POLICE officers arrested a drunken man who violently attacked students at a Wadham house party on Iffley Road last Saturday night.
The man, who witnesses described as shaven headed and in his early 40s, broke into a neighbouring property at around 10:30pm before climbing a wall and throwing bricks at students.
The incident came after vandalism at a nearby Volkswagen car dealership at another Wadham party the night before, during which a windscreen was smashed and car rooves damaged when bottles were dropped from flats above.
One student, who wished not to be named, was threatened with an £80 fine after police officers on patrol caught him urinating onto a car in Charles Street.
Wadham second-year Charlotte Houldcroft said of Saturday night’s events, “There were four of us walking in a group down Cowley Road, and this guy, was by the roadworks. He’d moved one of the barriers across the footpath, and was pretty obviously drunk, incoherently laughing and mumbling.
“He made some joke to us, but we just moved the barrier back out of our way and walked on, thinking he’d just had a few too many as he didn’t seem threatening.”
James Neale, a first-year at Wadham, said, “We were all pretty drunk when a man appeared on the wall, and he was even more intoxicated than us,” Neale said. “He didn’t have particularly good dance moves so someone threw gravel at him, then bottles and cans, and that made him really angry.”
After a bottle struck the man on his temple, he threatened students with a brick he had found on the wall while staggering around dripping blood.
Police arrived after two first-year students called the emergency services, using a taser gun to subdue the man before placing him under arrest.
A police officer attending the scene suggested that it was unlikely anyone would press charges as there was a “mutual” confrontation between the man and students.
Neale added, “It was probably the students’ fault for starting it. We could have handled the situation a lot better than throwing shit at him.”By Peter Wright
Violence mars Wadham house parties
