22 of Shropshire's worst criminals jailed in 2025 - including violent killers, sick rapists and predatory paedophiles
From shocking acts of violence in broad daylight to horrific abuse behind closed doors, these are some of the cases that shook Shropshire in 2025.
2025 saw Shropshire courts deal with scores of disturbing criminal cases.
Notably in February the sentencing of rapist actor Alexander Westwood brought his terrifying spree of sexual assaults and rapes to an end.
Over the course of more than a decade, the "manipulative, controlling and cynical" Westwood exploited his "minor celebrity" to prey on his victims.
The following month, two men were locked up after being found guilty of murdering DPD worker Aurman Singh in August 2023.
Sehajpal Singh, 26, and Mehakdeep Singh, 24, fled the country after the brutal attack on the 23-year-old by a gang of men with an array of weapons on a quiet Shrewsbury street as he was carrying out deliveries.
September saw murderer Amy Pugh jailed for life after she was found guilty of killing her estranged husband Kyle Pugh at her Newport home.
Following the murder, Pugh attempted to cover her tracks, concocting a story that she had discovered her husband after an apparent suicide attempt — a claim the jury ultimately rejected.
These are some of the cases that shocked communities across Shropshire and beyond — and laid bare the devastating impact of cruelty, violence and abuse when justice finally caught up with those responsible.
'Sadistic bully' who 'forced children to eat family pet'
In January Shrewsbury Crown Court heard one of 2025's most harrowing cases of child abuse. The case involved a 77-year-old father from the Market Drayton area, who the court ordered not be named to protect the identity of his victims.
The man physically and emotionally abused his own children in the 1970s and '80s.
On one occasion, the court heard in early January, he killed the family's pet rabbit and forced the children to eat it for supper.
On another, he made the children choose between the two family dogs, before dumping one in the countryside, while the children watched it chase the family car as it drove off.
Prosecutor Anthony Longsworth said the man put the children through “sadistic, gratuitous” abuse with incidents of physical and mental humiliation that spanned their entire childhoods.
In passing sentence the judge said he was “bound” by the sentencing guidelines of 40 years ago when the offences were committed. He jailed the man for three and a half years, telling him: “You were a bully and a sadist.”
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.
After the brutal killing, Sehajpal and Mehakdeep fled the country in an attempt to avoid being brought to justice.
Last year Arshdeep Singh, 24, also of Shaw Road; Jagdeep Singh, 23, of Goodrich Mews, Dudley; Shivdeep Singh, 27, of Greenfield Road, Smethwick; and Manjot Singh, 24, of the same address - were all convicted of the murder. Each was jailed for 28 years.
Rapist actor jailed for 15 and a half years for 'decade of sordid sexual criminality'
February also saw the sentencing of 24-year-old Albrighton actor, Alexander Westwood, after he was found guilty of 26 sexual crimes, including rape.
Described by the judge 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.
Newport man jailed for more than eight years after grooming and sexually assualting boy
Jacques Du Plessis, aged 51 and of Newport, started talking to the victim on Snapchat and arranged to pick him up in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, last year.
He then sexually assaulted the boy a number of times over the next few days in different locations, even recording one of the incidents on his phone.
After pleading guilty to all charges, Du Plessis was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court in April.
Rapist Shropshire teenager who filmed crying schoolboy carrying out sex act on him
A 17-year-old rapist who filmed a tearful schoolboy carrying out a sex act on him and molested another child was sentenced to five years in a young offenders institute by a Shrewsbury Crown Court judge in May.
The court was told the defendant tried to get one of the children to engage in sexual activity and they refused. Despite that, the defendant groped him and touched his genitals.
Evidence for this incident was found on the defendant’s phone in the form of a 13-second Snapchat video - it showed the defendant forcing the boy, who was crying, to carry out a sex act on him.
The rapist was arrested in November 2023. He is now subject of a 15-year sexual harm prevention order and ordered him to sign onto the sex offenders register for life.
Violent dad assaulted partner with their baby in his arms and robbed Telford petrol station at knifepoint
Michael Holmes, aged 30, was jailed for four years and nine months after committing “frightening” domestic abuse at his former home in Madeley and robbing a Telford petrol station at knifepoint.
Holmes, of Selkirk Drive, Sutton Hill, robbed the Jet petrol station in Sutton Hill on January 27 this year, screaming at the female cashier to “open the till” before making off with £120 in cash and a can of Monster energy drink.
Shrewsbury Crown Court also heard how in September last year, Holmes kicked his ex-partner while she changed their baby’s nappy, grabbed her by the hair while he held the 11-week-old in his arms and covered her mouth to the point where she struggled to breathe.
