A man has confessed to carrying out a brutal attack on an Oxford student.
Kentaro Ikeda, a postgraduate student at Teddy Hall, was attacked and robbed while cycling home from the college. Ikeda, now 27, suffered injuries so serious that he is now in permanent rehabilitative care.
Craig Knowles and Thomas Mack, both 18, had been due to stand trial together accused of robbing and grievous bodily harm with intent, as well as a separate charge of actual bodily harm to Abdul Rehman, an Oxford taxi driver. Knowles changed his plea to guilty at a court hearing on Tuesday. Mack denies all three charges.
The prosecution told the jury at Oxford Crown Court that Mack and Knowles attacked Ikeda at around 1.45am following a night out in Oxford city centre. The victim had been working late in his college library and was cycling home with his rucksack, academic work and laptop when the attack happened. John Price, prosecuting, claimed that Ikeda was simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The court heard that Ikeda was stopped on the cycle path and struck with a single blow from his own bicycle lock, fracturing his skull. His possessions and bicycle were then taken from the scene. The rucksack was later found abandoned outside garages near to the defendant’s home. The bicycle was never recovered but the lock was found in the grass nearby, covered in Ikeda’ blood.
The jury were told that Mack, Knowles and two other men had spent the evening in the Red Lion pub before heading out to The Bridge nightclub. There they then were involved in a minor disturbance and left the venue. On the way home the prosecution allege that the men assaulted taxi driver Abdul Rehman. The group split, with Mack and Knowles continuing home together.
According to the prosecution they then turned onto Mesopotamia Walk shortly before Ikeda entered on his bicycle. The attack occurred soon afterwards.
Mr. Price said that Mack and Knowles had been drinking heavily and “were gratuitously looking for trouble.” He added that the pair had boasted of the attack afterwards and that Mack had been seen soon after the attack with a “computer organiser” that fitted the description of a device owned by Ikeda. Mack’s fingerprint was found on the victim’s academic papers which had been dumped nearby.
The court heard that the two youths had sent a series of text messages to friends in the hours following the incident.
In one text, allegedly sent by Mack to his friend James Smith less than an hour after the attack, he wrote “mate, you missed out. We threatened a load of men in The Bridge. I punched a Pakistani man in the back of the head and knocked him out. I gave him an uppercut to his face, he could hardly walk to his taxi. LOL.”
“Then we saw a Chinese man on the way back and beat the shit out of him and robbed his bags and bike.
“Mate, you should have been there. That’s how Marston boys roll.”
