A taxi driver was threatened at knifepoint before his drug-addled assailant changed his mind about robbing him. 

Knifeman Brandon King, who was said to have turned to drugs after the tragic death of his brother, ordered the cab to pick him up in Headington on May 3 intending to rob the driver during the journey to Blackbird Leys.

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The 20-year-old thought better of robbing him. But when the driver asked when he lived, King pulled out a knife and held it to the cabbie.

Jailing the Witney man for 18 months at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Michael Gledhill QC said: “There is a very, very small difference between threatening somebody with a knife and stabbing [them].

“He would have been utterly petrified that you were going to stab him. Fortunately, you went no further than threatening him.”

The offence was so serious that only an immediate prison sentence would fit the crime, the judge said.

He acknowledged King’s grief over the untimely death of his brother. But with an eye to the defendant's family, who packed the public gallery, Judge Gledhill said: “My thoughts at the moment are not going towards you. They are going towards your family who are sitting at the side of this court.

“Just as you lost your brother, they lost their son and their brother. I don’t recall being told they’ve gone out intending to rob a taxi driver and even though you changed your mind, they did not pull a knife out at the taxi drive and run off without paying the fare, putting him in fear of his life.

“They’ve gone through the same grief you have gone through without committing any offences and you have made their grief even worse by letting them down in the way that you have done.

“You should be thoroughly ashamed of what you’ve done.”

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King, of Moggridge Walk, Witney, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to threatening another with a knife in Andromeda Close, Blackbird Leys, and making off without payment.

In mitigation, Gordana Austin said her client had begun taking drugs and getting into trouble from 2020. Before that, he held down a job with his father and would be able to return to that work upon his release.

He planned ‘never to reoffend again’. “He realises he simply cannot go on like this, taking drugs and committing offences.” Ms Austin said King was motivated to deal with the issues that had plagued him for the past two years.

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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