 3, where his original eight-week prison sentence was activated.
He was also sentenced to four weeks in prison, which will run concurrently alongside the initial sentence, and ordered to pay £239 in costs, compensation and a victim surcharge.
4. Tiger Bailey
Tiger Bailey, of Sandridge Road, St Albans has been jailed for 12 weeks for a string of offences in the town.
On January 7 last year, the 26-year-old assaulted police officer Lauren Thompson in St Albans, and then attempted to assault another officer in Stevenage, offences he pleaded guilty to at St Albans Magistrates' Court on Monday, October 3.
Bailey also pleaded guilty to driving a white Ford Transit van on Waverley Road, St Albans, while over the drink driving limit, damaging a screen and internal light inside police and destroyed a crate of Budweiser beer to the value of £12.99 at Batchwood Stores.
He was also disqualified from driving for 38 months and sentenced to 12 weeks behind bars.
5. Jake Barrington
Jake Barrington, of Robin’s Way, Hatfield, was jailed for a week after he failed to comply with the requirements of post custodial sentence.
The 33-year-old failed to maintain contact with Probation Service from July 13 this year, and did not attend an appointment on August 5, breaches he admitted to when appearing at Stevenage Magistrates’ Court.
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