It was another busy year for police
Police cordon and road closure in St Pauls, Bristol(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
Murders, rape cases, violent attacks, stabbings, frauds and thefts have meant a busier year than ever for police and the court system in Bristol.
The year 2025 thankfully didn’t see any more young lives lost to the long-running knife crime issue and ‘postcode rivalry’, after the tragedies of 2023 and 2024, but there were still issues with young people being stabbed in parts of the city.
2025 was the year a number of high-profile killers from previous years were finally brought to justice – with the culmination of the trial of two men accused of the murder of St Paul’s teenager Eddie Kinuthia and the attempted murder of another man saw life sentences with hefty tariffs for Zacharia Talbert-Young and Paul Hayden.
And 2025 also saw the conviction of Yostin Mosquera, the man who brutally killed a couple in their London home and inexplicably tried to dispose of their bodies in suitcases at the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
READ MORE: ‘Enough bloodshed’ says mum of murdered Bristol teen in call to end postcode rivalryREAD MORE: Killer jailed for 33 years over fatal stabbing in Bristol park
But aside from those high profile cases, there were a number of important or serious convictions and crimes that you may have missed during 2025.
Date app rapist
Thomas Manson(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)
A man who met a 19-year-old woman on a dating app and then raped her was finally brought to justice. Thomas Manson, now 30 and from Crediton in Devon, carried out the attack on the victim in Bristol in May 2022, but was finally brought to trial in the city in October.
He denied the offence, but was found guilty by a jury and was jailed for four and a half years.
Prolific shoplifter
Jamie Doyle(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)
A prolific shoplifter who stole thousands of pounds worth of tobacco from shops around the city was jailed in November.
Jamie Doyle, 35, carried around robberies, burglaries and shoplifting in a five day spree back in October, in East Bristol, and police reckoned he had stolen nearly £5,000 worth of tobacco.
He was jailed for three years and nine months in November this year.
Cocaine dealer
Alfie Bailey, aged 21 of Archer Walk in Stockwood, pleaded guilty to the charges.(Image: Avon and Somerset Police)
A young man tried to escape police knocking on the front door of his home in Stockwood by running out of the back garden with a small stash of cocaine.
But police caught Alfie Bailey, 21, went back to the house and found a haul of £4,400 worth of cocaine, cash and weapons.
Bailey was jailed for two years and four months after pleading guilty in November to possession with intent to supply cocaine, being concerned in the supply of cocaine and for being in possession of criminal property.
Attempted murderers
Reuben Fay(Image: Avon and Somerset Police )
Three men were convicted of attempted murder after a violent stabbing left a man with brain damage and long-term, life-changing injuries.
Reuben Fay, 20, of Lockleaze, Tayshon Graham, 21, of Easton, and Cain Henderson, 24, of Eastville, were found guilty by a jury of attempted murder.
All three had admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent, but denied the more serious charge in a trial that saw guilty verdicts for the three back in October.
A fourth man, Ajay Edwards, 22, of Slough, was not convicted of attempted murder but admitted GBH with intent.
The attack happened on Gloucester Road on Boxing Day in 2023, and took almost two years to come to court.
Stabbing
While there were thankfully no repeats of the deaths of young teenage boys in Bristol this year, it was not the case that the gang-related knife crime issue simply went away.
In perhaps the most serious case in 2025, a 15-year-old was stabbed in an underpass near to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway, in an incident that could have been far worse, and prompted a huge police response.
The stabbing happened on the Whitsun Bank Holiday Monday at the end of May, and within a couple of days police arrested and charged a number of teenage boys with crimes related to the attack.
Hit and run
Five teenagers were arrested soon after an incident in Hartcliffe back in May. Police said a car was driven at two teenage boys riding a Sur-Ron electric bike in Teyfant Road. They await their case to be concluded at Bristol Crown Court.
Attempted murder
A 19-year-old was charged with attempted murder in relation to a serious assault that happened back in early September in Easton. The 19-year-old was also charged with possession of a bladed article after an alleged stabbing on Stapleton Road on the first Friday afternoon of September this year.
Alleged Child Sexual Exploitation
Perhaps the biggest as yet unresolved case in Bristol in 2025 was the appearance in court of seven young men charged with a range of offences including rape, attempted rape, child sexual exploitation and drugs offences.
The seven appeared in court initially back in October, and were told they face around 40 charges between them, including 12 of rape, with the victims being girls aged between 14 and 17.