This year Leicester Crown Court has jailed 20 men and boys for life for committing murder or manslaughter. The attacks ranged from violence on drunken nights out to shocking assaults on family members. Two of those listed below killed their own mothers, while one murdered his infant son.
There are some, such as Raj Sidpara, Shannon Grant and Richard Basson, who killed the woman they were in a relationship with. One murder that stands out is the killing of 79-year-old Gerald Wickes by teenager Daniel Rounce because there was no background to the assault. Rounce walked into a complete stranger’s home and stabbed his victim in the heart in an apparently random attack.
The listed are among the most notorious of 2024. Read more about their crimes below.
READ MORE: Leicestershire’s worst drivers of 2024 jailed for crimes committed behind the wheel
Daniel Rounce
Daniel Rounce
(Image: Leicestershire Police)
A teenager who carried out a “chilling” knife attack, fatally stabbing a stranger in the heart, was called “one of the most difficult and manipulative” prisoners ever encountered by the judge who sentenced him. Daniel Rounce, 18, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 25 years behind bars.
Rounce was kept in handcuffs while in the dock at Leicester Crown Court, where the judge condemned his inexplicable and “merciless” murder of 79-year-old Gerald Wickes as a “truly wicked” act. Markfield resident Rounce was convicted by a jury after failing to provide an explanation for the brutal killing of Mr Wickes at the elderly man’s former partner’s residence.
At his sentencing, teenager Rounce, through his defence counsel, claimed he had panicked and intended only to rob Mr Wickes, having followed the victim’s former partner into the home on Queens Park Way, Eyres Monsell in February 2023. Rounce, who had previously lashed out at security staff during his trial, necessitating restraint, was closely guarded by five dock officers as he received his sentence.
Read the full story here
Shannon Grant
Shannon Grant was jailed for life with a minimum of 34 years behind bars
Police entered a flat in Whetstone belonging to Natasha Morais and found her naked, beaten body hidden in the storage compartment under her bed. The following day the man she had been in an intimate relationship with, Shannon Grant, was arrested near his home in Rotherham Road, Coventry, and later charged with her murder.
During a trial at Leicester Crown Court the 27-year-old denied beating, torturing and strangling 40-year-old Natasha and claimed that they were both involved in the drug trade and that an armed gang of masked men had burst in and killed her. He said they had demanded to know where drugs and cash were and she had refused to tell them.
But the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder. Grant had previously admitted a second count of possessing an illegal shotgun with a shortened barrel. He was sentenced to life with a minimum of 34 years in jail before he is considered for parole.
Read the full story here
Michael Davis
Michael Davis, 29, who has been jailed for life for murdering his month-old son, Ollie
(Image: Leicestershire Police)
Father Michael Davis who beat his infant son to death was jailed for a minimum of 22 years for murder. The baby’s mother, Kayleigh Driver, 31, was jailed for seven years for the crimes of causing or allowing the death of a child and causing or allowing a child to suffer serious physical injury.
Davis was found guilty by a jury at Leicester Crown Court of murdering Ollie Davis after he physically abused the month-old child and caused 40 bone fractures, including a snapped neck, which ultimately killed the infant.
Paramedics were called to Driver’s mother’s home in Upper Temple Walk, Beaumont Leys, Leicester, in October 2017, after Davis found the baby unresponsive in the crib next to his bed. At first there were no visible signs of abuse but a post-mortem examination revealed horrific injuries including brain damage and wounds all over his body that experts said could not have been caused by one incident, but by days of abuse.
Davis, 29, denied causing the fatal injuries but the jury found him guilty after hearing that the horrific injuries had been caused over several days – most of the wounds, including the fatal neck fracture having been caused between 10 and four days before his death.
Read the full story here
Nero McLean and others
Nero McLean was jailed for life with a minimum of 17 years behind bars
(Image: Leicestershire Police)
Junior Osborne, a 50-year-old father, was killed in Leicester’s Narborough Road by a “pack” of “feral” teenagers – including twins who had celebrated their 16th birthday the day before the fatal attack. Nero McLean, 16, of Upperton Road, Leicester, carried out the stabbing while his twin brother and three others stood nearby.
Nero McLean was convicted by a jury of murder and jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 17 years. The four other defendants – Nevardo McLean, Moises Steiner, 18, of Dovedale Road, in Thurmaston, Theobald Budzwa, 18, of Ash Court, Groby, and James Williams, 18, of Pelham Way, in Leicester city centre – were found guilty of manslaughter and each jailed for eight years.
A judge agreed to a request by LeicestershireLive for reporting restrictions to be lifted so two of the defendants could be named publicly for the first time. The identities of Nero McLean and his twin brother Nevardo McLean were previously protected by law due to their age.
Read the full story here
Victor-Eduard Raja and others
Victor-Eduard Raja
(Image: Leicestershire Police)
Victor-Eduard Raja was given a life sentence for stabbing a “peacemaker” through the heart in Leicester. Victor-Eduard Raja (25) must serve a minimum of 25 years and six months behind bars for killing Sidney Palmer, who tried to break up a fight in which Raja had become involved.
CCTV showed Raja arming himself with a knife before swinging it towards 59-year-old Mr Palmer in Conduit Street, near to Leicester Railway Station, on Saturday, September 30, last year. During a trial at Leicester Crown Court, Raja told the jury that he had been offered £20 worth of the drug mamba to hit someone, but had accidentally stabbed Mr Palmer while trying to get away from the resulting skirmish.
Raja’s co-defendant, 31-year-old Michael Boleyn, was found guilty of manslaughter after the jury heard that he and Nathan Pritchard, 29, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the beginning of the trial, had sent Raja to give a man a “couple of slaps” following two altercations earlier that evening.
After the attack, Raja was driven to Yorkshire by his mother, Diana Bodrug, who assisted in booking him into accommodation under false details and bought him a new phone SIM card. She pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.
Boleyn was sentenced to eight years in prison while Pritchard was sentenced to six years. Bodrug, 49, of Melton Road, Syston, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.
Read the full story here
Gregor Bauld
A man who brutally stabbed his mother to death as she fled screaming from their Leicestershire home will remain a danger “until the end” of his days, a judge has ruled. Schizophrenic Gregor Bauld had grabbed a kitchen knife and chased after Tina Bauld who he would later describe to police as a paedophile and an alien.
Bauld was found to be competent to stand trial for murder at Leicester Crown Court but he was found not guilty of murder due to his mental state. He had previously pleaded guilty to Tina’s manslaughter.
During the two-week trial in October, the jury saw CCTV of Bauld chasing 55-year-old Tina out of their home in Burbage’s The Coppice, near Hinckley, and stabbing her multiple times. She died in the arms of her husband Tom.
Blood from Bauld showed signs of LSD, ketamine, cannabis and a prescription sedative. Bauld, who has been detained at a secure hospital since the incident, which happened on Sunday, March 3, was given a ‘hybrid order’ which saw him jailed for life with a minimum term of 13 years and eight months, but he will stay in a secure hospital, with security similar to a prison, for now.
If clinicians decide he has recovered and no longer needed treatment he could be transferred to a prison until the minimum term is up. Once the minimum term is over, he can only be released from prison if a parole board believes he’s safe for release.
Read the full story here
Lurrell Gittens and Reegan Standley-Hunter
Lurrell Gittens and Reegan Standley-Hunter
Lurrell Gittens, 17, was found guilty of Codie Bambrick’s murder following a trial at Leicester Crown Court, along with one count of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. Reegan Standley-Hunter, 18, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.
Gittens was sentenced to serve life in prison, with a minimum term of 22 years, while Standley-Hunter was sentenced to serve eight years in a Young Offenders Institution.
Police were called to Glazebrook Road just before 1.15pm on May 22 this year following a report that a fight had taken place and a man had been stabbed. When officers arrived at the scene with colleagues from the East Midlands Ambulance Service, they found Codie outside a property but he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Codie had been stabbed by Lurrell Gittens. Standley-Hunter and Gittens then left the scene but were found by police in New Parks Boulevard at around 1.40pm and arrested.
After a 14-day trial at Leicester Crown Court both Standley-Hunter and Gittens were found guilty.
Read the full story here
Raj Sidpara
Raj Sidpara was jailed for life
(Image: Leicestershire Police)
A man who launched a “savage and merciless” attack on his partner before getting into bed and falling asleep as she lay dead or dying was jailed for life. Raj Sidpara murdered Tarnjeet Riaz in the bedroom of his home in Tarbat Road, Thurnby Lodge, Leicester, after a night out together earlier this year.
The 50-year-old tried to lie his way out of trouble by claiming Ms Riaz, 44, had been drunk and had injured herself falling over. However, the evidence presented at his trial ensured the jury did not believe him.
Ms Riaz, also known by her maiden name Chagger, suffered 64 injuries to her face, head and chest, including bruising, a brain injury and 20 rib fractures. The couple, who had been together for five months, had been on a night out together on Sunday, May 5, before leaving a bar in Lewisher Road, off Barkby Road, in the east of the city, at around 11pm.
Once home, Sidpara “beat and kicked and stamped” on Ms Riaz in his bedroom. He then took off his “bloody shoes” and got into bed and fell asleep next to where Ms Riaz, known as Taz, lay dead or dying. The next day, he dialled 999 and was told to perform CPR. However, the court heard, Ms Riaz was already dead.
Read the full story here
Sindeep Singh
Sindeep Singh
A Leicester man “removed” his mother from her own home in the months before murdering her. The victim, 76-year-old Bhajan Kaur, had reported her son Sindeep Singh to the police for making threats to kill her in the months prior to her death.
In August 2023, police received a report that Singh had forced Mrs Kaur from her home, and she had gone to stay with relatives. Singh was arrested following allegations of coercive and controlling behaviour towards his mother. She returned to her house later that month, and the case was closed in November 2023 after “parties declined to provide statements”, and Mrs Kaur had requested withdrawing hers.
Singh was arrested again in early May 2024 and bailed to stay away from Mrs Kaur after she reported he had made threats to kill her.
On the evening of Monday, May 13 this year, a 999 call was received by Leicestershire Police reporting the discovery of a body in a property in Bolsover Street, North Evington, Leicester . Mrs Kaur was found there, with “significant injuries” to her head and face. Singh, 48, had been seen leaving the property “within minutes of the call to police”.
Singh was found guilty of murdering his mum. He was given a mandatory life sentence, and will need to serve a minimum of 31 years behind bars before he can be considered for release.
Read the full story here
Leighton Reid
Leighton Reid was convicted of murdering his brother-in-law
(Image: Leicestershire Police)
Hours of drinking and drug-taking led up to the brutal assault in which Leighton Reid stabbed his brother-in-law Liam Waldron to death. The jury took just three hours and 21 minutes to convict Reid of murder at Leicester Crown Court.
Reid had been on trial alongside his aunt, Angela Wright, who was accused of assisting a murderer. But Wright died during the trial.
Reid and Mr Waldron had met at the Melton Restaurant in Belgrave. They ended up at Mr Waldron’s daughter’s house in Gipsy Road, Belgrave, where, at around lunchtime the next day after having more alcohol, Reid took a kitchen knife and used it to slash Mr Waldron across the face and stab him once in the arm and twice in the leg, severing his femoral artery with an 11cm-deep knife wound.
Reid was caught on camera leaving the property, followed by badly injured Mr Waldron, who fell down on the ground. Reid began attempting to drag Mr Waldron back into the house but then gave up and left, leaving his brother-in-law to bleed to death on the street.
Reid, 43, of Oxford Street, Syston, walked to his 64-year-old aunt’s house in Shanti Margh, Belgrave, and she drove him back to his home. Reid was jailed for life with a minimum of 17 years before he is eligible for parole.
Read the full story here
Richard Basson
Basson admitted injuring Carrie but denied her murder
(Image: Leicestershire Police)
Richard Basson, 45, was found guilty of his girlfriend Carrie Slater’s murder after he shot her in the head in their home last year. When the emergency services arrived he lied about her confronting him with a knife, leading to him accidently stabbing her in the forehead with a pool queue.
But the forensic evidence showed that a bullet had caused the injury and he had also shot at her a second time, hitting a wall at their home in Long Clawson, near Melton. He was jailed for life to serve a minimum of 32 years, having also pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited firearm and ammunition.
During the trial a haunting recording of Bassson’s 999 call was played to the jury in which Miss Slater, 37, could be heard moaning in the background after suffering the injury. She was taken to hospital but died two days later after her life support was withdrawn.
Read the full story here
Blessing and Brendon Mukunguruste
Blessing and Brendon Mukunguruste both fled the scene following the attack
(Image: Leicestershire Police)
Two brothers left a man with a bleed on the brain following a serious Leicester assault which later claimed his life. Craig Maposa died days after the attack, with police soon tracking down their suspects.
Mr Maposa, who was 26, had been with friends at a nightclub in Leicester’s Dryden Street on Saturday, August 5 last year when he was attacked at around 5am by Blessing and Brendon Mukunguruste. The assault, which saw Craig punched to the floor, knocked him unconscious and had followed an argument outside the nightclub that continued as Mr Maposa turned into Gower Street.
After knocking out Mr Maposa, the Mukunguruste brothers dragged him from the road and back onto the pavement before fleeing the scene. Craig regained consciousness a short time later and started making his way to Gravel Street where he then took a taxi back home to Eyres Monsell, but he was found unresponsive there the following day (Sunday, August 6).
Craig, who had come to the UK from Zimbabwe as a child, was rushed to hospital where tests found he had suffered a large bleed on the brain. He was placed on life support, but was pronounced dead by medics on Monday, August 7. His life support was withdrawn the following day.
Blessing Mukunguruste, 31, of Wigston’s Coronation Avenue and Brendon Mukunguruste, 27, of Leicester’s Cleveleys Avenue, were both arrested and pleaded guilty to Craig’s manslaughter.
They were both handed four-and-a-half-year jail terms.
Read the full story here