In a busy April for the county’s courts, here are four Hertfordshire criminals who have been convicted this month, including a "sadistic" paedophile from Stevenage.
1. Kevin Johnson
The 62-year-old, of Canterbury Way, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years behind bars at St Albans Crown Court, after being convicted of indecent assault on a child aged under 13 and child cruelty.
He must also abide by the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years and be placed on the sex offenders' register.
The court heard that Johnson would violently abuse his young victim by punching, kicking and burning her back. He also sexually abused her by simulating sex with her on two occasions.
In a personal statement, the victim said the abuse had led her to think about taking her of life, and caused her to have panic attacks and nightmares.
"There was a degree of sadistic enjoyment by you," said recorder Sean O’Sullivan KC.
2. Samuel Adams and Nathan Longmore
Both were sentenced on April 19, following a week-long trial at St Albans Crown Court.
Longmore, 24, was found guilty of aggravated burglary and handed a six-year sentence, while Adams, 33, was found guilty of aggravated burglary and possessing a bladed article, earning him a nine-year spell in prison.
At around 11.30am on August 19, 2023, Longmore entered a linked address of an associate near St Albans City centre. Adams then joined Longmore and attempted to stab a man with a nine-inch knife before an altercation broke out.
PC Zach Flint was on a single-crew patrol at the time when he heard screaming and shouting coming from the direction of a block of flats.
He then noticed a woman who had escaped from the flat onto a balcony and was calling for help.
Adams and Longmore both searched the property and took a packet of cigarettes and a bag before being stopped and detained single-handedly by PC Flint.
3. Amy Buckoke
The 41-year-old, of Howards Drive, Hemel Hempstead, was sentenced to three years and four months for fraud, after pleading guilty at St Albans Crown Court on April 12.
Buckoke became friends with her intended victim, and over the course of six years, coerced the them into funding her drug habit by spinning an elaborate web of lies, eventually draining their life savings.
"Buckoke deliberately befriended her victim and immediately began playing on their sympathies in order to extract money from them," said Detective Constable Claire Mann, from Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Serious Fraud and Cyber Unit.
4. Luke Foster
Former Stevenage footballer Luke Foster has been jailed for three years for running a cannabis farm.
Foster, now 38, played for the club during the promotion-winning 2010-11 season, Stevenage's first in the Football League, but he has since fallen foul of the law after admitting to growing the class B drug cannabis along with two other people.
He has now been imprisoned at HMP Nottingham, and is set to face a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing in July.
According to The Sun, his ex-girlfriend Rebekah Vardy has been left "furious and devastated" by the news, having only just found out about the news.
Foster was with Rebekah for six years until 2013, having a son together during that time. Several months after they split up, she met Jamie Vardy, the footballer she would go on to marry in 2016.
Rebekah and Foster have both criticised each other in the media previously.
Back in 2017, when Rebekah was heading into the jungle for I'm A Celebrity, Foster claimed in the Mirror that she had stopped him from going on a trip to Las Vegas with his fellow Stevenage players to celebrate promotion.
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