Wigan's week in court

A Wigan man accused of having a collection of child abuse images has seen his trial delayed until the spring of 2025.

David Waterworth, 41, of Bridge Street in Golborne, denies having 83 prohibited images of a child on March 8, 2021.

He has also pleaded not guilty to making eight of the most serious (category A) images and 16 category B images of children between July 23, 2019 and March 8, 2021.

He first appeared before a Bolton Crown Court judge in November 2022 and his three-day trial hearing was scheduled for this month.

But due to court backlogs the case has now been delayed until May 22 2025.

Waterworth is on bail until then.

A man who denies committing a rape in Wigan will only now be tried late next year.

Gregory Padin, 44, of Liverpool Road North, Sefton, had been due to stand trial at Bolton Crown Court this month on a single charge of raping a woman in her 20s in Bickershaw in February 2022.

But he was re-released on conditional bail after it was decided that there was only now time in the busy court schedules for the trial to take place on November 18 2024.

Justices have issued a fresh arrest warrant for a Wigan woman who failed to turn up at court for sentencing over threats, theft and criminal damage convictions.

Lisa Fisher, 41, of Eastwell Road, Beech Hill, had been due to appear before borough magistrates after admitting to stealing £370 worth of ornaments from Accessories 4U in the Grand Arcade.

She had initially denied that charge but immediately pleaded guilty to smashing an ornamental vase on the same occasion - March 11 2022.

Since then she has evaded justice, having first been a sentencing no-show in June this year and so been made the subject of an arrest warrant.

Fisher had also been accused of using threatening, insulting or abusive words or behaviour against former neighbour Glynn Rostron in January 2021 and when she failed to attend a July hearing for that charge, Wigan and Leigh magistrates found her guilty in her absence.

The idea then was for her to be sentenced for all three offences in October, but when Fisher was absent from court again, the bench was forced to issue a second warrant.

A Wigan 33-year-old has been accused of running two cannabis farms.

Benjamin O'Shaughnessy, of Sandbrook Gardens in Orrell, appeared before borough justices charged with cultivating 128 plants of the class B drug at an address in Skelmersdale on May 11 last year and possessing those drugs with intent to supply them.

He is further charged with producing 60 cannabis plants at an address in Preston on December 18 2022 and dishonestly using electricity on the same occasion.

O'Shaughnessy was released on conditional bail until he makes an appearance before a Preston Crown Court judge on November 16.

The trial of a Wigan man charged with making dozens of indecent images of children will only now take place the year after next.

Simon Blakeney, 61, of Grove Place, Standish, has previously pleaded not guilty to making four of the most serious – category A – pictures of children, 10 category B pictures and 42 category C pictures between July 2018 and March 2021.

A trial had been due to get under way at Bolton Crown Court in July this year but it has been delayed twice since and now a date of June 26 2025 has been fixed due to court backlogs.

Blakeney has been remanded on unconditional bail in the meantime.

Sentencing of a young man who admits to domestic abuse charges has been delayed.

Lucifer O'Malia, 20, of Winstanley Street, has previously appeared before a Bolton Crown Court judge to plead guilty to charges of controlling and coercive behaviour and twice assaulting a named woman by beating.

Sentence was originally scheduled to be passed in September and then October when further charges of strangulation, false imprisonment and attempting to pervert the course of justice were to be dealt with.

But the hearing has now been deferred to December 4.

A Wigan firm has been prosecuted for illegally setting up adverts on lorries in fields next to the M6 in Lancashire. Lancaster City Council took Phantom Motor Company Limited, of Coupland Road, Hindley Green, to court after they advertised on the sides of two lorries placed either side of the M6, north of Whams Lane in Lancaster.

This action resulted in the removal of the advertisements earlier this year. On appearing at court the company pleaded guilty to an offence under the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 and was given a two-year conditional discharge.

It was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £26 and to pay the council’s legal costs of £3,000.

Coun Sandra Thornberry, chair of the council’s planning committee, said: “Advertising can be an ugly blight if not properly regulated and those placed alongside the highway are also a potential safety hazard that can distract drivers.

“You only have to drive along the motorway in certain parts of the country to see how quickly these types of roadside advertisement can get out of control, and that’s something we want to avoid in our district.

"This case should serve as a warning that the council will take action against any companies thinking of advertising in this way.”