Here are the biggest court stories that have featured in the Stroud News and Journal, Gazette Series or Wilts and Glos Standard over the past few days.

A former teacher has been jailed for 16 months for sexual offences against two teenage girls.

Thomas Hancock, from Cam, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to sexually assaulting two girls aged 16 and 17.

FULL STORY: Teacher Thomas Hancock from Cam jailed for sex offences against two female pupils

A Tetbury woman has been banned from driving for four years and fined £750 after she was found two and a half times over the drink-drive limit.

Sarah Westman, 63, of Long Newton, had consumed over half a bottle of vodka during the course of that day before driving to Cirencester Tesco where she worked, a court heard.

FULL STORY: Cirencester Tesco worker banned from driving after drinking half bottle of vodka

A man who crammed 44 dogs into small cages in a van during a hot day in August last year -leading to the deaths of 20 of them - has been banned from owning, keeping or transporting animals for two years.

Patrick Stokes 25, of Adventure Lane, West Rainton, Durham, was stopped on the M6 having set off from Cheltenham en-route to Stoke-on-Trent

Gloucestershire Police had received a call from a member of the public stating that she had seen a litter of puppies being transferred from one van to another in Stancombe Lane in Charlton Kings by two men she thought were acting suspiciously.

The police alerted all forces around the country and within an hour Stokes had been stopped on the M6.

FULL STORY: Man crammed over 40 puppies into hot van

A farmer admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a sheep, at a hearing at Cirencester Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

The sheep was found dead on his farm during an unannounced inspection.

Keith Barber, aged 72, of Joys Green, Lydbrook, also pleaded guilty to failing in his duty of care to two other sheep.

Sentencing was adjourned until August 11.

FULL STORY: Farmer found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to sheep

A 26-year-old mother has avoided jail for neglecting her baby daughter after the child suffered thirteen 'significant' injuries all over her body.

The woman, from Dursley but now living in Bristol, pleaded guilty to one charge of child neglect in Dursley between August and November 2017.

She was sentenced to a nine months prison term suspended for 24 months.

FULL STORY: Dursley mum, 26, avoids jail after baby girl suffers 13 injuries

Attempted murder charges against an estranged Gloucestershire couple have been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service after one of the defendants admitted a charge of assaulting the victim.

At Bristol Crown Court Bernard McDonagh, 28, of Draycott, Cam, pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of James Quilligan on June 23, 2020, but admitted causing him grievous bodily harm with intent to do so on the same date.

Tina McDonagh, 27, formerly of the same address but now living in Reading, denied the attempted murder charge and the Crown Prosecution Service accepted her plea and offered no evidence. The case against her was dropped and she was discharged.

The CPS today also accepted pleas submitted by Bernard McDonagh and he will be sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court at the end of July.