A man originally accused of kidnapping a man and a woman has been sentenced for slapping the former during a ‘petty argument’ in the victim’s car.

Prosecutor Matthew Walsh told Oxford Crown Court on Monday (March 13) that detectives investigating the alleged kidnap by Robert Bennett had received analysis of the ‘movement of telephones’ following the incident in Ladygrove, Didcot, last October.

After reviewing the material, the Crown Prosecution Service came to the view ‘not all witnesses had been truthful in so far as the background of the circumstances of this offence is concerned’, Mr Walsh said.

No further detail was given.

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The court heard that Bennett, 45, was originally arrested and charged with kidnap, false imprisonment and attempted robbery.

Mr Walsh said: “The two complainants alleged that Mr Bennett and another man kidnapped them, took them off with weapons and made various demands of them over the course of a significant period. The clear suggested background was in relation to drugs.”

Prosecutors have previously offered no evidence on a number of charges relating to the female complainant, who was not supporting the police investigation.

And on Monday, Mr Walsh offered no evidence in relation to the second alleged victim. Bennett had been due to stand trial in the summer.

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Bennett, of Kibble Close, Didcot, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a common assault on the man – slapping him in the back of the head during what defence barrister David Rhodes described as a ‘petty argument’ after the group had smoked drugs together.

Mr Rhodes, defending, said his client had spent some four or five weeks in custody before being formally recalled to prison on an earlier sentence imposed for theft. He was due to be released from prison in late April.

The barrister asked Judge Maria Lamb to impose a short custodial sentence for the common assault, which could be served alongside his current jail term.

Judge Lamb gave Bennett 14 days’ imprisonment. In practice, that time had already been served on remand.

The defendant appeared before the court via video link from HMP Bullingdon, near Bicester.

Kidnap, the offence with which he was originally charged, is a 'Common Law' charge and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The same is true of false imprisonment.

There are no sentencing guidelines - designed to assist the judge - for either offence.