What happened?
Three Oxford students were mugged last week in what appear to be arbitrary and unrelated attacks. While there were two stabbings in Cowley at the start of term, these took place in the heart of Oxford – one right outside Keble and one at 9.30pm.
Third-year Laurence Osborn was assaulted by five men who stole his phone, broke it, and sent him to A&E for his trouble: ‘I’m having flashbacks’, he says.
Thankfully that’s not a problem for Ian Maconnachie, who was punched unconscious on New Inn Hall Street: ‘I’m quite light-hearted about the whole thing’, he remarked, ‘but it was so avoidable’.
In the same week a 23-year old student had a bottle smashed on him at the corner of South Parks Road and St Cross Road. The man was walking with a group of friends when he was confronted by a larger group of people at around 10.45pm.
And is this really news?
Dreadful as these attacks are, violent assault is unfortunately nothing new in Oxford and the Cherwell archives yield legions of similar stories. Not even the hallowed halls of the colleges are safe: in 2001 a gang of thugs hurled a piece of scaffolding through the windows of St John’s while communion dinner was in process.
In 2005, a second-year was subjected to sexual assault off Cowley Road and in another extreme case earlier that year saw a middle-aged woman assaulted in the Turf Tavern itself. This is clearly not something limited to dark suburban backstreets: in 2006, incredibly, a student was assaulted in their own college room after being followed in by a burglar.
Of course, no news is arguably good news, but it’s still important for people to know that these things do occasionally happen and to be slightly more wary.
What now?
Bluntly, this sort of thing happens overnight rather than stops over night. And unless people stop going clubbing or pubbing, students will still need to walk about at night. Unless you’re on Broad Street or High Street, there’s not much chance of finding a policeman on one of these night-time excursions, and everyone has to walk back by themselves at least occasionally. With all these budget cuts, you’re unlikely to find a policeman anyway. So, short of buying a large and visable weapon, things more or less come down to luck and hoping that a particular bunch of louts aren’t going down the road at the same time as you are. Perhaps don’t parade that college scarf or vibrant Gucci as much as you might? It’s advisable to avoid the darker and quieter roads, but with attacks happening outside the King’s Arms that’s unlikely to help much. Oxford students might just have to remember that these things are rare, and that it can be much, much worse elsewhere.
