A MAN has denied seriously injuring a court guard by causing him to fall down a flight of stairs as he was being led to jail.

Prosecutors at Oxford Crown Court claim that Shane Gleeson deliberately injured the officer after refusing to be taken to HMP Bullingdon when a bail address couldn’t be found.

The 38-year-old denies one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

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Outlining the case at the start of the trial yesterday, Kuljeet Dobe, prosecuting, said that Gleeson had been at Reading Crown Court for a bail hearing at about 1pm on January 11 last year.

Despite Gleeson being granted bail, Mr Dobe said, no suitable address could be found and so prison guards went to his court cell to take him to the prison near Bicester at about 5pm.

Mr Dobe told jurors: “As soon as this information was given to him he said 'I am not going to go to Bullingdon'.

“He refused to go to Bullingdon and [said] 'there are people there or a person there who I am not on good terms with', putting it mildly.

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“He said 'there is absolutely no way I am going to go to Bullingdon'.”

Jurors were told that three custody officers then tried to handcuff him and lead him out towards a van waiting outside the court to transport him to the prison.

En route, the court heard, he began ‘struggling’ with the officers and ‘resisting’ and he kept saying 'I am not going to Bullingdon'.

Mr Dobe added: “He was shouting, resisting; he resisted being handcuffed.”

When on a flight of steps, prosecutors claim, Gleeson then ‘deliberately dropped his weight or deadened his body weight’ which caused Gleeson and his alleged victim to fall.

That fall led to one custody officer, David Bain, suffering bruising, swelling as well as a fracture to his left ankle that required hospital treatment.

Mr Dobe said: “It is the crown’s case that these injuries – the bruising, the swelling to the right ankle and the major swelling and fracture to the left angle – were caused as a consequence of falling down these steps, which the crown say was a deliberate ploy by Gleeson so that he would not be taken to Bullingdon.”

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Jurors also heard of a police interview Gleeson gave after the incident in which he claimed the fall down the steps was an accident.

The jury was told that he said to officers: “Obviously I was gobby and all that but I didn’t set out to injure anyone.

“I was trying to tell them I didn’t get remanded to prison I got remanded to court, court custody.”

Explaining the incident at the top of the steps, Gleeson told police: “We got to the top of the steps and I am going down the steps and the officer on my right falls so I said 'look are you alright?'

“He goes 'yeah', so we carry on to the outside towards the bus.”

The trial continues.