As your eyes and ears in London’s courts we regularly see dour and gloomy looking individuals pictured after their arrests, but it’s rare to see some criminals glowing with happiness.
In 2025 we saw a grinning killer, smiling sex offenders and a knife-wielding robber showing off his pearly whites.
These custody images were taken before their sentences were handed down and the grins were wiped off their faces.
Smirking killer
Jakub Molga was pictured grinning after he beat a sleeping man to death whilst his friend filmed it.
Rafal Zabiecki, 48, was asleep in his Pinner home on February 20, 2023 when Molga and Andrej Kolecki entered and killed him.
The two entered the property in Howards Close and Molga beat Rafal with a wooden table leg, hitting him so hard that it broke.
Molga then armed himself with a heavier piece of wood and continued to attack Rafal, finally pouring boiling water over his feet. The assault was filmed by Kolecki on his phone.
In February 2025 both men were convicted of murder.
Molga, who also goes by the name Leon Pedrycz, was sentenced to life imprisonment and will serve a minimum of 22 years.
Grinning knifeman
A knife-wielding man from Romford who went on a four day robbery spree targeting passengers on trains and tubes was pictured grinning before he was jailed.
Teddy Kelt, 20, of Bower Close in Romford, went on a four day robbery spree targeting passengers on trains and Tubes.
A court heard how at 9.30pm on December 4, 2024,, Kelt followed a 22-year-old man onto the platform of Mile End Underground station.
He approached the victim and demanded his phone, telling him he had a knife and would stab him if he called for help.
After the victim handed it over, Kelt patted him down and rifled through his pockets before slapping him, pushing him to the floor and fleeing the station.
The following day, Kelt boarded a Jubilee line train armed with a machete.
He sat next to a 16-year-old boy, asking about the victim’s phone before demanding he hand it over.
Kelt threatened the teen, claiming he would visit him at his college if he dared report the robbery.
Over the coming days Kelt went on to threaten various other young people – taking almost £4,000 worth of items.
In November 2025, Kelt was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to three counts of robbery, three counts of attempted robbery, two public order offences, two counts of possessing a knife or bladed article in public, and common assault.
Smiling child sex offender
A convicted child sex offender from Brentwood was pictured grinning after he was arrested again for downloading more indecent images of children.
Jack Weller, 32, as given a 10 year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) in October 2024 after being convicted of an offence relating to indecent images of children.
But less than a year later he was arrested and taken into custody for questioning.
He was further arrested for breaching his SHPO by deleting images.
A full review was carried out and found nine category A images and four category B images on his device.
He was subsequently charged and pleaded guilty.
In September 2025, Weller was jailed for two years and two months and has been placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Killer
A man who beat a man to death with a hammer smiled in his police mugshot.
John Moore, 39, was jailed for six years and two months for manslaughter in October 2025.
He beat 63-year-old Francis Reilly to death, who had previously targeted him in a chemical attack.
Moore is said to have regularly borrowed money to fuel his drug habit and was in debt to Reilly..
Reilly arrived at a flat in Brentwood with a small bottle of ammonia which, when a fight broke out in the flat, he tried to spray at Moore.
But Moore, stronger and over 20 years younger than Mr Reilly, quickly overpowered Reilly and armed himself with a hammer.
He repeatedly cracked down on Reilly with the weapon and threw him against a wall.
Reilly managed to flee the flat, but Moore’s attack continued outside, in view of a taxi driver.
The taxi driver flagged down two passing police officers, telling them he had just seen a man striking another repeatedly with a hammer as the victim pleaded with his attacker.
The officers raced to the scene, finding Mr Reilly badly wounded and gasping for breath.
Reilly told the officers he had been “hit everywhere”, pointing out the nearby Moore as the person responsible.
The officers called for paramedics, but Reilly died at the scene at 4.25pm.
Moore pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
‘Danger to young girls’ grinning
A Bexleyheath dad who was arrested for sending sexual messages to 14-year-old girls then went on to send more creepy messages to a 13-year-old whilst he was released under investigation – he was pictured smiling in a custody image.
Stephen Baughen, 43, was jailed for six years in January 2025 after a judge concluded he was a danger to young girls.
A jury unanimously found Baughen guilty of sexual offences involving three different young girls.
In August 2020 Baughen had sent sexual messages to the first 14-year-old girl on Instagram.
Around the same time, he was messaging another 14-year-old.
The court heard that over the course of several months he sent her sexual messages including a photo of an erect penis, presumed to be his.
Baughen was later arrested on suspicion of these offences but released under investigation.
In August 2023 he then went on to send sexual messages to another young girl, this time a 13-year-old who responded by calling him a “nonce”.
