It has been another busy month for the courts across Wales with criminals locked up for a wide range of serious offences.

The criminals locked up during August include a man who murdered his father, a driver had taken amphetamine before ploughing into a group of cyclists, and a woman who seriously injured her best friend when she stabbed her with a large knife.

There have also been a number of paedophiles and drug dealers who are now behind bars. Here are the faces and crimes of the criminals who have been sent to prison in Wales over the past month.

Stephen Gallagher

He is facing life in prison for murdering his 76-year-old father.

The body of Thomas Gallagher was found at a house in Cwmbran in September last year.

His 55-year-old son subsequently pleaded guilty to his murder and will spend a minimum of 13 years behind bars.

Following the death of Mr Gallagher his family released a heartfelt tribute in which they described him as “the glue, the carer, the problem-solver” of the family.

Bianca Pacheco

She stabbed her best friend with a large knife in the stomach following an argument and left her in intensive care with life-threatening injuries.

As she was arrested – after police followed a trail of blood to her house –  Pacheco threatened to spit in an officer’s face and said she would give her Covid-19.

Jason Morgan

The driver had taken amphetamine before ploughing into a group of experienced cyclists, throwing some into the air and forcing others under the car.

Morgan did not even try to brake as he drove at around 60mph on the wrong side of the road towards the group before his bumper hit the front cyclist’s leg.

In a victim impact statement read out at Cardiff Crown Court Darran Thomas said: “I don’t think I will ever be the same person again.”

Shane Price

The driver reached speeds of up to 120mph in a chase with police on the A470 and continued driving even after his tyres burst.

Price, 33, was pursued by police from the Coryton Interchange in Cardiff to the junction for Abercynon before he drove off the road and back onto the wrong side of the carriageway.

Mason Quigley

The young drug dealer sold heroin to undercover police officers on two occasions in Newport as part of an anti-drugs operation.

Quigley, 22, was arrested as part of Gwent Police’s Operation Solar after he supplied Class A drugs to two officers.

Thomas Lamsdale and Rhys Jones

The drug dealers who sold heroin and crack cocaine tried to hide £18,000 worth of illegal substances when they were stopped by police.

Lamsdale, 29, and Jones, 28, were seen driving in Penarth by police who became suspicious after a known drug user got in their car.

They were arrested the next day after being stopped by officers in Beddau, near Pontypridd, on November 27.

Hannah Bosley

The prolific shoplifter has been jailed after stealing cosmetics while on a suspended sentence for pulling a blade on a security guard.

Bosley had some 29 previous offences of thefts from shops on her record. She was handed a suspended prison sentence in October last year for threatening a store security guard with a pair of scissors after being challenged while making off with perfumes worth more than £250.

The 38-year-old was about to face action for failing to comply with the requirements of that order when she returned to shoplifting.

Georgi Georgiev

He was caught on the street with a knife in his pocket and told police he carried the weapon for his own protection after being mugged.

Georgiev also told officers the bag of brown power he was carrying were crushed-up vitamin tablets which he was passing off as heroin to users.

Stephen Hughes

A man was slashed across the face with a knife on a busy city street by Hughes.

He “jabbed” the weapon at his victim, leaving the man with a cut that runs down his face from his eye to the corner of his mouth.

Find out what crimes have been reported where you live:

Samuel Brooks and Dean Jones

Two bags of cocaine fell out of a drug dealer’s shorts when he was stopped by the police in Caerphilly.

Jones had more than £1,000 worth of the Class A drug in his shorts and his neighbour Brooks was caught with hundreds of pounds in cash.

Sentencing the pair at Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Richard Twomlow said: “Dealing Class A drugs is a serious matter.”

Gareth Roberts

He walked up to somebody he was involved in a feud with and blasted him in the face with a can of pepper spray.

Roberts had bought the banned weapon on the internet. Swansea Crown Court heard the victim had no idea what had been squirted at him and initially feared he would lose his sight.

Alamin Hoque and dad Khairul Hoque

The heartless father and son teamed up to con elderly people out of their bank cards by pretending to be from the police.

On one day alone Alamin phoned 198 people with the intention of trying to get hold of their cards and pins to fleece them.

Dad Khairul accompanied his son on house visits to some of their targets and effectively acted as a lookout.

Jonathan Partridge

The motorist smashed into a lamppost after losing control of his car during a 100mph police chase on a valley road.

Tests showed that two hours after the crash Partridge was still almost twice the legal drink-drive limit.

The 45-year-old has been jailed for what is his fifth conviction for being behind the wheel while under the influence.

Jason Aston

The husband subjected his wife to a “campaign” of abuse and controlling behaviour during their two decades together.

Aston routinely physically and verbally abused the woman and sought to control every aspect of her life from finances to contact with friends.

When his victim eventually went to police the defendant admitted much of what he had done and said that was how his father had treated his mother when he was growing up.

David Young

The teenager stabbed a man through his car window with the blade ending up 1cm away from his heart because he “had beef” about his ex-girlfriend.

The 19-year-old threatened Brandon Masterson over Snapchat as he thought he was using his former partner then took a kitchen knife and stabbed him in the chest before running away.

Stephen Price

An innocent dad could not spend Christmas with his son after being wrongly confronted by “paedophile hunters” and arrested.

The man was not cleared from blame until police arrested the real paedophile, Stephen Price, three months later and he confirmed he had been using the innocent man’s profile picture.

Speaking at Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Nicola Jones said: “The paedophile hunters – if I can use that awful expression – realised they had made an enormous mistake.”

Craig Nicholls

The teenager involved in a gang attack has been sent to a young offender institution after blowing a second chance given to him by a judge.

Nicholls was one of seven defendants involved in the incident which left a young person with life-threatening injuries after he was stabbed repeatedly in a street in Cardiff.

Judge Michael Fitton QC described it as “a very serious incident of disorder”.

Roger Hilmer-Hills

He deliberately drove into teenagers outside a youth club after losing his temper.

One youngster grabbed hold of the car’s windscreen wipers as he was carried along on the bonnet before being thrown to the ground.

Sending Roger Hilmer-Hills to prison, a judge told the 51-year-old he had used his car as a “weapon” after “the red mist descended”.

Jordan Evans

The burglar was high on drink and drugs and was caught wandering the streets trying people’s front doors.

Evans entered at least two houses, stealing sets of keys from both.

When tracked down and confronted in the street by one of the victims who demanded his keys back, the defendant exposed himself and said: “Do you want to search my testicles as well, mate?”

Dean Wilks

Wilks set fire to his flat then fled the scene on a bicycle, putting the lives of his neighbours in peril.

He had left the front door of his flat open meaning by the time the alarm was raised thick black smoke and fumes were filling the stairwell and hallway as people escaped. A judge said Wilks’ fellow residents in the building were lucky to be alive.

Swansea Crown Court heard the arson attack took place on the evening of April 3 this year in a block of six flats in Cranmer Court in the Ravenhill area of the city.

Liam Fitzpatrick

The respected rugby player, described as an “excellent role model”, knocked a man unconscious with an “almighty haymaker punch” in an unprovoked attack outside a pub.

Fitzpatrick then followed up with eight more punches to his defenceless victim and had to be dragged away by a bouncer.

In a reference from his local rugby club which was read to Swansea Crown Court Fitzpatrick was described as “an excellent role model for young players”. But, jailing him, a judge said it was clear that when in drink the 31-year-old’s behaviour was “crazed”.

The violence was caught on CCTV:

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James Wroblewski

A pensioner, a family, and a couple were among the victims targeted during a “campaign of burglaries” in Penarth.

A 79-year-old woman was left shocked and upset after her home was broken into and the car she relied on to get around was stolen. Cardiff Crown Court heard the victim’s neighbour noticed a man “loitering” outside and saw him drive off in her car.

‘Career burglar’ Wroblewski admitted burglary and theft.

Mica Gray

The bricklayer turned to dealing cocaine to supplement his income after a downturn in building work.

Gray advertised his “banging” coke to users in text messages he sent to contacts.

He was busted after PCSOs on a foot patrol noticed a broken windscreen on his parked Audi car and alerted colleagues.

Lauren Dowling

She blackmailed a man she met online into handing over more than £28,000 by threatening to share explicit photos with his family and friends.

Dowling’s victim parted with £20,000 inheritance money as well as borrowing from family and taking out payday loans and credit cards to try and keep up with her demands.

 Paul Randle

The former RAF serviceman with a distinguished career in uniform has been exposed as a “shameless paedophile” addicted to looking at pictures of child abuse.

Randle was found with more than 2,000 indecent images with some showing a newborn baby being sexually abused.

Swansea Crown Court heard there were another 118,000 pictures and videos on his computers which police had not examined or categorised.

Michael Powell

The former worker at a Welsh college was revealed as a “committed paedophile” who downloaded sickening images of children and babies being sexually abused.

Some of the youngsters being sexually tortured for his perverted pleasure were just one month old.

Former Llandovery College staff member Powell also downloaded so-called “paedophile manuals” from the dark web containing instructions on how to sexually abuse children.

Kade Reynolds

The drug dealer who was caught selling heroin and crack cocaine to undercover officers replied to the caution: “Okay, can I have a fag first?”

Reynolds was arrested as part of Operation Solar, designed to target the supply of Class A drugs in and around Newport.

Drugs gang

An undercover policeman posing as a Romanian farm worker helped take down a drug network flooding towns with heroin.

Just weeks after police dismantled a Merseyside organised crime gang that had flooded towns with the Class A drug a new supply network was in place.

With one set of dealers and couriers out of action the gap in the market was filled by other dealers peddling the drug. Read about their sentences  here.

Jayden Glean

The young Londoner was caught in a Swansea drugs den only days after being arrested and released under investigation.

Glean was working for a criminal gang known to police as the ‘Max Line’ when he was found at two houses in different parts of city being operated by the dealers.

Ian Evans

He subjected his partner to a series of sickening assaults including throwing a bucket of his urine over her.

Evans repeatedly threatened to kill the woman and called her abusive names. The 48-year-old has a long history of violent offending including numerous convictions for wounding, affray, and batteries.

Cole Williams

The banned driver led police on a high-speed chase through a town centre after breaching lockdown rules by nipping out to buy some screws for his decking.

Williams touched speeds of 90mph during the pursuit and ended up jumping from his moving car and making off on foot only to be found hiding under a bush in a garden after armed officers were called in.

Lloyd Lingwood

He racially abused a shop worker, smashed up a car, and then assaulted two police officers on the day the country went into lockdown.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Lingwood screamed while walking into a fish and chip shop carrying a metal sheet, told an officer he had Aids, and spat in his face.

John Jones

A dog walker was repeatedly knifed after he asked Jones to put his pet on a lead.

Following the attack he threw away his wounded victim’s phone so he could not call for help.

Jones, who was out with his girlfriend at the time, got in his car and fled the scene as other dog walkers rushed to help the victim.

Tyrone Folland

The controlling boyfriend hounded his former partner and physically assaulted her on numerous occasions before sending a naked photograph of her to her friend.

Folland, 20, punched, kicked, bit and spat at his former girlfriend over the course of their relationship.

He was described as being “extremely jealous” and would break into rages if she liked a photo of a man on social media or if she failed to answer when out socialising with friends.

Justin Lewis and Gary Evans

The two drug dealers were found with more than 50g of cocaine and more than £8,000 in cash after they were pulled over by police.

Evans, 41, and Lewis, 28, were approached by officers in Cardiff on August 17, 2018, when they were parked up outside a shop in the Adamsdown area of the city.

Jonathan Drake

The successful businessman secretly filmed and photographed women, including taking upskirting pictures.

Drake also exposed himself to women using the flies on his trousers. It was his wife of 13 years who discovered what he was doing and contacted the police.

Sulejman Skeja

The driver was found with more than £50,000 in a shoe box after police pulled over his car in Cardiff for acting suspiciously.

Skeja, 28, told officers he had won the money playing cards but it later transpired the money was the proceeds of criminal activity and he had been told to deliver the money.

It also came to light that Albanian national Skeja was in the country illegally and had previously been convicted of drug offences.

Konrad Kolbuszeuski

A customer in a popular city pub was repeatedly stabbed in an afternoon brawl.

The victim suffered a punctured lung in the attack and needed to have a chest drain inserted.

Kolbuszeuski knifed the man in back when violence erupted amongst a group of Polish nationals in a Swansea pub.

Brandon Woods

A young woman was left with more than 60 bruises and scratches on her face and body after a “cowardly” assault.

Some of the wounds left by Woods were described as looking like “claw marks”, a court heard.

Adam Goldsmith

A “sophisticated” gang managed a large-scale drugs operation trading multiple kilos of cannabis a month during lockdown.

The group of five men were discovered by police after officers executed a drugs warrant at the Newport address of “ringleader” Goldsmith.

There officers discovered more than £35,000 in cash, mobile phones, a Rolex watch, and a quantity of cannabis.

James Bull

A mother punched a woman at a pub following an argument over a man and then called her son who hit the same victim with a cricket bat.

Carrie Garwood assaulted the victim then followed her home and rang her son Bull who brought a weapon and left the woman with a fractured cheek and eye socket.

Sentencing the pair at Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said: “Loyalty to your mother is one thing but this goes far beyond any form of loyalty.”

Robert Hayel

The rogue builder took tens of thousands of pounds from his customers, promising them prompt and high-quality work, and then left their homes in ruins.

Hayel left a doctor fearing her home would collapse when cracks appeared in the walls and never returned to a pregnant woman’s house after ripping out the boiler.

Cardiff Crown Court heard he sent a message to one couple promising: “I will never rip you off.”

Michael Brennan

The pensioner has been jailed for subjecting a young girl to “systematic” sexual abuse.

Brennan repeatedly sexually assaulted the child who was too scared to report what was happening in case she was not believed.

A judge told him he had effectively condemned his victim to a “life sentence” of pain by what he had done to her.

Jamie Rawlinson

He attacked a vulnerable victim and tried to rob him just hours after being released by police following his arrest for the same offence.

Rawlinson threatened to stab his first victim outside his own home then kicked and punched his second after leading him to a quiet alleyway.

Josh Palethorpe

A judge has branded him a “modern-day Fagin” after police found him in possession of a huge haul of property which had just been stolen in a series of burglaries.

Palethorpe had televisions, computer game consoles, laptops, power tools, a military knife, and mini-motorbikes – all of which had been taken just hours earlier.

Marc Humphreys and Esmail Ghasemi

A petrol station worker was terrified as one robber held a knife to his stomach and another grabbed hundreds of pounds in cash from the till.

Arunranjith Seedhala said he froze in fear as Humphreys forced his way behind the counter and bundled him into a back room while Ghasemi raided the till.

Daniel Wynne

The driver sped off at 80mph and went straight through a red light when an officer turned on the blue lights of his police car.

Wynne, who was out of prison on licence at the time, led police on a high-speed chase and even kept driving once his tyres had been punctured by a stinger device.

Charlene Hodge

She was jailed after setting fire to her bed causing thick black smoke to trap a mother and baby in a neighbouring flat.

Hodge, 55, of Fairoak Court, Newport was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered.

She received an extended sentence of eight years – a five-year custodial term with an additional three years on licence.

Nicolae Rostas

The dad-of-four who was short of money travelled from London to Wales to steal nearly £5,000 worth of cigarettes from a cash and carry.

Rostas – who was known to police in Wales, Scotland, and England – was identified by an officer in Northumbria and arrested at the Channel Tunnel six months after the theft.

Cardiff Crown Court heard a stock control supervisor at the cash and carry saw the defendant with two women and though their behaviour was “strange”.

Michael Hobbs

The dangerous driver rammed a stolen van into a police car while driving at speed in an attempt to evade capture.

Hobbs, 35, from Barry, became involved in a police chase on June 29 after a police officer recognised the Transit van he was driving as being stolen.

Thomas Davies

The paranoid man who believed cars were following him punched and headbutted his partner in a campaign of domestic abuse over a year.

Davies, 49, attacked his partner of 25 years in unprovoked rages which left her with black eyes and lumps on her head.

Geraint Coslett

The paedophile took pictures on a mobile phone as he sexually abused a young boy.

The images came to light after the boy confided in his grandmother about what had happened.

A search of Coslett’s phone also found deleted indecent images of children which he had downloaded from the internet.

Nabil Syed

The cocaine dealer was arrested twice in the space of just a month.

Forensic science graduate Syed was initially caught with a stash of drugs including LSD, ecstasy, and ketamine as well as thousands of pounds of cocaine and was then released on bail.

Four weeks later he was stopped again by officers making coronavirus travel checks and found with more cocaine.

Nicholas Clark

The bungling 32-year-old drug dealer and an accomplice were spotted “running in and out of the house and in the garage” at Clark’s home from which passing police noticed a smell of cannabis.

Officers found drugs and associated paraphernalia and Clark was sent down for nine months.

Shaminder Singh

The 45-year-old was locked up for dealing drugs. A court heard he had become addicted to drugs having been acquitted of the murder of Russell Peachey in Cardiff, which left him with “a bounty on his head”.