Neil Wilby Media

A record-breaking criminal trial ended dramatically last week shortly after its thirteen hearing had begun.

Raja Miah, 50, a notorious, unemployed, Tameside-based conspiracy theorist faced a harassment charge at Manchester and Salford Magistrates’ Court at a trial listed for two days, 2nd and 3rd May, 2024.

He was accused of offending against a 41 year old female lawyer from the Salford area.

It was the thirteenth renewal of these proceedings extending across the Greater Manchester court estate, previous case management or pre-trial hearings having been held in magistrates’ court in Tameside and Wigan as well as Manchester and Salford.

An almost verbatim account of last Thursday’s trial proceedings, from one of the most experienced and capable court reporters in the Region, John Scheerhout, can be read at this weblink. 

The author of this article, Neil Wilby, was not present in court as he is currently abroad and was not prepared to break those arrangements, made months ago, for a hearing with such uncertainty surrounding it. 

He attended the previous trial, along with five other journalists, on 17th August, 2022 which ended in chaos as Miah was granted an adjournment after the court heard that around two weeks earlier, his lawyers, Tuckers Solicitors, had written the court to say they could no longer represent ‘The Beggar’ (or ‘The Malicious Beggar’) as he is widely known.

The reason for their withdrawal has been kept concealed from the public and the press by the permanently noisy Mossley man. 

The multiple hearings before and since that trial fixture were mostly to accommodate Miah’s nonsensical conspiracy theory that the arrest in July, 2021, and subsequent charging with the harassment offence, was a political manoeuvre against him, orchestrated by Jim McMahon MP and aided and abetted by Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.. 

Against that backdrop, the principal witness applied to the court, via the Victim Support Service (VSS) and the Crown Prosecution Service, for a short adjournment of the trial (she would be available after 8th May, 2024) so that the dying wish of her mother, who passed away at the end of February, 2024, could be fulfilled. 

Around two weeks before the trial was due to open, the court dismissed the application and ordered that the trial proceeded on the listed dates.

In correspondence seen by Neil Wilby, between the principal witness and the VSS, it was made clear how much additional suffering had been caused by the constant delays to these proceedings; the likelihood, in her view and based on past experience, of further delays; the appearance of the court bending over backwards to accommodate Raja Miah’s whims; her willingness to give evidence via the court’s Cloud Video Platform (CVP) or, alternatively, give live evidence at a re-listed trial.

Dismay was also expressed at the lack of special measures in place, had it been the case that she was able to participate in person; particularly important as Miah attends court accompanied by a large group, appositely self-styled as ‘The Rabble’ (or ‘Raja’s Rabble’); and the complete lack of any form of communication from the CPS. Whom, she says, has treated her dismally during the entire currency of these proceedings.

There is no criticism of the Victim Support Service.

The bottom line is that the district judge allowed ‘The Beggar’ off the hook. He walks free, technically acquitted (read CPS guidance here). The allegations made against him are still there on the record, unaddressed, should he, or his Rabble, re-offend against that particular complainant. 

His ludicrous claim, after the collapse of the trial, that the prosecution was ‘malicious’ (or politically motivated) has absolutely no basis in facts or evidence.

Raja Miah has also yet to explain how, when just a few short weeks ago he claimed he was on the verge of being homeless (read more here), he could afford an experienced criminal defence barrister, Steve Nikolich, to represent him. 

According to his close friend, Paul Ponting (also widely known as ‘The Ormskirk Vigilante’), ‘legal action is being considered’ by Miah. Wishful thinking by Ponting, perhaps, as he recently lost two civil court cases against the same 41 year old lawyer, one of which resulted in a permanent, with power of arrest, injunction against him over his stalking and harassment of that victim (read here).

Page last updated: Sunday 12th May, 2024 at 0645 hours

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