Jailed in 2025: 19 of the worst West Midlands offenders who were locked up this year including revenge killers, elderly abusers and paedophiles
Shocking murders, major drugs operations and cruel abuse all came through West Midlands courts in 2025 - here are some of the biggest cases that resulted in jail time this year.
2025 was another busy year in the court system with hundreds of defendants sent to prison for their crimes against the people of the West Midlands.
Below are some of the cases that shocked communities across the Black Country, Staffordshire and beyond this year.
Teenager who held fatal stabbing victim's friend at knifepoint during robbery
In January Jovarn Esterine, 18, was jailed after being found guilty of the manslaughter of Rugeley teenager Harleigh Hepworth in Wolverhampton's West Park on March 7 last year.
Harleigh, also 17, had been visiting Wolverhampton with a friend when he was robbed and attacked in the park by Esterine and another teenager.
When Harleigh asked for his phone back, he was stabbed by the teenager. At the same time, Esterine held Harleigh’s friend at knifepoint, preventing him from helping Harleigh.
Harleigh was stabbed in the chest, but managed to run away; however, he was later found lying in the park after collapsing in a pool of blood.
Esterine was convicted of manslaughter and robbery and was jailed for seven years, but in May the Court of Appeal quashed that sentence and imposed one of nine years' detention.
Rapist actor jailed for 15 and a half years for 'decade of sordid sexual criminality'
February saw the sentencing of 24-year-old Albrighton actor Alexander Westwood after he was found guilty of 26 sexual offences including rape.
Described by a judge at Wolverhampton Crown Court as "a serial sexual predator" and "the product of poor parenting and pornography", Westwood had been committing crimes since his 10th birthday.
The court heard how he forced one of his acting pupils to act out Shakespeare naked and created sick 'game shows' with children, forcing them to watch pornography and undress.
Judge Neil Chawla KC said that Westwood, who had been an extra in the Netflix show Sex Education, had used his "minor celebrity" to carry out his sexual deviance.
Westwood was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison. After he is released he will spend four years on licence.
He was also given a 26-year restraining order from all his victims and a sexual harm prevention order for the same amount of time.
Wolverhampton couple ran £4m drug ring from luxury Thai villa
Brian Pitts, 30, and Katie Harlow, 27, ran an international criminal empire from a luxury villa in Thailand between 2018 and 2019.
Up to 11 million counterfeit pills were produced in sheds and garages across the West Midlands before being sold on the dark web via cryptocurrency payments.
The pair were finally caught after a five-year international investigation led by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Ltd.
They were arrested when they returned from Thailand with designer clothes and Rolex watches in their luggage in August 2019.
A court heard that while the gang made at least £4 million, they could have made more than £11 million from their illegal operation.
Pitts, of Bilston, previously admitted conspiracy to supply class C drugs and conspiracy to commit a trademark offence.
He was jailed for eight years at Wolverhampton Crown Court in March.
Barlow, who lived with Pitts in a modest three-bedroom semi-detached house, admitted money laundering and was locked up for two years and one month.
Tipton pair sentenced to life over 'violent and calculated' daylight murder of DPD worker in a quiet Shrewsbury street
February saw Sehajpal Singh, 26, and Mehakdeep Singh, 24 - both previously of Shaw Road in Tipton - handed life sentences after they were found guilty of murdering Aurman Singh.
In August 2023, Aurman, a DPD worker, was attacked with a range of weapons by a group of six men on Berwick Avenue in Shrewsbury in broad daylight as he was doing his rounds.
