THESE are the crooks who have been put behind bars in 2021 so far.

The Echo has compiled the biggest cases so far to come to court this year, with five crooks jailed.

  • Sex offender Laurence Bourne, 68, was accused of abusing a child on numerous occasions in Basildon.

He has been convicted of abusing a child over a three-year period 30 years ago.

Bourne, of Brackendale Court, Basildon, was arrested in June that year as part of an investigation by Essex Police’s Quest team.

He was later charged with seven counts of indecent assault. 

He denied the charges but was convicted following a trial at Basildon Crown Court.

  • Mehmet Akguc, said he’d “kill” his partner in front of their child and then threatened to break her legs while stalking her.

He has been jailed after he put his hand over his partner’s mouth, shouted at her and approached her with a razor threatening to cut her hair.

The 22-year-old was staying with his girlfriend at her flat in Kelting House, Basildon and had been celebrating a birthday with her and their child who was less than a year old.

The three people got home on September 19 last year and a row started brewing between the two in the early hours of the morning on September 20 over the contact he was having with their child and the involvement of the woman’s mother.

It was then that he got angry and launched himself at the woman.

Akguc, of Marlowe Road, London, was sentenced at Basildon Crown Court 

  • Ami-brie Dornan, 37 stabbed her partner five times in a “vicious” attack using an “extreme level of violence”.

Echo: Ami-brie DornanAmi-brie Dornan

She attacked the man, aged in his 50s, at their home in Pendle Drive, Basildon after they had been drinking in a nearby pub until 11pm in August last year. 

When back at the home, a heated argument began and Dornan stabbed the man three times in the shoulder, once under his left arm, and once on his left arm.
The attack followed a domestic dispute between the pair. 

At Basildon Crown Court, she was jailed by Judge Samantha Cohen for four and-a-half years.

  • Quinty Sawela whipped his ex-partner with Playstation leads and punched her in the face with a fistful of keys.

He attacked the woman as she arrived back to her home on Canvey in the middle of the night, and then attacked her again after he forced his way into her home.

The 25-year-old had previously been in a relationship with the woman and they have a child together, but it ended in March last year.

Several months before this, in November 2019 at 11.30pm, he had gone to her home and charged at her holding leads from a Playstation console before carrying out his attack.

Sawela appeared at Basildon Crown Court where he admitted attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and wounding with intent and was jailed for four years.

  • A "manipulative" former civil servant hacked into more than 500 women’s computer accounts and blackmailed them into sending intimate pictures

Akash Sondhi “wreaked havoc” for more than two years by posing as women’s friends to get access to their social media accounts.

Echo: Akash SondhiAkash Sondhi

The 27-year-old, of Hedingham Close, Chafford Hundred, would then lock the women out of their accounts and demand intimate photos of them.

He would threaten to post images he already had of them from hacking their accounts to friends and family if the women didn’t comply.

Sondhi’s 573 victims were from Essex and across the globe, with some as far as Australia and Hong Kong, highlighting the “astonishing” reach of his offending. 

A number of his victims were also under the age of 18. 

At Basildon Crown Court, Sondhi admitted 42 counts of using a computer to enable unauthorised access of data, plus 21 counts of blackmail, and two counts of voyeurism, relating to when he secretly filmed a woman getting undressed.

He was jailed for 11 years.