A driver who knocked his victim to the ground outside Carterton library has been spared an immediate jail sentence.

Ashley Cypher was handed a chance to keep himself out of jail when in April Judge Maria Lamb deferred his sentence for six months.

She ordered him to get a job, stay out of trouble and save up compensation for the man who broke his cheekbone when he fell onto a bin after being knocked down by now 33-year-old Cypher on February 13, 2022.

Cypher kept his side of the bargain, getting a job as a driver to a compliance assessor in the construction industry, although he had only managed to save £200 to put towards compensation.

And, on Friday (October 20), Judge Maria Lamb duly kept her side of the bargain too.

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Imposing 10 months imprisonment suspended for a year and a half, she told him: “I deferred this sentence in April to see whether you would comply with the conditions which I set and to be fair to you, you have done that.”

She added: “This was an unpleasant incident on February 13 last year in which you punched your victim hard enough that he fell and struck his head on a bin and he ended up with a fracture to his right cheekbone. To be fair to you, you apologised and you made admissions.” 

As part of the order, he must complete the building better relationships programme with the probation service. He must also pay £500 in compensation.

Cypher, formerly of Sycamore Drive, Carterton, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to causing grievous bodily harm.

Earlier this year, Oxford Crown Court heard that Cypher recognised his victim in the car park near Carterton’s library ‘from pictures on Facebook’.

Although aware of a ‘history of difficulties with other parts of the family’, he himself had ‘never spoken’ to victim Stewart Hayes before knocking him down last February.

But he denied having been ‘summoned’ to the scene by another.

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The victim hit his head on a bin as he fell to the ground, suffering a cut to his head and a fracture to his right cheekbone.

Cypher’s uncle, Peter, who it was claimed had driven his nephew to the scene, was also charged with causing grievous bodily harm.

But prosecutors dropped the charge when the victim, then in prison serving a sentence on other matters, refused to get on the van to attend the trial.