Stephen Jackley is a convicted British robber and author. He served time in American and British prisons from 2008 to 2015. [1] He has Asperger's syndrome, and his book, Just Sky, explores the impact of this condition on his life. [2] Jackley has been followed by the press, both in the United States and the United Kingdom, because of the unusual nature of his crimes.
Jackley was born in Exeter, Devon.
In 2008, Jackley was arrested in the United States, after getting caught in Vermont using a fake ID to buy a firearm. A year later, he was returned to the United Kingdom where he was convicted of a series of armed robbery related offences on banks, building societies and bookmakers. Jackley's offences stood out owing to his use of "calling cards" and statements that he believed himself a "modern day Robin Hood", who allegedly gave some of his loot to charities and homeless people. [3] What made his offences more unusual was that he was then a student at Worcester University, studying sociology and geography. [4] He went on to appeal his sentence, which the Court of Appeal reduced from 13 to 12 years on the basis of his condition, Asperger's Syndrome, making prison life harder than for other offenders. [5] Whilst in custody he took up a string of court cases, involving prisoners access to IT equipment for legal representation, [6] and a 'home detention curfew' policy. [7]
Jackley was released in May 2015. It has been reported that he is a trustee and national coordinator of the UK prison-reform organisation, Justice in Prisons. [8] He is actively involved in penal issues and prisoner rehabilitation. He also started a consultancy social enterprise called StarUp CIC [9] in 2016, of which he is named as a director. [10]
Jackley has published books including Just Sky (an autobiography) and Good Intentions (a crime thriller), and anthologies of short stories/essays. In early 2015, he helped found the publishing enterprise, Arkbound Ltd, [11] where he is managing editor of the Bristol magazine Boundless.
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted criminals are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives. Crimes that warrant life imprisonment are usually violent and/or dangerous. Examples of crimes that result in life sentences are murder, torture, terrorism, child abuse resulting in death, rape, espionage, treason, Illegal drug trade, Drug prohibition, human trafficking, severe fraud and financial crimes, aggravated Property damage, arson, hate crime, kidnapping, burglary, and robbery, piracy, aircraft hijacking, and genocide.
Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank branch or teller, as opposed to other bank-owned property, such as a train, armored car, or (historically) stagecoach. It is a federal crime in the United States.
The Flying Squad is a branch of the Serious and Organised Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. It is also known as the Robbery Squad, Specialist Crime Directorate 7, SC&O7 and SO7. It is nicknamed The Sweeney, an abbreviation of the Cockney rhyming slang "Sweeney Todd".
David Francis Bieber, also known under the alias Nathan Wayne Coleman, is an American convicted murderer. A fugitive from the United States, he murdered police constable (PC) Ian Broadhurst and attempted to murder PCs Neil Roper and James Banks on 26 December 2003 in Leeds, England, sparking a nationwide search before he was captured. He was given a whole life sentence after being found guilty of murder in December 2004 and the trial judge recommended that he should never be released; however, in 2008 this sentence was reduced to a minimum term of 37 years by the Court of Appeal, after which he could apply for parole.
Caning is a widely used form of corporal punishment in Singapore. It can be divided into several contexts: judicial, prison, reformatory, military, school and domestic. These practices of caning as punishment were introduced during the period of British colonial rule in Singapore. Similar forms of corporal punishment are also used in some other former British colonies, including two of Singapore's neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Brunei.
PC Sharon Beshenivsky was a West Yorkshire Police constable shot and killed by a criminal gang during a robbery in Bradford on 18 November 2005, becoming the seventh female police officer in Great Britain to be killed on duty. Her colleague, PC Teresa Milburn, was seriously injured in the same incident. Milburn had joined the force less than two years earlier; Beshenivsky had served only nine months as a Constable in the force at the time of her death, having been a Community Support Officer before.
John McVicar was a British journalist and convicted one-time armed robber who escaped from prison.
Tay Yong Kwang is a Singaporean judge of the Supreme Court. He was first appointed Judicial Commissioner in 1997, appointed Judge in 2003, and appointed Judge of Appeal in 2016. He was noted for being the presiding judge in several notable cases that shocked the nation and made headlines in Singapore.
Gregory John 'Bluey' Brazel is a convicted Australian serial killer, arsonist, and armed robber currently serving three consecutive life sentences for the murders of sex workers Sharon Taylor and Roslyn Hayward in 1990, and the murder of Mordialloc hardware store owner Mildred Hanmer during an armed robbery in 1982 to which he confessed some eighteen years later.
Kenneth Littlejohn is a convicted armed robber and gaol-breaker who claimed to be a Secret Intelligence Service/Official IRA double agent. The Littlejohn affair concerned allegations of British espionage and use of agents provocateurs in the Republic of Ireland during the Troubles.
Vassilis Palaiokostas is a Greek bank robber and fugitive known as the "Greek Robin Hood" for his habit of giving away stolen money to the poor.
HM Prison Standford Hill is a Category D men's prison, located close to the village of Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. Standford Hill forms part of the Sheppey prisons cluster, which also includes HMP Elmley and HMP Swaleside. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.
Dean v. United States, 556 U.S. 568 (2009), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court upholding a 10-year penalty for the discharge of a firearm during the commission of any violent or drug trafficking crime, against a bank robber whose gun went off accidentally.
The murder of Thomas Bates occurred during an armed robbery in Birmingham, England, on 2 June 1962. Oswald Grey was convicted of the crime, and became the last person hanged at the city's Winson Green Prison. Grey maintained his innocence and doubt remains as to whether or not there was sufficient evidence against him.
Tom Hayes is a former trader for UBS and Citigroup who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for dishonestly manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) as part of the Libor scandal. Hayes, in the course of his defence, asserted managers were aware of his actions, and even condoned them. At trial Hayes was diagnosed with mild Asperger syndrome.
Matthew Alexander Falder is an English convicted serial sex offender and blackmailer. From a period of time between 2009 and 2017, he coerced his victims online into sending him degrading images of themselves or into committing crimes against a third person such as rape or assault. He managed this by making threats to the victim by saying he would send their family or friends degrading information or revealing pictures of them if they did not comply with his commands. Falder hid behind anonymous accounts on the web and then re-posted the images to gain a higher status on the dark web. Investigators said that he "revelled" in getting images to share on hurtcore websites. The National Crime Agency (NCA), described him as "one of the most prolific and depraved offenders they had ever encountered."
The Chandler's Ford shooting was the shooting of armed robbers in the town of Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, in southern England, on 13 September 2007. Two men were shot dead by Metropolitan Police officers while they were robbing a cash-in-transit van at gunpoint. The Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad had been tracking a gang of armed robbers from South London who were estimated to have stolen £500,000 from 18 robberies of security vans. The Flying Squad received intelligence that the gang intended to target the HSBC branch in Chandler's Ford and planned to lie in wait and apprehend the suspects as they attempted the robbery.
Life imprisonment is a legal penalty in Singapore. This sentence is applicable for more than forty offences under Singapore law, such as culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempted murder, kidnapping by ransom, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons, and trafficking of firearms, in addition to caning or a fine for certain offences that warrant life imprisonment.
Lim Chwee Soon, alias Ah Soon, was a Singaporean armed robber who committed a total of three armed robberies between June and October 1995. In his latest robbery, Lim used his gun, a Colt .45, to fire seven shots and three of them caused severe injury to How Sau Che, the sales manager of the goldsmith shop robbed by Lim at the People's Park Complex on 30 October 1995.
Teo Cheng Leong was a Singaporean gunman and armed robber. Teo was one of the four perpetrators of a firearm robbery at Geylang on 26 March 1969, in which he robbed a housewife of her valuables and S$1,000 in cash, and he later fired two rounds at a police inspector while being cornered by the police, who all arrested him at a hut he was hiding in. In Singapore's first capital trial without a jury, Teo was found guilty of discharging his firearm and sentenced to death in February 1970. Teo became the first person to be given the death penalty after the abolition of jury trials for capital crimes in Singapore. After losing his appeals against the conviction and sentence, Teo was hanged sometime in May 1971.
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