Sheffield Crown Court has bore witness to details of some of the worst, and most shocking, crimes in South Yorkshire’s history since it opened almost exactly 30 years agoplaceholder image
Sheffield Crown Court has bore witness to details of some of the worst, and most shocking, crimes in South Yorkshire’s history since it opened almost exactly 30 years ago | Mix, see other pictures in series

Incestuous murderers, "evil" groomers & helicopter pervert - more of Sheffield Crown Court's biggest cases

A case involving as vile sexual exploitation gang and another involving a disgraced Labour peer are amongst the most high-profile cases heard at Sheffield Crown Court since it opened 30 years ago this month

By Sarah Marshall

Crime and court reporter

Published 4th May 2026, 05:01 GMT

Sheffield Crown Court has bore witness to details of some of the worst, and most shocking, crimes in South Yorkshire’s history since it opened almost exactly 30 years ago.

After being officially opened by the then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Taylor, on May 17, 1996, thousands upon thousands of criminal court cases have been heard inside the imposing building on West Bar in Sheffield city centre.

Judges have dispensed justice in scores of cases, involving criminals convicted of some of the most serious offences on the statute book, the circumstances of which have left people across the county - and indeed the country - in utter disbelief.

Thousands of jury panels have also presided over trials heard at the court, after defendants entered not guilty pleas, triggering the centuries-old right for a case to be heard by a dozen of their peers.

A long line of Star court reporters have also been present in court, furiously noting down every cough and splutter from the press bench, in a bid to be your eyes and ears as cases are heard.

From the pre-internet days when court reporters would dictate copy to the newsroom over a landline telephone, through to providing updates in real time through social media and online blogs, to the months when people were required to stay at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, The Star has been there every step of the way throughout Sheffield Crown Court’s 30-year history.

Court reporting continues to play an important role in open justice; and the principle that “not only must justice be done, justice must be seen to be done,” which was coined more than a century ago by Lord Hewart, the then Lord Chief Justice of England.

The former Sheffield Crown Court building, which was also known as Sheffield Old Town Hall, on Waingate, opposite Castle Market, still stands disused following the move to the new law centre on West Bar. The most recent update in the Grade II listed building’s history came in November 2025, when it failed to sell at auction.

We have delved into The Star’s archives to bring you this collection of the biggest, and most high-profile, cases heard at Sheffield Crown Court over the last three decades.

In this second part, we take a look at cases heard in the second 15 years that have passed since the Crown Court was opened, running from May 2011 through to May 2026.

Below is a list of more detailed court reports included within this article:

Two men involved in the murder of a Sheffield pizza delivery driver, who was targeted for his mobile phone, were both jailed for life in 2014. Shamraze Khan (left) and Kasim Ahmed (right) were jailed for their part in the murder of pizza delivery driver Thavisha Lakindu Peiris. Kasim Ahmed was 17 when he attacked Thavisha Lakindu Peiris, 25, who was working his last ever shift for Domino’s Pizza before taking up his dream job as an IT consultant. He admitted Mr Peiris’ murder and was given a life sentence at Sheffield Crown Court, along with his accomplice and cousin, Shamraze Khan, 26, who was found guilty of murder after a trial. The judge in the case, said Khan played a secondary role in the attack but ordered him to serve a minimum of 24 years behind bars. He said he accepted it was Ahmed who wielded the knife and told him that his minimum term of 23 years would have been considerably longer if he had been an adult at the time of the killing. Their victim was from Sri Lanka and had come to the UK to complete a course at Sheffield Hallam University. After graduating he was working up to 60 hours a week with Domino’s to pay his family back for the expense of his studies before starting his new career. Mr Peiris was attacked in the Southey area of Sheffield after he had agreed to make one last delivery trip

13. Murderous cousins jailed for life in 2014 for killing pizza delivery driver on last ever shift before he was due to start dream job

Two men involved in the murder of a Sheffield pizza delivery driver, who was targeted for his mobile phone, were both jailed for life in 2014. Shamraze Khan (left) and Kasim Ahmed (right) were jailed for their part in the murder of pizza delivery driver Thavisha Lakindu Peiris. Kasim Ahmed was 17 when he attacked Thavisha Lakindu Peiris, 25, who was working his last ever shift for Domino’s Pizza before taking up his dream job as an IT consultant. He admitted Mr Peiris’ murder and was given a life sentence at Sheffield Crown Court, along with his accomplice and cousin, Shamraze Khan, 26, who was found guilty of murder after a trial. The judge in the case, said Khan played a secondary role in the attack but ordered him to serve a minimum of 24 years behind bars. He said he accepted it was Ahmed who wielded the knife and told him that his minimum term of 23 years would have been considerably longer if he had been an adult at the time of the killing. Their victim was from Sri Lanka and had come to the UK to complete a course at Sheffield Hallam University. After graduating he was working up to 60 hours a week with Domino’s to pay his family back for the expense of his studies before starting his new career. Mr Peiris was attacked in the Southey area of Sheffield after he had agreed to make one last delivery trip | SYP/Iconic Media Group

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In 2017, disgraced former police officer Adrian Pogmore, then aged 54, was jailed for a year after admitting four charges of misconduct in public office after using a police helicopter to spy on and record women, including a naked sunbather and a couple he knew from South Yorkshire’s wife swapping scene having sex on their patio. As he sent Pogmore to prison in 2017, Judge Peter Kelson KC told him: “You were a rogue policeman acting in the South Yorkshire Air support generally. So strong were your sexual urges you were willing to undertaken the substantial risks of being detected by your colleagues. You quite literally found yourself above the law. These were serious matters - you spied and recorded these naked people from 1,000 feet. You used a £2 million helicopter to advance your own sexual curiosities when it should have been detecting crime.” Pogmore pleaded guilty at the beginning of a Sheffield Crown Court trial in the same year. Four other police officers - including the helicopter's pilot - denied wrongdoing and stood trial accused, of misusing the camera on the police helicopter to look at people who were naked or engaged in sex acts. They were each acquitted of the charges they faced at the conclusion of a Sheffield Crown Court trial

14. Police officer jailed in 2017 for using helicopter to spy on naked women and fulfill sexual urges

In 2017, disgraced former police officer Adrian Pogmore, then aged 54, was jailed for a year after admitting four charges of misconduct in public office after using a police helicopter to spy on and record women, including a naked sunbather and a couple he knew from South Yorkshire’s wife swapping scene having sex on their patio. As he sent Pogmore to prison in 2017, Judge Peter Kelson KC told him: “You were a rogue policeman acting in the South Yorkshire Air support generally. So strong were your sexual urges you were willing to undertaken the substantial risks of being detected by your colleagues. You quite literally found yourself above the law. These were serious matters - you spied and recorded these naked people from 1,000 feet. You used a £2 million helicopter to advance your own sexual curiosities when it should have been detecting crime.” Pogmore pleaded guilty at the beginning of a Sheffield Crown Court trial in the same year. Four other police officers - including the helicopter's pilot - denied wrongdoing and stood trial accused, of misusing the camera on the police helicopter to look at people who were naked or engaged in sex acts. They were each acquitted of the charges they faced at the conclusion of a Sheffield Crown Court trial | 3rd party

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53 people have now been convicted as part of a major investigation into child sexual abuse and exploitation - resulting in 580 years of jail time for offenders. They were brought to justice as part of the National Crime Agency’s large-scale investigation into child sexual abuse and exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. Operation Stovewood is the single largest law enforcement investigation into non-familial child abuse in UK history. It was launched in the wake of the Alexis Jay report, which was published in 2014 and described how at least 1,400 children in Rotherham had been subjected to grooming and abuse by gangs of men, predominately men of Pakistani heritage, of between 1997 and 2013. The Jay report also outlined how police and social workers had failed to step in. Offenders went unprosecuted, despite police and child protection agencies having knowledge of the horrific crimes taking place. The majority of Stovewood offenders have been convicted at Sheffield Crown Court, from November 2017 through to the present day. Pictured is Top row, left to right: Zaheer Iqbal; Sajid Ali; Riaz Makhmood; Asghar Bostan; Tony Chapman; Darren Hyett; Salah Ahmed El-Hakam; Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar; Asif Ali and Nabeel Kurshid. Second row, left to right: Iqlak Yousaf; Tanweer Hussain Ali; Aftab Hussain; Abid Saddiq; Waseem Khaliq; Mohammed Ahsan; Ishtiaq Khaliq and Neil Cawton. Third row, left to right: Adam Ali; David Saynor; Abid Saddiq, Mohammed Amar, Mohammed Siyab, Mohammed Zameer Sadiq;Ramin Bari, Tahir Yassin, Yasser Ajaibe and Waleed Ali. Fourth row, left to right: Neil King; David Fish; Romauld Stefan Houphouet; Absolom Sigiyo; Mark Evans; Robert Evans; Jacek Brzozowski; Paul Richardson; Obaidullah Omari; Sageer Hussain. Bottom row, left to right:Kessur Ajaib; Mohammed Makhmood; Riyasth Hussain; Khurram Javed; Amer Khan; Shahid Hussain; Kamran Ilyas; Kamar Ilyas and Amar Ilyas

15. Over 50 men convicted in historic Rotherham child abuse probe between 2017 and 2026

53 people have now been convicted as part of a major investigation into child sexual abuse and exploitation - resulting in 580 years of jail time for offenders. They were brought to justice as part of the National Crime Agency’s large-scale investigation into child sexual abuse and exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. Operation Stovewood is the single largest law enforcement investigation into non-familial child abuse in UK history. It was launched in the wake of the Alexis Jay report, which was published in 2014 and described how at least 1,400 children in Rotherham had been subjected to grooming and abuse by gangs of men, predominately men of Pakistani heritage, of between 1997 and 2013. The Jay report also outlined how police and social workers had failed to step in. Offenders went unprosecuted, despite police and child protection agencies having knowledge of the horrific crimes taking place. The majority of Stovewood offenders have been convicted at Sheffield Crown Court, from November 2017 through to the present day. Pictured is Top row, left to right: Zaheer Iqbal; Sajid Ali; Riaz Makhmood; Asghar Bostan; Tony Chapman; Darren Hyett; Salah Ahmed El-Hakam; Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar; Asif Ali and Nabeel Kurshid. Second row, left to right: Iqlak Yousaf; Tanweer Hussain Ali; Aftab Hussain; Abid Saddiq; Waseem Khaliq; Mohammed Ahsan; Ishtiaq Khaliq and Neil Cawton. Third row, left to right: Adam Ali; David Saynor; Abid Saddiq, Mohammed Amar, Mohammed Siyab, Mohammed Zameer Sadiq;Ramin Bari, Tahir Yassin, Yasser Ajaibe and Waleed Ali. Fourth row, left to right: Neil King; David Fish; Romauld Stefan Houphouet; Absolom Sigiyo; Mark Evans; Robert Evans; Jacek Brzozowski; Paul Richardson; Obaidullah Omari; Sageer Hussain. Bottom row, left to right:Kessur Ajaib; Mohammed Makhmood; Riyasth Hussain; Khurram Javed; Amer Khan; Shahid Hussain; Kamran Ilyas; Kamar Ilyas and Amar Ilyas | NCA

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47-year-old Craig Wild, described as ‘popular’, the ‘life and soul of the party’ and a person who made people‘ laugh out loud,’ was murdered inside the flat of Alison Moss on Fox Walk in the Sheffield suburb of Walkley. Moss carried out the attack on Mr Wild with her then partner David Webster on August 25, 2016. Mr Wild gave Moss the nickname ‘the slasher’ after she attacked him on a previous occasion. Murderous Moss and Webster inflicted a total of 117 wounds upon Mr Wild, as they kicked and stabbed him to death using weapons including a black handled kitchen knife, a wooden-handled kitchen knife and a screwdriver. Moss and Webster had been drinking and taking drugs on the day of the murder at Moss’ home on Fox Walk. Mr Wild had called at the property and an argument later broke out, which escalated into horrific violence. An extract from Moss’ interview with police, read out in court, said: "David said to Craig I hope that’s a knife in your pocket. There’s something you need to know about me. I’m like Zorro, I’ll kill you with your own knife’." In a March 2017 sentencing hearing at Sheffield Crown Court, Moss and Webster were both jailed for life, with Moss’ minimum term fixed at 29 years, while Webster’s was fixed at 24. Mr Justice David Holgate told the pair: "Mr Wild suffered the most brutal, savage and sustained attack that resulted in his death. "He suffered a high degree of mental and physical pain for a significant period of time before his death.

16. Murderous Sheffield couple - 'the slasher' & remorseless thug jailed for life in 2017

47-year-old Craig Wild, described as ‘popular’, the ‘life and soul of the party’ and a person who made people‘ laugh out loud,’ was murdered inside the flat of Alison Moss on Fox Walk in the Sheffield suburb of Walkley. Moss carried out the attack on Mr Wild with her then partner David Webster on August 25, 2016. Mr Wild gave Moss the nickname ‘the slasher’ after she attacked him on a previous occasion. Murderous Moss and Webster inflicted a total of 117 wounds upon Mr Wild, as they kicked and stabbed him to death using weapons including a black handled kitchen knife, a wooden-handled kitchen knife and a screwdriver. Moss and Webster had been drinking and taking drugs on the day of the murder at Moss’ home on Fox Walk. Mr Wild had called at the property and an argument later broke out, which escalated into horrific violence. An extract from Moss’ interview with police, read out in court, said: "David said to Craig I hope that’s a knife in your pocket. There’s something you need to know about me. I’m like Zorro, I’ll kill you with your own knife’." In a March 2017 sentencing hearing at Sheffield Crown Court, Moss and Webster were both jailed for life, with Moss’ minimum term fixed at 29 years, while Webster’s was fixed at 24. Mr Justice David Holgate told the pair: "Mr Wild suffered the most brutal, savage and sustained attack that resulted in his death. "He suffered a high degree of mental and physical pain for a significant period of time before his death. | SYP/Iconic Media Group

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