A man with previous for ‘sword’ possession in London was caught on CCTV striking another with a bottle he had fished from a nightclub bin.
Mustafa Adan, 23, was said to have been in the club on Hythe Bridge Street – understood to be The Bridge – in the early hours of February 20 for a friend’s birthday party.
There was a contretemps inside the club. Adan’s group asked bouncers if they could stay inside to ensure the other group had gone, but were refused.
On the street outside, both groups started clashing. On CCTV footage, the defendant could be seen picking a bottle from a bin outside the nightclub then landing a number of blows on a man who was already being attacked by his friends.
“He drops the bottle on a number of occasions but picks it up to continue repeatedly striking the individual on the floor,” prosecutor Luisa Rose said.
“On hearing sirens the group disperses.”
Adan got rid of the glass bottle, but stopped when the police officers asked him to.
He initially refused to give his name, but was identified after police found his passport on him.
He answered no comment to all questions put to him in interview.
No one else involved in the early-hours fracas was arrested in connection with the incident.
The defendant, of Cromwell Road, London, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to possession of an offensive weapon. At the time of the Oxford incident he was – just – still subject to a 12 month suspended prison sentence imposed at Isleworth Crown Court in September 2020 for possession of two ‘swords’.
Judge Maria Lamb sentenced him to eight months for the incident outside the Oxford nightclub and added 10 months when she ‘activated’ the earlier suspended sentence, making a total prison sentence of 18 months.
She told the defendant: “When you were made subject to a suspended sentence as a result of that incident in June 2020, one of the things that was required that you…attend [was] a safer streets programme.
"Sadly, the streets were not safe from you on the night in question, February 20 of this year.”
The judge added: “While I accept you did not go looking for trouble that night, you were certainly content to engage in it when it presented itself.”
In mitigation, the court heard that Adan was in the process of turning his life around.
He had a job as a banksman on construction sites and was doing further training to enable him to work on the railway lines.
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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward
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