There won’t be much to look forward to in 2024 for these 40 killers, rapists, child abusers, drug dealers, thugs and thieves — and for many years still to come.
All were jailed during 2023 and received some of the heaviest sentences handed down by judges at Northampton and other crown courts…

1. Jailed in 2023
Some of the people jailed for serious offences in 2023... Photo: Northamptonshire Police

2. LYDA PETRAVICIUTE & LAISVIDAS URBAITIS
A judge heard from trafficked workers across Corby who were humiliated, tortured and treated as servants by a ‘brutal’ former couple. Petraviciute and Urbaitis chose their victims because they were vulnerable and ripe for exploitation. One had suffered a head injury as a child, could not read or write and could not speak English. Although they were only prosecuted for crimes against four victims, evidence uncovered by officers investigating the case suggested many more are yet to come forward. They were handed nine-year jail terms at a sentencing hearing at Northampton Crown Court in January after a jury sat through three months of distressing evidence. Photo: Northamptonshire Police

3. TERRY WOOLDRIDGE
The 42-year-old was sentenced to 12½ years in January after a court heard he launched a vicious attack on a woman in April 2022, punching her, stamping on her and kicking her then dragging her from the bedroom by the hair. Wooldridge, of Montague Crescent, Northampton, had already been jailed once in 2018 for violence towards his then partner. They got back together but another attack left her in hospital with multiple fractures, a broken arm and a bruised bladder. Wooldridge has 17 previous convictions for 27 offences — including 21 related to violence and public disorder, including battery, false imprisonment, ABH and affray and two assaults on another woman. Photo: Northamptonshire Police

4. LEWIS VANMEER-SHERIDAN
The 28-year-old, of Sulman Grove, Milton Keynes, was sentenced to eight years, four months in January and put on the Sex Offenders Register for life after raping a teenager twice and attempting to rape a woman in Northampton having used a dating app to contact victims. Photo: Northamptonshire Police