A PARANOID schizophrenic who carried out a string of unprovoked street attacks in East Oxford has been detained in a psychiatric hospital.

Alam Mohammed committed seven violent offences, including two assaults on police officers trying to arrest him, in August last year.

The 18-year-old, of Crescent Road, Cowley, first attacked someone on August 18, in Barracks Lane.

At Oxford Crown Court on Friday, Nigel Daly, prosecuting, said that Mohammed punched a cyclist in the face as he rode past at about 9.15pm.

Mr Daly said the defendant had later told police that his victim had been “looking at him in a way he didn’t like”.

The next incident happened on August 20, when Mohammed asked a man for the time in Donnington Bridge Road at about 9.50pm.

As the victim looked at his mobile phone, Mohammed punched him on the side of the head and ran off, shouting “I got told to do it”.

Five days later, Maciej Bober was walking along Cowley Road with his girlfriend at about 3pm when Mohammed ran up behind him and struck Mr Bober on the right side of the face.

The victim’s jaw was broken in two places and two teeth of his teeth were knocked out.

Later the same day, Mohammed attacked Avor Jaswon with an iron bar in Barracks Lane and robbed him of his rucksack.

The victim suffered a broken nose in the incident.

When Mohammed was taken into police custody after being arrested for the last two offences, he lashed out at two officers, leaving one with a bloodied nose.

Sophie Murray, defending, told the court Mohammed was currently receiving treatment in hospital but did not believe he was ill.

He said that he thought his behaviour had been brought on by abusing alcohol and cannabis.

Judge Julian Hall ordered that Mohammed should be detained under the Mental Health Act.

He said: “Your behaviour, it’s clear to me, resulted from your illness. Classically, paranoid schizophrenia. You thought people were looking at you, causing you offence, and you reacted accordingly.”