Wigan's week in court

The trial of a Wigan man who denies stealing pharmaceuticals has been delayed until the autumn.

Lee Standen, 41, of Liverpool Road, Hindley, had been due to face a jury at Bolton Crown Court this month, but the 10-day hearing has now been postponed until October 16 because a jury was not available.

At the conclusion of the trial six men will be sentenced for drug offences.

They are Nathan Hart, 32, of Warrington Road, Abram; Dean Smallwood, 42, of Land Gate Lane, Bryn; Jamie Kenny, 32, of Ashwood Avenue, Abram; Daryl Golding, 36, of Brookland Avenue, Hindley, Sam Causer, 32, of Egerton Street, Abram; and Leon Kenny, 31, of Warrington Road in Abram.

All of them have previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to acquire or possess criminal property and conspiring to supply controlled drugs.

The trial of a Wigan man who denies committing a catalogue of sex crimes, including rapes, against boys dating back more than a quarter of a century has been put back for a whole year.

Norman Williams first appeared before a Bolton Crown Court judge in the summer of 2021 to face a total of 20 historical offences dating from 1995 to 2002.

The 57-year-old of Leigh Road, Atherton, was released on unconditional bail pending a 10-day trial which was to have begun this month.

But because of court backlogs the hearing has now been scheduled to start on February 26 2024.

A Wigan motorist is waiting to find out whether he will be banned from the road after breaking the motorway speed limit by almost 30mph.

Tameside magistrates heard that Simon Roberts, 33, of Alexandra Road, Ashton-in-Makerfield, was caught on camera doing 99mph in a BMW 330E on the eastbound carriageway of the M62 between junctions 11 and 12 on August 4 last year.

The hearing was adjourned until March 24 to consider if there are mitigating circumstances (including exceptional hardship) for not ordering his disqualification.

A one-time Wigan Warriors academy player-turned footballer and his father face possible prison sentences after admitting to launching an attack.

Kyle Dempsey, 27, who these days plays for Bolton Wanderers and lives on Magnolia Way, Blackpool, had previously denied causing a man actual bodily harm in the Maryport area of Carlisle on Saturday July 16 last year.

His father Michael Dempsey, 50, also denied the same charge.

But appearing at Carlisle Crown Court they both entered guilty pleas on a factual basis which have yet to be agreed by the prosecutor.

Michael Dempsey, of Whitecroft, Maryport, also admitted to a charge of causing criminal damage to a door at Maryport Labour Club, where the attack also happened and on the same date.

If the prosecution rejects the defendants’ version of events, despite their guilty pleas, there can be a fact-finding procedure called a Newton hearing, which can take evidence. Both defendants are claiming they acted in self-defence but admit their actions were a "a little excessive."

They were released on bail until March 16. If the prosecution accepts their pleas, they will be sentenced then.

They have been warned by the judge that a custodial term is among his options.

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A Wigan businessman has appeared in court for the second time in just a few weeks after taking part in environmental protests.

Alan Woods has been found guilty of blocking Charing Cross Road, in central London, during a demonstration by Just Stop Oil on October 29.

He was ordered to pay a total of £900 – including a fine, costs and court fees – during the hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Woods, 58, a company director for Alan’s BMX in Wigan town centre, said “We were demanding that the UK Government does not licence any further oil and gas projects.

"I’ve written to my MP, signed petitions, gone on marches and every time we are ignored.

“The Government is progressing over 100 new licences for oil, gas and now, astonishingly in 2023, coal.

“This is a death sentence for future generations and is affecting the world around us right now.

"The food shortages we are already seeing in supermarkets this past week will be followed by widespread crop failures and mass migration within my lifetime.

"Civil resistance is all I have left.”

It follows a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court last month where Woods was one of seven Just Stop Oil supporters found guilty of aggravated trespass at an Esso fuel terminal in Birmingham on April 3, which stopped all distribution for around 12 hours.

Since the Just Stop Oil campaign launched on in February 2022, there have been more than 2,000 arrests and 138 people have spent time in prison.

A Wigan man accused of killing a mum of three in a car crash will only face a jury in almost 14 months’ time if he pleads not guilty.

Jack Knowles, 33, from Hall Lane in Hindley is accused of causing death by careless driving and committing an act with intent to pervert the course of public justice. Pedestrian Katherine West was seriously injured when she was in collision with an SUV on Ladies' Lane, in Hindley on Bonfire Night 2021.

The 59-year-old battled for her life in hospital but, sadly, died six weeks later.

The charge of perverting the course of justice concerns an allegation that the defendant repaired collision damage to a Peugeot 3008 in the 12 days following the incident. Knowles has yet to enter a plea and this is now expected to take place on June 14 at Bolton Crown Court.

And a provisional trial date of April 29 2024 has been set, before which the defendant is on unconditional bail.

A young Wigan man who denies being a flasher has made a further court appearance.

Courtney Havill, 26, of of Cedar Drive, Whelley, reappeared before Manchester and Salford magistrates having previously denied intentionally exposing himself with the aim of causing alarm or distress on October 2, 2021 and September 9, 2022.

A case management hearing has now been fixed for May 5 at the same court before which he is on bail conditional that he lives and stays overnight at his home address and does not approach four named females.

A Wigan borough motorist broke the speed limit four times on the same stretch of motorway in the same year, a court heard.

Kaleem Iqbal, 41, of Johnson Street, Atherton, was at the wheel of a Volkswagen Polo which drove at speeds between 79 and 62mph on the M66 northbound on June 4, 5 and 8 then August 13, all last year when a 50mph restriction was in place.

The case was adjourned until June 9.

A young Wigan pervert has been convicted of raping a 70-year-old woman and assaulting a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

A Bolton Crown Court jury took little more than four hours to deliver three unanimous guilty verdicts to the charges facing Issa Brayzi-Pour following a nine-day trial.

The 22-year-old, of Avondale Road, Swinley, had been accused of two counts of sexually attacking the pensioner in Farnworth in August 2022.

And he was also charged with having assaulted the teenager earlier that same month with the intention of committing a sexual offence.

He denied the accusations and a trial began on Monday February 20, concluding on March 2 with his conviction.

Brayzi-Pour was remanded in custody pending sentence at the same court on May 5.

A man has pleaded guilty to entering another resident's room at Leigh's homeless hub with intent to steal.

Paul Roberts, 49, of no fixed address, went into the room at the Chapel Street hub on January 14.

He will be sentenced by Wigan magistrates on April 11 and was remanded on bail until then, with a condition not to go to the hub.

A trial date has been set for a Wigan man accused of sexually touching a woman without her consent.

Jamie Ratchford, 35, of Avon Road, Norley, denies committing the alleged offence on October 7, as well as being in possession of class B drug amphetamine on October 27. A trial will be held at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates' Court on August 1 and Ratchford was remanded on conditional bail until then.

A drugs dealer who repeatedly flew contraband by drone into two North West prisons, including Wigan’s, had “a supermarket” of goods ready to continue his illegal trade. Jake Burns was found to have skunk, cannabis resin, tobacco, two mobile phones, 32 sim cards, cables and cigarette papers when his home was raided.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that inside prison the cannabis resin was worth £7,400, the skunk had a value of £1,800 and the tobacco was worth £2,500.

The items were found in a bag behind a door in the rear porch of his home in Monfa Road, Bootle, along with a drone, said Neil Biswara, prosecuting.

Disqualified driver Burns had used the drone to take items into HMP Liverpool and HMP Hindley at Wigan and even dragged his wife Danielle Burns into his offending by using her as a driver on his smuggling trips.

She filmed him opening a box containing a drone during which she says "best flyer in Liverpool” to which Burns responds “best flyer in the North West, we're going to Wigan tonight,” said Mr Biswarya.

Burns, 29, who has previous convictions including for a similar offence for conveying drugs into prison in 2017, was jailed for three years.

He thanked the judge and gave him a thumbs-up.

Recorder Imran Shafi, KC, listed the items found in the bag, including 40 cylindrical packages of drugs, a smart phone, all wrapped in cling film, scales string and plastic bags, and said they “were effectively a supermarket with items that prisoners might want but are not able to obtain because they are illegal in the establishments.”

He told him “This was an ingenious, novel, effective and most of all a highly illegal enterprise.”

He said such activity “undermines in an insidious manner the good order and discipline required to run safe and secure institutions.

"That is why these offences are very serious indeed.”

Burns pleaded guilty to four offences of conspiracy to convey drugs, mobile phones and tobacco into the two prisons between July 3 and August 2 last year.

Danielle Burns, 34, admitted three offences of assisting and encouraging her husband to convey cannabis resin, phones and tobacco.

The court heard that she has three unrelated convictions and the judge told her that if she did not know before she now knew how serious the offences were.

He sentenced her to 16 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years.

“What leads me to suspend it is the impact on your two innocent daughters who have, through no fault of their own, you two setting a terrible example to them,” he said.

The court heard that the girls, aged eight and 15, both needed their mum.

The judge ordered her to carry out 20 days’ rehabilitation activities and imposed a three month curfew between 7pm and 7am.

Mr Biswara had told how the first trip was to Wigan on July 4 with Danielle driving them in a VW Golf and just a week later the drone delivered items to Walton prison.

On July 19 there was another sighting at the prison of the drone, which later crashed nearby.

Video found on the drone’s memory card when the couple’s home was raided confirmed those two later trips.

On July 31 a drone was again seen entering Walton prison with delivery confirmed into F wing and later the same night it flew into the grounds of HMP Hindley, said Mr Biswara. Michael O’Brien, defending, said that Burns had thought he had got his life back on track after his 2017 conviction as he had a job, had married and had family responsibilities.

“He acknowledges he threw it away when he fell back into crime.

"He regrets his actions and knows he has let himself and his family down.”

Defence barrister Tom Watson said that Mrs Burns had been living “in a pressure cooker.” “She feels let down by him (her husband) but still loves him and still wishes to stand by him.”

"She had acted out of misguided loyalty and had been under stress as she was nursing her dad, who has since died.

"She is deeply remorseful.”

A 65-year-old man has been accused of attacking a woman and causing trains to be delayed by trespassing on the lines at Wigan Wallgate station.

Colin Monk, of Slaidburn Drive, Accrington, is charged with assaulting Ziggy Smolen by beating her on June 29 last year and on the same day causing the obstruction of an engine or carriage and trespass.

The two rail-related charges are being prosecuted under the 1949 British Transport Commission Act and the Malicious Damage Act of 1861 respectively.

No pleas have yet been entered and the hearing was adjourned until April 14 for a case management hearing.

The case of a firm which owns several sites in Wigan and admits breaching an environmental permit has been adjourned until September.

Maybrook Developments (Appley Bridge) Ltd, which is registered in Worcestershire, has been before Wigan and Leigh magistrates in a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency.

The offences relate to West Quarry, in Appley Bridge, and landfill on Parbold Hill.

Guilty pleas were entered on a previous occasion to four offences of failing to comply with the conditions of an environmental permit.

These related to waste other than that listed in the permit being stored on land between February 19, 2020 and June 29, 2021, and not conducting and submitting landfill gas, groundwater and surface water monitoring between March 31, 2021 and November 2, 2021.

Guilty pleas were also entered for two charges of failing to comply with an enforcement notice relating to flood risk activity on November 1, 2020 and November 15, 2020.

The notices had required Maybrook to remove waste, as well as to conduct landfill gas, surface water, groundwater and leachate monitoring and submit the results to the Environment Agency.

Maybrook’s owner Peter O’Dowd, of Mere Road, Newton Le-Willows, has been charged with the same offences and has now entered not guilty pleas.

Following a brief hearing at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates’ Court, a date of Friday September 22 was set for the start of two-day trial before Tameside justices.