Wigan's Week In Court

A man has been charged with being armed with an offensive weapon - namely a baseball bat - in public.

Anthony Unsworth, 38, of Ormskirk Road, Newtown, is accused of having the bat on Victoria Street on April

23.

He has yet to plead before Wigan magistrates who adjourned the case until at least August 19.

A woman has been accused of a brutal attack. Demi James, 24, of Westcroft, Platt Bridge, is charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on Stacey Finney on July 5 last year at the Mountain Dew pub in Atherton.

She has yet to plead and the case was adjourned until at least August 19.

A man has denied being armed in the street with a Samurai sword. Mark Falla, 41, of Norley Hall Avenue, Norley, appeared before Wigan magistrates to plead not guilty to a charge of being in possession of an offensive weapon on his home street on May

16.

He was remanded in custody pending a summary trial at the same court on Friday May 22.

A Wigan woman caught shoplifting in both her home town and Warrington has been jailed.

Borough magistrates heard that Alysha Clayton, 30, of Prestt Grove, Worsley Mesnes, took £106 worth of bedding from The Range in Wigan in June last year, having previously snatched more than £340 worth of perfume from Warrington’s Debenham’s store in the April.

The bench heard she had already been punished by justices in the Cheshire town with a suspended sentence for the latter crime but then failed to surrender to custody when requested.

She admitted to these offences and also to three failures to attend three supervision appointments between August and November last year following a spell behind bars.

She was sent to prison for eight weeks.

A young man has denied committing three attempted burglaries and taking a car without the owner’s consent.

Ziyad Saleh, 23, of no fixed address, appeared before Wigan justices to plead not guilty to breaking into the Tote building on Chapel Lane and two units on Bradford Street, Wigan, between May 15 and 18 and to making off with a Nissan Qashqai on March

13.

Saleh did however plead guilty to driving that same car on City Road, Kitt Green, the same day without a licence or insurance.

He was remanded on bail pending a case management hearing on August 11.

A man has confessed to twice threatening to firebomb another’s house.

Neil Pedder, 45, of Woodhouse Lane, Springfield, appeared before Wigan and Leigh magistrates to admit that at 1.30am and 6.30am on May 16 he told Neil Baines that he would pour petrol through his letterbox.

He also pleaded guilty to using violence to get into a property on Woodhouse Lane knowing there was someone opposed to his getting in that same night and to threatening both Neil and Donna Baines the night before.

Justices granted him bail on condition that he resides at an address in Keighley, West Yorkshire, and that he has no contact with the Baineses.

He is due to be sentenced at Bolton Crown Court on June 15.

Jason Dewitt, 18, of Scafell Grove, Platt Bridge, appeared before magistrates to plead guilty to menacing and abusing Stephen Hook and Kirsty McIntyre.

He had originally denied those charges but then changed his pleas to guilty.

Dewitt also admitted to stealing £25 worth of petrol from a garage in Wigan, handling a £2,000 stolen motorbike and travelling in a stolen Nissan Micra.

Further guilty pleas were entered for charges that he dishonestly received a stolen Kymno scooter and Mitsubishi Pickup then drove the latter without a licence or insurance.

Dewitt is also charged with assaulting Caroline Hope by beating but no plea has yet been entered on that matter. He was remanded on unconditional bail until August 28.