Prosecutors dropped charges against a man accused of dousing the entrance to a pharmaceutical firm in ‘petrol’.

Daniel Matyi, 31, of Wessex Road, Didcot, was said to have thrown the unknown substance at the doors to Ipsen Biosciences Ltd in Park Drive, Milton Park, on May 8 this year. A security guard was said to have interrupted him in the act.

He denied charges of attempted arson and criminal damage.

The case – and the defendant – returned to Oxford Crown Court on Monday morning, when prosecutor Cathy Olliver told Judge Nigel Daly that the Crown Prosecution Service was offering no evidence to support the charges.

Judge Daly entered formal not guilty verdicts and told Matyi he was ‘free to go’.

The defendant, who accepted a life-long restraining order banning him from going to Ipsen Biosciences or contacting a female staff member at the firm, was in fact not free to leave the dock immediately.

The Oxford magistrates gave him 12 weeks’ imprisonment in July after he was found guilty in his absence of using threatening behaviour and common assault of a police officer.

He had been arrested in the car park of a Sainsbury’s in Didcot on June 9 – the day of an earlier crown court appearance – after he was seen behaving erratically.

An off-duty policeman overheard him saying ‘f*** England, f*** you, Boris lives underground’ and demanding to be sent to Hungary and Ukraine.  

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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

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