UK Window Cleaning Thug Life

Navy personnel standing over the drugs seized from the yacht where Grimsby window cleaner was jailed for 8 years for role in £200m cocaine smuggling plot.

Grimsby window cleaner jailed for 8 years for role in £200m cocaine smuggling plot: Thomas Britteon, 28, of Convamore Road, was one of three men who were caught aboard The Makayabella – a yacht loaded with a tonne of cocaine – in the Irish Sea in September. At Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard, along with John Powell, 71, and Benjamin Mellor, 35, both from West Yorkshire, he pleaded guilty to having more that 13,000 euro worth of cocaine for sale or supply and having it on the yacht for the purpose of importation.

Window cleaner Britteon had been offered just over £14,000 – 20,000 euro – for his role in the operation – which had said he had thought would be like a Caribbean holiday. Powell’s 47-year-old son, Stephen Powell – who was jailed at Leeds Crown Leeds for 16 years last December for conspiracy to import the drugs – was described by Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin as being the brains and the money behind the crime.

The court heard John Powell bought The Makayabella in March 2014 on instructions from his son and was to be paid a six-figure sum for this part in the operation. More than 1,000kg of cocaine, packed into 41 bales, had been collected from the coast of Venezuala in August 2014 and packed onto the yacht. The trio had planned to rendezvous with a smaller vessel the Sea Breeze 16 miles off Rosslare a month later, with the aim of bringing the drugs back to the UK.

However, the Makayabella ran low on diesel and was under observation drifting at sea for two days.

Food supplies for the three men on the yacht had run out and they were extremely low on drinking water. The court heard, when they were eventually boarded by the Irish Navy, the trio had run out of food and diesel and were so hungry, one of them had begun to take the drug to repress his appetite.

Garda Inspector Fergal Foley said yesterday: “To be quite blunt they were delighted to see the Navy.”

He told the court the movements of the Makayabella yacht in the Caribbean were reported to the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre after the RNLI came to rescue of the Sea Breeze 18 miles off Rosslare, on September 18. The vessel had run out of petrol but had several drums of diesel were found on board. Stephen Powell was also found on the ship.

A US naval vessel also observed the Makayabella appeared to be floundering 450 nautical miles off the coast and reported this to the US Maritime Information Centre. Backtracking information on the Makayabella to the Caribbean it was discovered that Mellor had to be rescued in the Caribbean where he was found floating in a dinghy and under the influence of cocaine.

The Makayabella was intercepted by the Irish Navy.

Acting on this information, a boarding party came aboard the ship on September 23, 217 nautical miles off the south coast of Ireland. The three immediately confessed their crime and the 41 bales of cocaine were seized. Powell was jailed for 10 years and Mellor – who had started to take the cocaine to stave off his hunger and was to be paid £71,636.35 – 100,000 euro – was jailed for eight years.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said: “This is a very significant crime in which the accused were involved knowingly. “They gave of themselves to go to sea in a yacht provided by Mr Powell from money from his son. “Mr Powell was more knowingly involved with the finances and sourcing of the boat and he stood get more out of it financially if the thing came to fruition. The other two men were roustabouts.”

Referring to the co-operation between intelligence agencies all over the world, he said, “It is encouraging to see the reach of agencies is in no way limited by territorial waters or economic areas of influence. It is encouraging to see there is no hiding place for drug importers.”

Ciarán O’Loughlin for Powell said the 71-year-old had a lot health difficulties and had no previous convictions of any kind. His father was a policeman. Alice Fawsett said Mellor, who broke his wrist on the voyage had been using drugs since the age of 12 and embarked on the operation to pay off a drugs debt, seeing this as the solution to all his problems. Michael O’Higgins said Britteon was working as a window-cleaner when he met Stephen Powell and that he agreed to sign up for what sounded to him like a Caribbean holiday.

The 51-year-old window cleaner, of Morgan Drive, Greenhithe, denied attempting to murder Dionne Norris, claiming he loved her and did not want to kill her. David Norris stabbed his wife at least nine times.

Greenhithe window cleaner David Norris stabbed wife Dionne at least nine times: A husband who tried to kill his estranged wife when he stabbed her at least nine times in a graveyard has been jailed for 20 years. David Norris wept as a judge told him: “I am satisfied this was a murderous assault.”

The 51-year-old window cleaner, of Morgan Drive, Greenhithe, denied attempting to murder Dionne Norris, claiming he loved her and did not want to kill her. But a jury of eight men and four women convicted him today by an 11-1 majority verdict. He had admitted wounding with intent. He will serve half the sentence before being released on licence.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Norris told his wife as he repeatedly plunged the knife into her: “I’m sorry, Dionne, if I can’t have you no one can.” He only stopped the attack when she “played dead” and a farmer disturbed him after hearing her screams.

The couple had been together for 30 years and married for 27 years. They had two children.

Mrs Norris, 45, said the relationship was good at first but it deteriorated as the years went by. “He treated me like dirt,” she said. An Arsenal supporter, she said she left him on August 28 last year, taking with her just her club shirt. She went to stay with Michael Bedford, who she met on Facebook and later started a relationship with.

On October 11 she and Norris agreed to visit her mother’s grave at Blue Bell Hill crematorium and then his grandmother’s grave at St Nicholas Church in Southfleet. Norris asked her if they could save their marriage, but she told him it was over. When they reached the churchyard in Southfleet he went to the boot of the car and she walked to the grave with flowers. “I noticed he was looking around,” said Mrs Norris. “I bent down to put flowers on the grave. He just lunged at me, He said: ‘I’m sorry, Dionne, if I can’t have you no one can.’

“He put his hands tight around my throat. I screamed. He put his hands over my mouth. I was on the ground by the grave. He was sitting on my legs. “I was trying to fight him off. I saw him taking a knife out of his pocket. I said: ‘Dave, think of the boys.’ He said: ‘---- the boys.’ “He stabbed me. I don’t know how many times. I was on my side. I couldn’t get him off. I was aware of a gentleman. David looked around and told him to ---- off.

“I thought he was going to kill me because of the evil in his eyes. I had to play dead. I said to him: ‘I can see my mum. Let me go and be with my mum.’ “I wanted to let him think he had killed me. He stroked my forehead and said: ‘Now go to sleep with your mum.’ I closed my eyes and held my breath. “I could see him slowly walking away. I opened my eyes and started screaming. The man came. He called the police and an ambulance came.” Mrs Norris was taken to a London hospital and treated for multiple stab wounds.

Jailed: Window Cleaner, Lee Brown turned violent after returning home from a night out.

Angry window cleaner breaks nearly every bone in man's face after discovering drunk babysitters with daughter: A furious father broke nearly every bone in a man's face when he discovered the people babysitting his 11-month-old daughter were drunk. Lee Brown turned violent after returning home from a night out to find a party going on at the home where his baby was being looked after.

The 23-year-old flipped and dragged Darren McKay out of the flat before punching him in the head in a brutal attack, reports the Newcastle Chronicle. When Brown finally backed-off, Mr McKay was taken to Wansbeck Hospital suffering from a broken forehead, nose, jaw and eye socket, as well as bruising, swelling and a deep cut to the face.

Now, Brown, of Katherine Street, Ashington, has been jailed for 17 months after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm at Newcastle Crown Court.

Sentencing him, Judge Penny Moreland said: “You went to the house where your daughter was being looked after and, because you were unhappy with how she was being looked after, you assaulted Darren McKay.” Judge Moreland added: “What you did has had a substantial impact on the way he lived his life.”

The court heard the attack happened when Brown and his partner Natasha Snow returned after a night out on September 12 last year after hearing the people in charge of looking after their daughter for the night were having a party. Neil Pallister, prosecuting, said Brown dragged Mr McKay by the shirt down some stairs and out of the house. He was found later by fellow revellers slumped on the ground before an ambulance was called. Mr Pallister said: “He had gross swelling and bruising to his face, especially around the eyes. "He had a full thickness laceration to his eye brow and bruising to the elbow.”

Mr Pallister added: “There was a fracture to the forehead, the eye socket, the upper jaw and a possible nasal bone fracture.” Mr McKay was in Wansbeck Hospital for 48 hours, where his cuts were stitched but his fractures were not deemed to need further treatment. Mr Pallister said a foot imprint was also found on Mr McKay’s face, but Brown denied that was him.

Richard Bloomfield, mitigating, said some of the injuries were caused by someone else. He said: “He [Brown] made arrangements for the child to be baby sat so he could, if he wished, have a drink. “He then saw what he perceived to be a party going on around the child. There was loud music and alcohol being consumed. “He accepts he lost his temper and set about Mr McKay.” Brown, who has started his own window cleaning business, also pleaded guilty to one count of common assault for punching another reveller at the party.