In this second part of our crime review of the year, we look back at the court cases that have been heard in Oxford from July to December 2023.
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July
Mihai Hurmuz-Irimia, 29, was jailed for the murder of his wife Katie Hurmuz-Irimia for life with a minimum to serve a minimum of 21 years.
Katie Hurmuz-Irimia, 40, was found fatally stabbed in Wallingford in the early hours of 30 August last year.
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A man who raped a woman he met on a night out was jailed for eight-and-a-half years.
Joseph Faulkner, 40, had claimed during his trial that any sexual activity with his victim had been consensual, but that they had not had sex as the amount of alcohol he had drunk impeded his biological functioning.
Jurors at Oxford Crown Court rejected his defence in May, convicting him of rape and two other counts of sexual assault.
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A pair of robbers who snatched a 16-year-old boy’s rucksack outside John Lewis were jailed.
Maidenhead men Kai Watts and Oliver McGregor, both now 24, were in Oxford for a night out on December 11, 2021, when they targeted the city schoolboy.
McGregor tore the teenager’s rucksack from his back and rifled through it while Watts felled the boy with a single punch.
Jailing each man for 28 months at Oxford Crown Court on Friday, July 21, Recorder Joseph Hart said: “The two of you were in town for what should have been a pleasant night out with your friends when the two of you for whatever reason decided to attack a schoolboy and rob him of his rucksack.”
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The commission tasked with investigating miscarriages of justice said it had been asked to review the murder case featured in the BBC’s Sixth Commandment thriller.
Ben Field, then 28, was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 36 years behind bars in 2019 after jurors at Oxford Crown Court found him guilty of murdering 69-year-old Buckinghamshire schoolteacher Peter Farquhar.
The Oxford Mail learnt in July that the Criminal Cases Review Commission has received an application that it investigates the case - with a view to seeing whether senior judges should hear a fresh appeal.
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August
A sex offender raised his hands in a foul-fingered salute to the jury who convicted him of ‘grinding’ on a woman without her consent.
Callum Jarvis told jurors who had remained in court to see the 24-year-old sentenced for sexual assault: “F***ing look at me, at least.”
He made a gesture with his hands and, in a final riposte before storming from the dock, added: “Scumbags.”
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A teenager who punched a chicken in the head at college was fined hundreds of pounds on August 17.
Jordan Wileman, 18, of Sycamore Drive, Carterton, was in front of Oxford Magistrates’ Court facing a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
It followed reports of a chicken being punched in the head at Carterton Community College on February 25.
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A ‘devil’ who controlled, coerced and brutally assaulted the student nurse he met on dating app Hinge has been jailed.
Joseph Griffiths’ victim bravely told Oxford Crown Court that she felt ‘lucky to be alive’, branded her ex-partner ‘evil’, and raised fears that he would treat women in the same way in future.
Jailing the 26-year-old for three-and-half years on August 18, judge Recorder John Bate-Williams said: “You clearly never learned the very basic rule we all learned in the playground at primary school and that is you never ever hit a woman."
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Staff at a Cowley Road restaurant were dumping waste at a bus stop near Wheatley, a court heard.
Staff at South Oxfordshire District Council had launched an investigation after bin bags containing food rubbish were left at the Holton Turn off the A40 on March 3 – around the corner from Wheatley Park School.
Oxford Magistrates’ Court heard on August 25 that a discarded food order in amongst the refuse led the investigators straight to Cowley Road restaurant Shiraz Persian.
The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £1,569 in costs and surcharge.
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September
Greg Muinami, 19, was jailed for 24 years and 71 days at Oxford Crown Court for the murder of Alex Innes in Jericho on November 13 last year.
He was found guilty in June of Mr Innes' murder.
The 25-year-old victim suffered a single stab wound to the chest.
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A knifeman’s birthday bash turned into a bloodied horror show after he slashed a party guest in the face.
Grisly pictures of Daniel Wells’ victim showed part of his ear detached from his head.
He was jailed for two years.
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A talented youth footballer got caught up with an organised crime group responsible for supplying cocaine worth millions.
Benjamin Hepburn, a former Didcot Town player who as a youth played for Fulham, fell on hard times during the first lockdown after he was forced to shut his newly-opened Cowley Road cocktail bar.
Jailing him for seven years and two month, Judge Michael Gledhill KC told the defendant: “You are a man of two different characters.”
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A thug tried to strangle his wife with a dressing gown cord after she confronted him over his infidelity.
Callum Kenward, 27, who was jailed for more than two years, had exploded with rage after being challenged on June 12.
He threatened to rape her and pinned the woman by the throat, telling her that if he was going to prison he was "going to do it properly".
October
Karl Doman, 39, of Boxhill Road, Abingdon, was in front of Oxford Crown Court to stand trial for domestic abuse allegations.
But he pleaded guilty before the jury could be sworn-in to the charge of controlling and coercive behaviour.
He was jailed for two years.
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A tune-loving drug dealer fought back efforts by the prosecution to hang onto Hi-Fi kit seized four years ago.
Anthony Begley, 37, who was in the dock alongside partner Charlene Ebsworth and drug supplier Edward Burns, was arrested in the wake of a raid on his home in Abingdon in May 2019 – when police caught now 50-year-old Burns lobbing drugs out a back window.
Begley, of Coopers Lane, Abingdon, was the breadwinner for his family with partner Ebsworth.
The judge jailed him for two-and-a-half years.
His partner, Ebsworth, 35, also of Coopers Lane, Abingdon, received a two year suspended prison sentence. She must complete 120 hours of unpaid work and up to 20 rehabilitation activity requirement sessions with the probation service.
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A fencing contractor was described in court as a completely changed man to the drinker who got involved in a pub brawl.
Thomas Mooring, 26, ended up in the dock of a crown court after one of his fellow brawlers at Abingdon’s Boundary House pub on October 5, 2019, was taken to hospital with a broken ankle.
He was charged with serious assault allegations but, on the day of his trial, pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of affray.
The judge, Recorder John Bate-Williams, imposed 10 months imprisonment suspended for a year and a half.
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Only good fortune prevented a dangerous driver from crashing into a horse-drawn funeral carriage in Blackbird Leys.
Mechanic Jason Dewsbury was behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Zafira last month when he took off from a police car on the Eastern Bypass.
A dashcam in the officer’s patrol car caught the moment 29-year-old Dewsbury’s car narrowly avoided hitting a funeral cortege led by a horse-drawn carriage.
He was jailed for 14 months.
November
A man was jailed for a burglary in Witney following a Thames Valley Police investigation.
Darnel McKail, 26, of Birmingham Road, West Bromwich, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being found guilty by a jury to one count of burglary of a home and theft following a three-day trial at Oxford Crown Court.
On August 18, 2022, McKail stole a gun from a property on Moor Avenue. He was arrested the same day and charged the following day.
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A man was sentenced to rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to three counts of drug driving.
Thomas Desborough, 23, of Middleton Road, Bucknell, pleaded guilty to three counts of driving a motor vehicle with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit at Oxford Magistrates’ Court.
The drugs in question were cocaine, cannabis and ketamine. At the hearing, he was disqualified from driving for four years and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a £114 surcharge.
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The owner of a restaurant in Wantage was handed a suspended prison sentence after admitting numerous food safety and hygiene breaches.
Masum Miah, owner of Masooms, based in Wallingford Street, Wantage, received a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for two years in connection with the food safety and hygiene breaches at Oxford Magistrates’ Court.
He was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work, required to be completed within 12 months. He was also ordered to pay £4,059 costs a victim surcharge of £154.
December
A tenant who stole almost £2,000 of furnishings from his elderly landlord wanted a ‘lifestyle he couldn’t afford,’ Oxford Crown Court heard in December.
James de Jager, formerly James Becks, stole soft furnishings, bedside tables, lamps, a mirror, a de-humidifier and more from a flat in Park End, Oxford which is rented out by John Gitton.
The items were valued at £1,810 altogether and though some were returned, many were damaged such as the bedside tables, a bedspread, and a standing lamp.
He was handed a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work, six rehabilitation days and pay £1,000 compensation.
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A repeat sex offender with two previous prison terms was found guilty of raping an 11-year-old.
Hayden Nolan, of Bernwood Road, Bicester, was found guilty at Oxford Crown Court of six counts of child sex offences which occurred between September 2018 and February 2019.
Nolan will be sentenced on January 11 for the six child sex offences.
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A paedophile from Abingdon was jailed for 22 years after being found guilty of raping a 14-year-old girl.
Michael O’Sullivan, of Eldridge Close, was found guilty of several counts of rape and indecent assault by a jury at Oxford Crown Court.
The offences occurred in the early 1980’s across Oxfordshire when the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was about 14 years old and O’Sullivan was in his late 30s.
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An ‘odious’ paedophile has been jailed for 19 years after sexually abusing a female child.
Paul Burton ‘put insidious pressure’ on a young girl to engage in sexual activity with him for five years before subjecting her to manipulative behaviour for a further five years.
The 45-year-old was found guilty on Monday, December 11, after a five-week trial at Oxford Crown Court, of eight counts of sexual activity with a child, three counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration, two counts of sexual assault and one count of controlling and coercive behaviour.
He will serve an estimated 13 years in prison before being released on licence.
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