Owen Oyston
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Owen Oyston is a controversial self-made multimillionaire English businessman who was for a time the owner of Blackpool F.C., but who was convicted of rape and jailed for six years.
[edit] Background
Born in 1934,[citation needed] a miner's son in County Durham, he started his career as an actor, but had considerable success in the 1970s and 1980s in the estate agency business, which he sold for more than £30 million in 1987 just weeks before the UK economic crash. In 1987 he bought a large stake in virtually-bankrupt Blackpool F.C., becoming the club's owner when he purchased new shares the following year. His ambitions of a new, world class stadium for the club made headlines through much of the 1990s, but never quite came to fruition.
He also built up holdings in the media, building up the successful Lancashire Life series of magazines before selling them in 2000 to the Archant Group. He was a major investor in Miss World and in the News on Sunday, and purchased the unsuccessful left-wing Sunday newspaper outright when it went bankrupt, but closed it eight months later, after losing an estimated £2,000,000. His other media interests were in commercial radio. He was chairman of the Red Rose Group, later to be named Trans World Communications (TWC), which owned Red Rose Radio in Preston, Radio Aire in Leeds, Red Dragon Radio in Cardiff and Manchester's Piccadilly Radio. These stations later became part of the Emap media group.
Oyston, who had a financial interest in a modelling agency, was accused of raping around six girls. However, he was acquitted on all but one of the charges after he admitted having relationships with his accusers. Much was made of the fact that Oyston's only high-profile TV appearance during his acting career was in the 1970s TV series Crown Court. In the final case, relating to a girl who was around 16 years of age at the time of the offence in the early 1990s, he did not admit having intercourse with her and was convicted of a single offence of rape, for which he was jailed for six years. Oyston continued to insist on his innocence, claiming that he had been framed in an elaborate conspiracy involving business rivals and government ministers. The case and the preceding police investigation saw questions raised in the House of Commons, particularly by MP, Dale Campbell-Savours.
After his appeal against conviction failed, the Radio Authority ruled in December 1998 that he was not a fit person to own a radio station, and he was forced to relinquish control of The Bay (Morecambe Bay), Heart Beat 1521 (Craigavon), Gold Beat (Cookstown) and City Beat 96.7 (Belfast). He also stood down as chairman of Blackpool F.C.
He was released from prison in December 1999, thanks to a judicial review of the Parole Board's refusal to grant parole. In the twelve months after his release, he was not seen in public, and became a recluse in his Claughton Hall home.[1]
He continued to operate his various businesses, although he quit the position of director of the football club. He returned to estate agencies and to glossy magazines. He relaunched the "Oystons" estate agency and has revived two previously low-profile Ridings Publications titles, The Lancashire Magazine and The Yorkshire Magazine, with managers and journalists who previously worked with him on the "Life" series of county magazines.
Oyston was the subject of controversy again in 2007, when he was invited to a Labour Party fundraising event held by newly-appointed Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 12th July. A spokesman for Brown said, "Mr Brown did not meet Mr Oyston, nor was he aware of his presence in advance. Mr Brown has asked the general secretary of the Labour Party to investigate the circumstances, but he has already instructed him that any donation from Mr Oyston should not be accepted."[2]
