A dad smashed a bottle of cider then used it to threaten the man who had spat at his daughter on the bus.

Steven Jackson, 28, cried in the dock as he was jailed for more than a year for the flare-up of anger in Faringdon’s Market Place last January.

The incident, which ended with him biting the gloved hand of a police community support officer, had also put him in breach of an earlier suspended sentence imposed for possession of a knife.

Sending him down for 13 months, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “You simply have to learn that you cannot behave in the way that you have done.”

Earlier, Oxford Crown Court heard that Jackson was on the bus with his young daughter – one of his six children – on January 11 when he told off two men on the vehicle who he felt were using inappropriate language.

As they disembarked the bus outside Faringdon fire station, one of the yobs was said to have spat towards Jackson – striking his daughter instead.

Understandably fuming, Jackson followed the bus towards the Market Place. He challenged the men to fight him in an alleyway and brandished a glass bottle of cider that he had smashed.

Police officers arrived to arrest him. Rather than go quietly with them, he ended up on the ground. A PCSO, concerned that Jackson would hit his head on the ground, placed a gloved hand beneath the man’s head – and was bitten for his trouble.

Jackson, of Pearce Drive, Faringdon, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to making threats with an offensive weapon, assaulting an emergency worker and possession of cannabis.

The convictions put him in breach of an earlier four month suspended prison sentence for possession of a knife.

Sentencing him last week, Judge Gledhill said: “The public are entitled to ask the courts to protect them from people like you who lose their temper from going out [arming] yourself to cause serious injuries to somebody who has offended you. It’s just not acceptable.”

Earlier, Emma Hornby asked the judge to spare her client an immediate prison sentence. He had six children, four of whom he currently cared for.

“He understands his behaviour was totally unacceptable. This offence happened over a year ago and in that time he has taken significant steps to address the underlying cause of his offending behaviour,” the barrister said.

He had worked with drug misuse support services and repeatedly returned negative drug test results.

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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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