A LARGE number of the cases which come before local crown courts are due to violence.

Victims are sometimes left with life-changing injuries and often weapons are used to inflict maximum damage.

Here are 16 of the worst offenders who were jailed in 2021 for such crimes.

Lawrence Hill

JEALOUS Bolton fairground boss Lawrence Hill left his victim, Simon Perry, with life-changing injuries after punching him in the car park of the Spread Eagle pub at Kearsley.

There had been resentment between the two for years as Hill had previously been in a relationship with Mr Perry's wife before they married.

Hill, aged 39, hit Mr Perry so hard that he was knocked unconscious and smashed his head on the ground.

He suffered several fractures to his face and skull needed part of his forehead removing to save his life. Father-of-two Mr Perry was in a coma for 10 weeks and spent six months in hospital before being allowed home.

"In no way am I exaggerating when I say my life has been ruined," Mr Perry told Judge John Potter at Minshull Street Crown Court.

Hill, who had denied causing grievous bodily harm, changed his plea as his trial was due to start and was jailed for 32 months

READ MORE: Lawrence Hill

Michael Barlow

VENGEFUL grandad Michael Barlow went on a wrecking spree at the child's home after being denied access to him.

Michael Barlow took a hammer to the home of his son’s ex-partner and used it to smash his way in, destroying property including the TV screen and badly damaging doors and kitchen appliances.

Barlow, aged 50, had been expecting to see the five-year-old boy, but when that did not happen he went round to the child's home in First Avenue, Little Lever, while the family were out and broke in, destroying their possessions.

He was only linked to the crime a month later when forensic tests revealed blood found at the scene was his.

Judge Timothy Stead heard that the crime has devastated the boy.

“He knows it was you that did it and he is afraid. I dare say he will be afraid for some time to come,” Judge Stead told Barlow, who pleaded guilty to burglary with intent to cause criminal damage when he appeared at Bolton Crown Court.

Barlow, who has other convictions for violence and damage, including setting fire to a vehicle after he was sacked by an employer, was jailed for three years.

READ MORE: Michael Barlow

Christopher Mann and Declan Weston

VIOLENT carjackers Christopher Mann and Declan Weston bit a driver’s ear and punched him after leaping into his £38,000 Audi.

But the pair were soon caught after driving away in the luxury motor as their victim knew one of them and the vehicle was fitted with a tracking device.

Victim Ryan O'Callaghan was sat in his Audi A5 outside the Go Local shop on Morris Green Lane, Bolton when Mann, Weston and a third man clambered into the vehicle and attacked him.

But Mr O'Callaghan recognised Mann from their childhood days and within an hour the car, which was fitted with a tracker, was located in Tyldesley.

Man, aged 36, and Weston, 25, pleaded guilty to robbery when they appeared at the Nightingale Court at Bolton Stadium.

Mann was jailed for four years and Weston for three years and nine months.

READ MORE: Christopher Mann and Declan Weston

Sharon Mather

DRUNKEN Sharon Mather burst into a woman's home and stabbed her repeatedly in the face with a screwdriver.

Model Stacy Dolan was left with scars leaving her unable to do close-up work.

Bolton Crown Court heard how Mather had been friends with Miss Dolan but accused her of taking advantage of a mutual friend and turned up at her home in an angry state.

After stabbing her victim in the knee and arm Mather pushed her over a sofa and plunged a screwdriver into her face.

Mather, aged 49, denied causing grievous bodily harm but was convicted following a trial and jailed for five and a half years.

READ MORE: Sharon Mather

Richard Harper

A JUDGE jailed Richard Harper for eight years after he stabbed his best friend in the heart.

Harper, aged 29, who has a history of mental illness, had been friends with Axel Thomas for 11 years and were in a support bubble together.

But when Harper went home drunk and became angry about a letter he believed was neighbours complaining about him, he took his rage out on Mr Thomas.

Mr Thomas tried to lock himself in a bathroom but Harper forced the door open, grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his pal in the chest

Harper told police afterwards that he had got a "buzz" out of committing the attack.

Mr Thomas needed emergency surgery to save his life.

Harper pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was jailed for eight years when he appeared at Manchester Crown Court.

READ MORE: Richard Harper

Harrison Campbell and Joshua Duffy

VIGILANTES Harrison Campbell and Joshua Duffy kidnapped, beat and stripped a man they accused of stealing a scooter before dumping him in an isolated layby.

The pair took their victim on a terrifying 10-mile journey, before dumping him in a layby near Rivington.

The victim had been dragged into his attackers' car by Campbell and Duffy, who were armed with a baseball bat and axe, in Halliwell Road.

During the journey the man was repeatedly assaulted, with Duffy filming the ordeal and later uploading it to Facebook.

After he was abandoned, dressed only in shorts and vest covered in blood, the victim managed to flag down a passing motorist who took him to a police station.

Campbell, aged 19,and Duffy, 22, both pleaded guilty to kidnap and causing actual bodily harm.

Duffy was sentenced to four years and six months in prison while Campbell was sentenced to the same period in a young offenders' institution.

READ MORE: Harrison Campbell and Joshua Duffy

Patrick Cullen and Regan Sharples

VIOLENT town centre attackers Patrick Cullen and Regan Sharples repeatedly stabbed and hit a hero who was trying to save schoolboys from being robbed by them.

Adrian Hornby intervened but Cullen, armed with a knife, turned on him, repeatedly stabbing him in the head, body and legs while Sharples swung a bottle at him and kicked him.

When Mr Hornby tried to get away, they pursued him through Bolton town centre, attacked again and robbed him.

The Honorary Recorder of Bolton, Judge Martin Walsh described it as "a cowardly and brutal attack upon a young man who had courageously gone to the assistance of the three youths".

Cullen and Sharples, both aged 21, pleaded guilty to robbery, attempted robbery, causing grievous bodily harm and possessing knives.

At Bolton Crown Court Cullen was jailed for nine years and nine months with a further three years on licence while Sharples was given a six-year prison sentence.

READ MORE: Patrick Cullen and Regan Sharples

Aiden Aldred

BURGLAR Aiden Aldred who ordered his accomplice to plunge a machete into a householder was caught after their victim bravely ripped off his disguise.

Daniel Walker, who suffered a stab wound to the abdomen and was been left with a disabled hand following the attack, was later able to pick Aiden Aldred out in a video identity parade.

Aldred, aged 27, denied causing grievous bodily harm and aggravated burglary at Mr Walker's home in Haworth Walk, Radcliffe, but was convicted following a trial.

He was jailed for 10 years.

READ MORE: Aiden Aldred

Benjamin Welsh

A FATHER shook his four-month-old son so violently that he was left with catastrophic injuries.

Welsh, aged 21, then failed to seek medical attention for the baby for 30 hours and a CT scan subsequently showed a brain injuries and a ruptured liver.

Welsh was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty at Manchester Crown Court to causing grievous bodily harm. The baby's mother, Elisha Wilson was given a suspended sentence after admitting child cruelty.

Phone records from her phone showed there have been Google searches using phrases such as ‘shaking baby cause them to go floppy and affect eyes’, and ‘what happens when u strangle a baby’.

Jailing Welsh, Judge Patrick Field told him: "You attacked him because he would not stop crying and you couldn’t cope with that. I have to say that is an inadequate and selfish explanation.”

READ MORE: Benjamin Welsh

Curtis Regan and Tyrone Hamer

A MAN who invited friend Tyrone Hamer and his pal Curtis Regan to his flat for drinks was violently assaulted by the pair.

Hamer and Regan used cocaine and attacked their host, Andrew Taylor after Reagan thought he was laughing at them.

Mr Taylor was struck in the abdomen with a knife, repeatedly punched and ordered to get into the shower and strip.

Hamer was aid to have commented to his pal "I always dreamed of killing someone".

Mr Taylor spent 12 days in hospital with his injuries.

Hamer and Regan both pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and were each jailed for four years, with a further year on licence.

READ MORE: Curtis Regan and Tyrone Hamer

Darren Anderson and Christopher Floyd

THUGS Darren Anderson and Christopher Floyd hunted down a homeless man and attacked him with a hammer as he slept in a car park stairwell.

Their victim, Gary Stock was left with a fractured skull and bleed on the brain and spent three weeks in hospital.

Anderson, aged 45, and Floyd, 50, had armed themselves with weapons and gone in search of Mr Stock before finding him in his sleeping bag in a stairwell at the NCP car park on Topp Way.

They denied causing grievous bodily harm but were convicted following a trial.

“The motive behind the attack remains unclear but it is almost certainly drug related,” commented Judge Martin Walsh, who jailed each of them for nine years.

READ MORE: Anderson and Floyd