These are some of the people with Suffolk links who were sentenced in courts in May

It has been a busy month for the courts, with sentences handed out to people across the county.

While some were punished for more minor offences, others received long jail terms for the more serious of crimes.

These are some of the people with Suffolk links who faced justice in May.

Two men from Lowestoft were among seven members of a gang jailed for drug-dealing this month.

Ben Houghton and Kyle Meades, both 22 and from the coastal town, were jailed on May 31.

mpu1

The men were all part of an organised crime group which brought cocaine and cannabis into Norfolk, before running it into Kessingland.

Houghton, of no fixed address, was sentenced to ten years and five months while Meades, of Marham Road, was jailed for six years and nine months.

In addition, a man who strangled his wife and stabbed his disabled daughter to death at their family home was handed as life sentence in May.

Peter Nash, 47, was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in jail at Ipswich Crown Court on May 17 after he was found guilty of killing his wife Jillu Nash, 44, and their 12-year-old daughter, Louise at their Great Waldingfield home in September last year.

Nash attempted to take his own life after the incident.

He represented himself during the trial and told the court he believed he was acting on ‘logic’ at the time of the killings.

Also, a former headteacher was handed a community order after sending sexually explicit messages to a ‘14-year-old boy’.

Matthew Coombs, 50, of Wetherden Road, Elmswell, was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on May 15.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child at an earlier hearing in December 2022.

mpu2

Coombs sent explicit and graphic sexual messages to a police officer posing as a 14-year-old boy, called Ryan, on the Grindr dating platform in 2020.

He was given a two-year community order, including a 35 day rehabilitation order, and unpaid work for 150 hours. He was also placed on the sex offenders register for five years and ordered to pay a £95 surcharge.

A man from Thetford was sentenced after admitting to causing death by careless driving back in 2021 – whilst only on a provisional licence.

Nathan Cooper, 33, of Vincent Close, appeared at Norwich Crown Court on May 5, accused of being responsible for the death of 56-year-old Leslie Norton.

This followed an incident at about 10.15pm on September 28, 2021, when Cooper, who was driving a Dacia Sandero, collided with Mr Norton as he walked home.

Cooper pleaded guilty to the charge of causing death by careless driving, and admitted to causing death by driving a vehicle being unlicensed or uninsured, causing death by driving otherwise in accordance with a licence, taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent and failing to stop after a road accident.

He later handed himself into police.

Cooper was handed a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months.

He was also given a Community Sentence Treatment Requirement for six months, a Rehabilitation Requirement for 30 days and was banned from driving for 12 months.

Finally, an illegal dog breeder and dealer has been jailed and banned from keeping animals for 10 years.

Jamie Wilkinson, 33 of Foxglove End, Leiston, was sentenced at Suffolk Magistrates’ Court on April 28.

Wilkinson pleaded guilty to breeding dogs and advertising a business of selling dogs, without a licence, on nine separate occasions between October 1, 2020 and August 31, 2021.

Wilkinson appeared for sentencing in custody, having been recalled to prison for breaching the terms of his licensed release from a previous sentence a fortnight earlier.

He was jailed for a total of 20 weeks for animal welfare offences, with an additional six-week consecutive term and a further two-week concurrent sentences for offences including failing to provide a specimen for testing when required.