A man absconded from mental health support workers, went on a drugs binge then attacked a pensioner at a Cowley cash point.

Mark Baxter, 39, punched the woman, who was in her 70s, in the face as she waited outside the Lloyds bank in Crowell Road on July 27 last year.

He was due to be sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Monday, having previously pleaded guilty to a single count of actual bodily harm.

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Setting out the brief facts, prosecutor Alice Aubrey-Fletcher said: “He absconded [from Littlemore Hospital support workers] the day before this incident. In his interview he accepts having run away from his supervisors. He went on, effectively, a drugs binge that night and this incident then occurred the following morning.”

But Judge Michael Gledhill QC refused to sentence the man without a psychiatric report.

Judge Gledhill said: “He was under escort, escaped from the escort and gratuitously and unprovokedly attacked this elderly lady [at] an ATM machine having just approached her.”

“He was clearly suffering from mental health issues when he was arrested and taken to custody and returned to Littlemore Hospital.”

He added: “There is a huge risk he’s going to do it again.”

The defendant’s barrister, Kuljeet Dobe, agreed. His client had now been discharged from hospital and was living in council accommodation. He continued to struggle with his mental health and had a support worker who was sat alongside him in the dock.

Baxter himself addressed the motivation behind the assault when he was before the crown court in May. At that hearing he told Judge Gledhill: “At the time I was under a lot of stress. It was totally out of my character, really, hitting old ladies.”

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On Monday, the same judge told the defendant said: “I’m not prepared to deal with this case without a psychiatric report.”

He put the case back to August 8 and bailed Baxter, now of Abingdon Road, Oxford. The judge imposed a five-year restraining order banning the defendant from going to Temple Cowley shopping centre or going within 100m of his victim.

The psychiatric order will enable the judge to assess whether it is appropriate for Baxter to be sentenced to a hospital order as an alternative to a prison sentence or a community order. Hospital orders require someone to receive treatment at a psychiatric unit until they are safe to be released into the community.

Causing actual bodily harm, the charge that Baxter has admitted, carries a maximum sentence of five years when dealt with at the crown court.

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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