A man accessed both St Anne’s College and Lady Margaret Hall on Saturday afternoon, in attempts to steal from both colleges, according to police reports.
He stole cash and cards from rooms at LMH, but was accosted by suspicious students at St Anne’s before he was able to take anything.
A combination of information from the St Anne’s students who apprehended the intruder and CCTV footage lead to the man’s arrest not long after the event.
College authorities have now warned that criminal gangs may be specifically targeting University students.
The individual in question arrived at St Anne’s early on Saturday afternoon, coming in through the front entrance. According to a student involved, who wished to remain anonymous, “the intruder attempted to enter student’s rooms, including mine, and when I confronted him, he was unable to provide a plausible explanation for being in college. We were able to inform the porters and police of the intruder before he was able to steal anything.”
However, the man managed to make it to LMH later on in the afternoon, coming into the college by the main entrance just after 3 pm.
It is thought that he had found a key fob a student had lost some time before, and a student who saw him holding it let him into the main building. He then was able to take cash and cards from unlocked rooms. Most of the LMH site is connected internally, so the intruder was able to walk through a large proportion of college trying doors.
Emily Cuthbert, a first-year maths student at LMH, says she was heading back to her open room, when she saw three middle-aged people loitering by her door. She became suspicious and informed the porters of what she had seen. She added that “they didn’t steal anything from my room but because they were loitering outside my open door I feel they were probably considering it.”
The man was later identified by trawling through hours of CCTV footage at LMH. The video shows a relatively young male, dressed smartly in a black overcoat and grey scarf, entering the college at 15:07 on Saturday afternoon – a time when many people are coming or going from the site.
Thames Valley Police informed Cherwell that the suspect has been remanded to custody, and will face trial at Oxford Crown Court on Monday. They also praised the actions of the St Anne’s students who “apprehended the criminal, contacted the porter and obtained vital identifying information”, saying that “this spontaneous action by two alert students proved invaluable in bringing the burglar to justice.”
Genevieve Clark, LMH JCR President, explained that the event there occurred because of a “simple mistake of someone trying to be helpful and fobbing someone in.” She also said that the “porters do all they can for security” and that “students should be reminded to always lock their doors and report any kind of theft immediately to the porters and the police so the criminals can be caught”.
Owen Evans, St Anne’s JCR President, similarly urged students to be cautious when it comes to security.
Additionally, LMH’s Female Welfare Officer, Karen Clarke, circulated an email to the JCR urging students not to “give anyone access into colleges or the buildings.” She added that “the police are aware of a number of groups in the city who specifically target the university’s colleges.”
