The last seven days has seen long sentences passed on people who have difficulty learning that breaking the law is wrong. All had long lists of previous convictions and all had been to prison before.

York Press:

The longest sentence was the life sentence passed on David Roustoby, 45, for the murder he committed 13 years ago. He was so sure he had got away with it he bragged about it to some friends - who told the police what he had said.

He tried to avoid responsibility by claiming he had been lying and then, when the jury told him he was a murderer, that the death had been in a fight.

Mr Justice Goss had no doubt Roustoby had planned and carried out the murder as he had described to his friends

“This was a cowardly, callous crime committed by someone whom I am satisfied is manipulative, controlling and deceitful,” the High Court judge told Roustoby.

York Press:

Simon David Winterburn, 40, was jailed for five years and two months for knifing two people, both of whom knew him.

He stabbed one in the leg in the victim's home.

He fought the second in the street to the horror of nearby members of the public, grabbed a knife out of the other man's hand and slashed his face on the cheekbone. He also slashed the tendons in his victim's hand as the other man tried to defend himself.

York Press:

Ryan Michael Mulvaney, 45, had only been out of jail for 10 days when he did what he has been doing since he was a teenager - breaking into someone's home.

This time, he climbed in through the window that a sick person had opened for fresh air before retiring to bed.

Instead of resting and recovering, the householder was shocked by the sign of the career burglar and an accomplice escaping through his window.

Mulvaney was given a 40-month prison sentence.