OCTOBER may be fading into distant memory for most of us, but for some of the defendants who came before the court last month, it could well be stamped indelibly into their memory. Some will now be in a prison cell, counting down the days until October 2025 when they are released from prison. Others will look back on October 2024 as the time they avoided going to jail by a hair’s breadth.
Here are the defendants who were jailed last month, and those who we could walk past in the street next time we’re out in town. Ryan Thomas and Alison Kirby – the drug dealers who recruited vulnerable teenager to do their dirty work Colchester’s proximity to London unfortunately means Essex can sometimes feel like it is being flooded with drugs from the capital. Essex Police pour huge amounts of resource into catching offenders, and their efforts paid off when Ryan Thomas and Alison Kirby were arrested The two had run the ‘Ace’ line and arranged for a 15-year-old boy to be transported to various locations in Colchester so he could sell the class A substances to addicts.
The teenager was reported missing from his London home in March and was found by police officers ten days later in Rosemary Avenue, Colchester, where he had cocaine wraps, heroin, and £560 in cash. Jailed - Ryan Thomas had yet another drug dealing conviction added to his list of previous (Image: Essex Police) Ipswich Crown Court heard last month how officers traced texts from the boy to devices owned by Thomas an.