An Oxford father jailed for six months for waving his son's toy gun at youths he said were harassing him has been freed.

Richard Bottley, 37, of Buttercup Square, Greater Leys, won his appeal against the length of the prison sentence imposed on April 22 by a judge at Oxford Crown Court.

Bottley, who pleaded guilty to one count of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence was freed yesterday.

After he was jailed, Bottley's mother, Rachel Bottley, of Mortimer Road, Rose Hill, insisted he had been treated unfairly.

When she heard of his early release, she said: "He should never have been in prison in the first place."

Mr Justice Goldring and the Recorder of Cardiff, John Griffith Williams QC, sitting in the Court of Appeal in London, reduced the term to three months, resulting in his immediate release.

Jonathan Coode, defending Bottley, failed to persuade the judges to follow the decision in the case of teacher Linda Walker, whose six-month jail term for firing a pellet gun in a confrontation with "yobs" was quashed by the Court of Appeal in May and replaced with a conditional discharge.

The Recorder said the facts of the Walker case were "truly exceptional" and the court was not persuaded that Bottley fell into that category. Announcing the decision yesterday, the Recorder said there was a "significant background" to Bottley's offending.

As reported, his victims were aged 14 and 15 and the sister of one of them had alleged that Bottley had indecently assaulted her. The police investigated and no proceedings were brought.

Earlier, Mr Coode told the court eight or nine youths went to Mr Bottley's house, armed with baseball bats.

Mr Coode said: "It was fortunate that he was not at home. The weapon that he had with him two days later was a six-year-old's plastic toy gun. It was simply a rather vain attempt to scare off these boys."

The court heard the boys had been at a friend's house when Bottley was passing and went out to confront him.

They told police he produced a gun and said: "Bang bang, I'm going to kill you and your family."