Two youths who were threatened by a man with an imitation gun did not run a campaign of harassment and intimidation against him, says their mother.

Annette Powell, 39, of Greater Leys, Oxford, said her two sons, who were alleged to have provoked Richard Bottley into pulling out a toy gun, were not troublemakers.

Bottley, 37, of Buttercup Square, Greater Leys, was jailed for six months on April 22 after he pulled out an imitation gun and waved it at Mrs Powell's sons, who are aged 14 and 15.

His mother Rachel Bottley, of Mortimer Road, Rose Hill, who was featured in the Oxford Mail on Monday, blamed the youths for the incident, saying they had harassed him for six months.

Mrs Powell said: "He pulled out the gun in the street, and he said 'bang, bang, you're dead.'

"There was a 10-year-old girl there as well. They were terrified. My sons were taken to a safe house that night and they have been there since. They are still too scared to want to come back to Oxford and have been very depressed.

"Richard Bottley has a lot of enemies. I don't deny that youths with baseball bats were after him, but it was not my sons. They haven't been in Oxford since it happened and they got all the blame for harassing him.

"My boys are not perfect but they're not troublemakers, they have been so upset by this whole thing they are refusing to come back," Mrs Powell added.

Bottley was convicted at Oxford Crown Court of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. The court heard claims that there was a feud between the two families.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said that it would be inappropriate to comment because the court case was over.