All news by author: Esther Halligan

Grandmother Joanne McKie, 44, was "barely able to form a sentence" and was "heavily intoxicated" when police raided her home in a drug bust and found class A drugs

Isaac Lowe, 36, from Stockton, admitted to burglary before he broke down in tears after the court heard how he ruthlessly stole money from a pensioner couple inside their home

Andrea Cardinale attacked Antonino Calabro and Fransesca Di Dio with a sledgehammer and knife, killing both of them days before Christmas in what a judge said was a 'manifestation' of his paranoid schizophrenia

Bethany Cox, from Stockton-on-Tees, pleaded not guilty to two charges of "child destruction" and "procure own miscarriage by poison" at court and was given bail

This gang of drug dealers brought £1 million of cocaine and cannabis into the country and then boasted about the act in chilling text messages, which were read in court

Susan Moorby says she prays for drug lord son Jon Moorby every day but admits he ran his multi-million pound operation through fear and even threatened to kill his whole family over money

Susan Moorby, whose 51-year-old son Jon Moorby is appealing against his 29 year sentence, said the seeds for his crimes were sown when he was a schoolboy.