Wigan's week in court

Parents have been fined for their children's persistent truanting from a Wigan school.

Jayne and Mike Kellett of Cinnamon Crescent, Hindley Green, were both proved guilty in their absence from Wigan Magistrates' Court of failing to ensure their daughter's regular attendance at Outwood Academy in Hindley during last year's autumn term.

Each was fined and ordered to pay court costs and a victim services surcharge bringing the household bill to £816.

Also convicted of the same offence over the same period and at the same school was Caroline Hope of Scafell Grove, Platt Bridge.

For her daughter's bunking off from Outwood Academy she must pay £408 in costs, a surcharge and fine.

A Wigan 23-year-old who admitted to a £5,500 benefit fiddle has been given a community punishment.

Ryan Cleworth, of Thomas Street, Hindley Green, pleaded guilty to four charges of receiving credits to which he was not entitled between 2019 and 2021 and then failing to take steps to cancel those payments, knowing he didn't deserve them.

Returning to Wigan Magistrates' Court for sentencing, he was ordered to complete 80 hours of unpaid work and fork out £175 to victim services and the court.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a Wigan thief after he failed to turn up to court for sentencing.

Andrew Baratinsky, 40, of Kimberley Place, Ashton-in-Makerfield, had previously stood before justices to plead guilty to the theft of a £60 package owned by a householder in Lambert Meadows, Tyldesley, on February 10.

He had also admitted to breaching the terms of a community order but was cleared of stealing alcohol from Bryn Street post office, Ashton-in-Makerfield in January last year following a trial.

The case was adjourned until May during which time Baratinsky was released on conditional bail.

But when the day came to learn his fate, the offender didn't show and so the bench issued a warrant.

The trial of a 28-year-old former Wigan borough man for a string of domestic abuse charges has been abandoned after he changed his plea to some of them.

Luke Coleman, formerly of Bond Street in Leigh and latterly of Valley View in Chorley, had faced six allegations including one of sexual assault between March 1 and 31 last year and coercive behaviour between October 1 and 2020 and April 17 2022.

He had been due to stand trial this month, but then he pleaded guilty to three of the assaults and the one of coercion.

The other two charges will lie on file. Sentencing will now take place at Manchester Crown Court on June 15.

A Leigh man is to face attempted robbery trial in the autumn.

Nathan Morris, 31, of Glebe Street, is set to appear before a Bolton Crown Court judge and jury on October 9.

A young Wigan man has been accused of assault, strangulation and coercive and controlling behaviour.

The charges against Lucifer O'Malia, 20, of Winstanley Street, Newtown, relate to one named woman and allegations of criminal behaviour in January this year.

He has yet to enter pleas although he has admitted to a bail breach.

He is next due to appear at Bolton Crown Court on August 9 before which he is on bail while subject to an electronically-tagged curfew and must not have any contact with the complainant.

A Wigan woman is challenging a conviction for failing to disclose who was at the wheel of her car when it was involved in an offence.

Katie Hesketh, 34, of Ruskin Crescent, Abram, was in February found guilty by a single magistrate of the "fail to furnish" offence by Manchester magistrates which can take place without the defendant's attending (known as "single justice procedure").

But she has now appeared before the court to make a statutory declaration and enter a not guilty plea to the charge.

It is alleged that she did not tell the authorities who was driving her Nissan Juke when it was involved in an offence on August 10 last year.

The case will be heard by Wigan justices on October 26.

Sentencing of a man who admits mounting a stalking campaign against a woman for more than three months has been delayed.

Craig Knox, 36, of Wigan Road, Standish, had initially denied sending numerous threatening messages and texts between July 27 and November 6, but since changed his plea to guilty.

He faced a single charge of "a course of conduct that caused Nicola Lane serious alarm or distress, which had a substantial adverse effect on her usual day-to-day activities". Knox had been due to be sentenced at Bolton Crown Court on May 25, but the hearing has now been adjourned until June 20.

The trial of two teenagers – one of whom is from Wigan borough – accused of the murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey in a Warrington park has now been fixed for November. Brianna, a transgender schoolgirl, who was described as “fearless” by her family, was found with multiple stab wounds in Linear park, Culcheth, on Saturday afternoon February 11 this year and she died shortly afterwards.

Her alleged killers, a 15-year-old boy from Leigh and a girl from Warrington, now aged 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been due to face trial in July but this date was abandoned earlier this month.

A hearing about the case, which the defendants did not attend, took place today at Liverpool Crown Court and Mrs Justice Yip fixed the new trial date to begin on November 27 at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square. It is expected to last three weeks.