Wigan's week in court

Two people who deny possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply them will only get a chance to prove their innocence in a year’s time.

Michael Creaby, 42, of Sandy Lane, Hindley, and Louise Kerr, 42, of Lulworth Drive, Hindley Green, have already appeared before Wigan magistrates to plead not guilty to the two class A drug offences alleged to have been committed on August 22 2018.

But a Bolton judge has now decided that, due to a Covid-19-induced backlog of cases, the crown court trial can only take place on September 13 2021.

A man has denied threatening to burn his next door neighour’s house down. Gerard Thompson, 36, of Baxter Street, Standish, appeared before Wigan justices facing four counts of issuing threats to two women: Three to neighbour Jemma Fulton whom he is alleged to have twice threatened with violence and also an arson attack, the other an allegedly threatening phone call to Tracey Haydock.

He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges and the bench sent the case for trial at Bolton Crown Court where he is due to make a first appearance on October 14.

A man accused of carrying out a vicious attack inside the borough’s prison and having a contraband item behind bars will enter his plea later.

Wayne Jones, 32, of HMP Berwyn in Wrexham, is charged with unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on Nathan Powell at the Hindley jail on April 23 last year.

Jones is also accused of having a black Zanco mobile phone while at HMP Hindley in contravention of the Prison Act.

A judge at Bolton Crown Court ruled that a pre-trial preparation hearing will be held on September 30 and a provisional trial date was set for January 18.

Two men accused of carrying out a serious attack on another man at Hindley Prison will plead later this month. Dean Lee and James Muldoon are accused of unlawfully and maliciously wounding Callum Tombs as well as a charge of intending to cause him grievous bodily harm.

Lee, 26, of Ellesmere Port and 40-year-old Muldoon, of HMP Risley, will attend a plea and trial preparation hearing at Bolton Crown Court on September 30 and a provisional trial date has been set for January 19.

A woman who attacked two police officers has been given a community order. Samantha Stockton, 33, of Bleakledge Grove, Hindley, appeared before Wigan justices to admit to assaulting PCs Simon Winrow and John Caunce on April 2.

She was ordered to complete 20 days of rehabilitation activities and pay out £325 in compensation to her victims, court costs and a victim services surcharge.

A farmer has denied menacing firemen trying to put out a blaze. It is alleged William Threlfall, 63, of Close Lane, Hindley, obstructed crews by threatening violence and using plant machinery. He also pleads not guilty to assaulting a firefighter.

Wigan magistrates released him on unconditional bail pending a trial at the same court on March 8 next year.

A thief who admitted to four shopliftings has been given an 18-month conditional discharge.

Peter Curphey, 42, of Stranraer Road, Marsh Green, appeared before Wigan magistrates to admit to stealing cleaning products twice from Bargain Buys on February 22, plus meat from Lidl and meat and butter from Lidl and McColls on March 3. The value of the goods stolen came to around £143.

Curphey was ordered to pay compensation and court costs totalling £214.

A motorist has been banned from the road for three years after testing positive at the wheel for cocaine.

Christopher Jones, 35, of Princess Road, Ashton, appeared before borough justices to admit drug-driving in his Volvo on Poolstock Lane, on January 15 this year. A fine, court costs and a victim services surcharge mean Jones also has to stump up £237.

A woman drove while under the influence of cocaine, Wigan magistrates heard.

Toni Molyneux, 29, of Winstanley Road, Bamfurlong, is also charged with being at the wheel when uninsured.

The case was adjourned to November 24 because the defendant was said to be displaying Covid symptoms and was awaiting a test.

A man who used racially abusive language has been fined. Kieron Taylor, 31, of Sydney Street, Platt Bridge, appeared before Wigan magistrates to admit to using threatening or offensive language within sight or earshot of other parties and that the words were racist.

With court costs and a victim services surcharge added to the penalty, Taylor must pay a total of £177.

Two Wigan men have been accused of wilfully damaging, topping or lopping a tree in such a manner as to be likely to destroy it.

William Dodd, of Warrington Road, Abram, and William Grundy, 77, of Lee Lane, also in Abram, have yet to plead before Wigan magistrates who adjourned the case until October 9. It is alleged they twice damaged trees on June 10 and July 7 in breach of preservation orders.

A man who denies being armed with a baseball bat will only be tried in almost a year’s time.

Anthony Unsworth, 38, of Mesnes Road, Swinley, has already appeared before Wigan magistrates to plead not guilty to having an offensive weapon on Victoria Street on April 23. Now, after the case was sent to Bolton Crown Court, a judge has had to set his trial date for September 1 2021 because of the pandemic’s causing a court backlog and he is remanded on bail until then.

A Wigan house that had become a focal point for anti-social behaviour has been hit with a closure order.

The borough council lodged an application with Wigan and Leigh magistrates to serve a notice on Chantel Michaels at her home at 16 Montrose Avenue, Worsley Hall.

The order was granted by the bench under the terms of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act of 2014.

A Wigan Council spokeswoman said: “An application was made to the court for a closure order at 16 Montrose Avenue following complaints of anti-social behaviour originating from the address.

"The court considered the evidence and granted a three-month order limiting those allowed at the address to only those named in the order. Any unauthorised visitors to the address may be arrested and prosecuted accordingly.”

There have been several instances in recent months of people appearing before Wigan magistrates accused of breaching closure orders imposed at other Wigan homes.

A man who defecated in his police cell after being arrested for cannabis possession has been given a conditional discharge.

David Brown, 26, of Brabazon Place, Marsh Green, had initially denied responsibility for the “dirty protest” at Wigan police station but later changed his plea to guilty. He also admitted to having the class B drug on the same day: April 18.

As well as the two-year discharge, Brown was also ordered to pay a victim services surcharge totalling £68.

However Brown has denied three further charges: two of burgling a house on Brookdale Road, Hindley, on consecutive days to steal bottles of champagne and wine and another of harassing Ashley O’Neil over seven weeks in June and July this year.

For those charges he was remanded in custody until he appears before a Bolton Crown Court judge on October 7.

A bike-riding Wigan drug peddler is beginning a two-year jail term after being caught with heroin and crack cocaine.

Bolton Crown Court heard that police had been given information that Martynas Cerniauskas had been dealing in the area and when officers saw him on his bicycle in Upper Dicconson Street, Swinley, at 9am on July 16 last year they conducted a stop and search.

The hearing was told that the 35-year-old spat a wrap of brown powder out of his mouth which was recovered by officers who then found further wraps of brown and white powder in his bumbag, along with a phone and cash.

Following laboratory analysis, the seized powders proved to be 59 wraps of crack cocaine and 46 wraps of diamorphine. The seized money - described as “criminal property” amounted to £180.

Cerniauskas, of Cheviot Walk, Platt Bridge, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession class A substances with intent to supply. The court was told that Cerniauskas had no previous convictions.

A Wigan man guilty of stalking has been given a suspended prison sentence. Michael Aspinall, of Norbreck Crescent, Springfield, had denied pestering and haunting a woman to a distressing degree.

But, following a trial at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates’ Court earlier this year, the 32-year-old was convicted of the crime and also threatening to damage a man’s car.

The chair of the bench told him: “Your course of conduct amounted to stalking and caused the woman considerable alarm or distress, which had a substantial adverse effect on her usual day-to-day activities when you knew, or ought to have known, that your conduct would cause her distress on each occasion.

"On numerous occasions you have been seen outside the home address of the victim and have been seen in various places where she has been socialising with friends and family and have been seen standing outside her parents’ address, asking her where she is going and watching her drive away.”

Now Aspinall has learnt his fate. He was given a six-month prison sentence but it was suspended for two years. He must complete 20 days of rehabilitation activities and 80 hours of unpaid work while also paying £500 in compensation to his female victim. The bench also imposed a two-year restraining order against his approaching either victim nor entering several named Wigan streets.

A thief with an “appalling” criminal record has been spared an immediate jail sentence after admitting to stealing cash from two cars.

Billy Wilson, 24, of no fixed address, appeared before Wigan justices to admit to the theft of £20 from Ian Jones’s Land Rover Discovery on May 6 and £22 from an Audi A6 belonging to Jessica Marron on August 27.

The bench imposed a 28-day prison sentence which was suspended for 12 months. Wilson must complete 15 days of rehabilitation activities and pay compensation to his victims totalling £117.

The court said he had been given a custodial sentence because of his bad record of offending and because the offences had been committed while he was on licence. He was also given a day in jail for failing to keep in touch with his appointed office and staying at the address he was supposed to while on licence.

A teenager has been banned from driving after getting behind the wheel after taking cocaine and the horse tranquilliser ketamine.

Adam Raines-Dallimore, 19, of Gloucester Crescent, Hindley, who was stopped in a Fiat Punto on February 16 and tested positive for both drugs, was also ordered to pay £199 in fines, court costs and a victim services surcharge by Wigan justices.

A man who sexually molested a woman he had propositioned in the street has been jailed for a year.

Abdelkader Taboubi had approached his victim on Bolton Road, Ashton, and asked her if he could touch her backside, Bolton Crown Court heard.

The woman said “no” but Taboubi then touched her arm, kissed her on the cheek and slapped her backside.

Distressed, the victim then fled to her place of work in Ashton town centre and the matter was reported to police.

Taboubi, 40, of Bolton Road, Ashton, had appeared before Wigan and Leigh magistrates to deny intentionally sexually touching a female over 16 without her consent, but was convicted after a trial.

The sentencing judge jailed Taboubi for 12 months and also imposed a 10-year restraining order which prevents him from having any contact with his victim nor going within 100m of her workplace.

The trial of two men accused of a knife attack more than two years ago will only take place in September 2021.

Aaron Robinson, 27, of Buchanan Road, Worsley Hall, and 34-year-old John McLaughlin, of Manchester Road, Ince, are both accused of causing Ryan Wootton grievous bodily harm during an altercation at a Wigan pub on July 15, 2018.

It was alleged that Mr Wootton suffered a 3cm knife wound in the incident and that he was also kicked and stamped upon while he lay on the ground.

Robinson also denies GBH and threatening GBH with a blade. Due to a backlog of cases their trial was set for September 6 next year before which they are on bail.

A teenager has been referred to a youth offender panel for eight months after admitting to the racist assault of a girl in Wigan’s Mesnes Park.

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named, appeared at Wigan Youth Court to confess to the July 30 attack, having initially denied the offence. She must also pay her victim £100 in compensation.

A motorist has been banned from the road for a year for driving while under the influence of cocaine.

Tyrone Lane, 24, of Fraser Road, Worsley Hall, admitted to having taken the class A substance when stopped police in a Ford Fiesta on Ormskirk Road, Pemberton, on April 28.

A fine, court costs and victim services surcharge mean that he must also pay out £239 as well as serve the disqualification.

A man has been accused of a racially aggravated attack on a car. Alexander Irvine, 50, of Hereford Road, Hindley, appeared before Wigan magistrates to plead not guilty to the criminal damage of Babak Oroujane’s Vauxhall Astra in April, whether it was racially motivated or not. The bench set a trial date for March 1.

A Wigan teen has been accused of peddling four different drugs. Thomas Kay, 19, of Woolton Close, Ashton, is charged with possessing, MDMA, cocaine, ketamine and skunk cannabis with intent to supply in Wigan on October 26 last year.

He has yet to plead and Wigan magistrates sent the case to be heard by a Bolton Crown Court judge on October 14.

A man accused of drug dealing will appear before a judge in a year’s time.

Due to the legal system’s backlog from Covid restrictions, Gavin Bentham’s case of allegedly dealing diamorphine and crack cocaine with intent to supply will next be heard at Bolton Crown Court on September 13 2021. Bentham, 25, of Thirlmere Road, Hindley, denies the charges.