The Echo's most-read crime stories this month included a man stabbed in the eyeball with garden shears, burglars who blinded a beloved pet dog with ammonia, and a paedophile who kidnapped a Benfleet schoolgirl whilst on bail for stalking.
The Echo has a full-time crime and investigations reporter keeping tabs on Basildon and Southend courtrooms to inform you about the most shocking and important cases across south Essex.
Other cases which caught your attention this month involved jailed drug dealers and violent domestic abusers.
Here is your October 2026 top 10, starting with by far the most-read case...
Killer Uber Driver
Hayadulla Turkmani was convicted this month of causing death by dangerous driving – but acquitted of murder and manslaughter.
Basildon Crown Court heard the 53-year-old, from Hornchurch, flew into a rage when Langdon Hills man Michael Ashton was sick in the back of his car.
He shouted abuse at Ashton in the street after dropping him home in Rosecroft Close, then ran him over.
An eyewitness told jurors he watched as Turkmani went from being stationary to reversing straight at Mr Ashton “at an incredible speed”.
But Turkmani claimed he had been looking behind his car as he drove forward and hit Mr Ashton by accident.
He was sentenced to five years, but will be out in around 18 months.
Mr Ashton’s family and local politicians have asked the Attorney General to review the sentence for undue leniency.
Armed Drug Dealers
Two south Essex drug dealers were jailed for almost ten years each after being caught with over £70,000, a handgun and live ammunition.
Joe Mongan, 27, from Westcliff, and Elliott Reddington, 36, of West Street, Rochford, were both convicted of being concerned in the supply of Class A and B drugs.
They had been involved in the trafficking of cocaine and cannabis for over a year, beginning in January 2025.
They were also caught with a 9mm pistol and 22 bullets.
Reddington got eight years and eight months. Mongan got nine years and nine months.
Burglars Blinded Dog
Readers were outraged by our report from the sentencing of Southend burglar Seamus Newton, one of three men behind a violent Basildon burglary.
In what seemed to be a targeted crime, the trio broke in, sprayed ammonia in the occupants' faces and held a knife to the owner's throat, demanding to know where his safe was.
Unfortunately for them, he was a former Royal Mail security officer with 12 bravery commendations and managed to fight them off, chasing them from his house.
In the process, he hit Newton on the head with a knife, spraying blood up the wall, enabling Essex Police to identify him from his DNA.
Sadly, the occupants discovered after the burglars fled that their beloved pet dog had also been sprayed with ammonia and blinded.
Newton was jailed for 12 years. His accomplices have never been identified.
Cocaine Dealer Jailed
A Rayleigh man was jailed for over six years after being convicted of drug dealing and criminal property offences.
Harry White, 31, of Clyde Crescent, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply in February.
However, he pleaded not guilty to dealing the Class A drug over a longer period of time. He also denied possessing criminal property, in the shape of cash and two Rolex watches.
A jury disagreed and found him guilty.
He was jailed for six years and six months.
Paedophile Kidnapper
Leigh paedophile Kieran Mansfield was sentenced at Basildon Crown Court for kidnapping an 11-year-old girl, after staking out a playground looking for a victim.
The 35-year-old, who had been convicted five years earlier of possessing indecent images of children, was free on police bail for stalking when he committed the offence in Benfleet.
He followed the child as she walked home from the park, grabbed her, clamped his hand over her mouth and ordered her not to scream.
He then carried her up an alley and threw her to the ground. But just as he was about to sexually assault her, a motion-activated security light flicked on and spooked him, so he fled.
Describing him as "an extremely dangerous man", Judge Samantha Cohen jailed him for 13-and-a-half years.
Adulterer Jailed For Revenge Porn
Southend Crown Court heard how Daniel Gore had been abandoned by his family after a campaign of terror exposed his extramarital affair.
The 39-year-old, of Oak Lane, Crays Hill, secretly filmed himself having sex with his mistress and then used the videos as a means of control, sending them to her family and threatening to share them more widely.
He also advertised the woman online as a very cheap sex worker and repeatedly made vexatious 999 calls about her to the police and ambulance service, reporting fictitious crimes and emergencies.
Already serving a five-year sentence for a firearms offence, he was given another 18 months consecutive for his controlling and coercive behaviour.
His victim had since sadly died.
Cocaine Addict Broke woman's Bones
Cocaine addict Joe Davies walked free on a suspended sentence after breaking a woman's nose, jaw and rib during a frenzied, drug-fuelled attack.
He continued pummelling his victim in the middle of a residential street in Laindon, despite attempted interventions by neighbours, until Essex Police arrived to arrest him.
As they did, he complained that she wasn't severely injured enough yet and said he intended to kill her.
In court, he blamed the attack on paranoid delusions brought on by alcohol and drug consumption.
Telling him he was "extremely lucky" not to have killed the woman, Judge Samantha Cohen gave him a 20-month suspended sentence with drugs rehabilitation and alcohol abstinence requirements.
'Monster' Terrorised Cancer Patient
Rochford man Joe Wingett was jailed for almost four years after a court heard he punched, kicked, choked and spat on a cancer patient in a campaign of domestic abuse.
He was brought to justice after his brave victim secretly recorded some of his violent attacks.
You’re lucky you’re with me!" he raged in one. "You do not stop moaning at me in my face! This is why you get what you get!”
On one occasion, he strangled her unconscious.
The court heard he kept knives around and would grab it during his outbursts, stabbing the bed, a wall and a wardrobe.
At his sentencing hearing, his victim described him as a "monster".
Judge Siew Loke jailed him for 45 months.
Victim Stabbed In Face With Garden Shears
Basildon man Jimmy Green was sent to prison after launching a pair of garden shears into another man's eyeball as he cradled a baby.
The "grave injury" was inflicted when Green and others descended on a street on the Felmores estate and attacked the man.
Parents scooped their children from the road and fled as violence erupted. One woman described a missile flying past her so closely that it knocked off her glasses.
Green had earlier stamped on another man's head - the brother-in-law of the garden shears victim - at the Winged Horse pub in Vange.
Essex Police never uncovered the motive for the brutal attacks.
He was sentenced to 56 months in prison.
Paedophile Called 'Schoolgirl' His Soul Mate
Paul Valentine was jailed after arranging to meet a schoolgirl at Rochford train station, having told her she was beautiful and called her his soul mate.
The 61-year-old, from West Sussex, had told the girl, 13, he wouldn't be able to take his eyes off her in a swimsuit and had feelings for her "deep enough to swim in".
But the girl didn't exist and was in fact an elderly woman using AI-generated images as part of a vigilante paedophile hunting group.
Valentine created a fake Facebook page for a 14-year-old boy called Joseph Valentino, telling the fictitious girl she could chat to him on that to avoid arousing her mum's suspicions.
"We have to play her game for now if we are serious about each other," he said.
Judge Shane Collery KC sentenced him to 19 months in prison.
Share