Yet another attempt to undermine his neighbouring council in Oldham, by Tameside’s (and Greater Manchester’s) most prolific and vexatious complainer, has, almost inevitably, fallen by the wayside.
In a post earlier today, on his disgraced and frequently banned Recusant Nine Facebook page, Raja Miah strongly inferred that the council, whom he spends so much of his time derogating and smearing, was facing criminal proceedings in one of Manchester’s two Crown Courts..
Enquiries with the Crown Court at Minshull Street have revealed that Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (Oldham Mbc in the court list) are not actually on trial and have committed no criminal offence.
The subject listing concerns no more than an appeal against magistrates’ overruling objections to a licence that was opposed by the Council. In order to preserve the integrity of the court’s proceeding no other details are considered necessary to disclose at this stage.
A mention hearing took place on 23rd February, 2022 to enable the court and the parties to the appeal to fix a date for the final hearing.
In his familiar role as public nuisance, Miah urged his followers to contact their local Councillor or Oldham Council Chief Executive, Harry Catherall, and ask for an explanation as to why the Council appear to be listed in Court being prosecuted for alleged criminal activity.
As only Miah can, he then, absurdly, linked this innocuous February, 2022 court listing to what he describes as a ‘cover-up’ of a 2019 conviction involving a former Liberal Democrat councillor, Rod Blyth, over indecent image offences (read more here)? For this ‘cover-up’ to have worked, Miah asserts, without a scrap of evidence, ‘complicity was required from the Council, the Councillors, the Police and the Press’. Blyth had not been a Member of the Council, or the LibDems, for over two years by the time he was convicted. He had earlier pleaded guilty to the charges. No indecent images, or anything else improper, was found on council-owned equipment.
So, the end result of today’s farrago is that Raja Miah, himself awaiting two criminal trials later in year (read more here) over , keeps his unblemished record of never having had a complaint upheld (read more here). He robustly denies any wrongdoing in regard to the criminal charges against him, described by Greater Manchester Police as harassment and sending of malicious communications. His next appearance at Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court is 12th April, 2022, when dates will be set for the trials.
As a footnote, and as well rehearsed elsewhere on this website, Recusant Nine and Miah relies entirely on a compliant, unquestioning audience, self-styling as ‘The Rabble’, comprised, largely, of the elderly, vulnerable, in some cases, sadly, mentally ill, and, of course, a motley collection of criminals, thugs, axe grinders and dimwits. Any dissenting, or even mildly questioning, voices are quickly removed from the platform. Truth and rational argument are virtually alien concepts. This is a good example from Alyson Campbell, a resident of Royton, who plies her wisdom, pursuing The Rabble’s cause, on other forums in the Borough. She also trolls and stalks, and invents similar ‘truths’, relentlessly, using an anonymous Twitter account, @ajcrtn.
A mention hearing is most certainly not a part of the process for arraignment of defendants in a criminal trial. That is undertaken at a Plea and Case Management Hearing (PCMH). Mentions are hearings, normally with a time limit of 15 minutes, at which the judge is updated by counsel representing Crown and defendant(s) on the progress of administrative matters relating to a forthcoming trial. It is unusual for such hearings to be used to fix a trial date, more so to break a fixture if one of the parties has attendance issues.
In this particular case, involving Oldham Council, it is an appeal from the Magistrates’ Court. As there is no necessity for a PCMH in such cases it is why the Mention hearing mechanism was used to fix the trial date.
Why Ms Campbell would profess knowledge of such matters, about which she plainly knows little or nothing, is a mystery – as is the fact that it has stood uncorrected by the Recusant Nine fact checker(s) ever since she posted her own version of the truth yesterday.
Page last updated: Tuesday 8th March, 2022 at 0805 hours
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