A former chef at Worcester College was sentenced to 10 months in prison last Friday, after an ‘unprovoked attack’ on a homosexual couple.
According to evidence presented to Oxford Crown Court, Ashton Soloman-Cameron, 19, was caught on CCTV in the midst of a violent drunken outburst after mistakenly believing that businessmen Scott and Jason Davenport had racially insulted him.
In the CCTV footage shown to the Court, Soloman-Cameron punches and stamps on Scott Davenport repeatedly, causing him to suffer cuts, bruises and two chipped teeth.
Jason Davenport is undergoing physiotherapy for a fractured ankle. Witnesses reported seeing Solomon-Cameron walk away from the scene of the attack, after being called by his girlfriend.
Soloman-Cameron pleaded guilty to counts of GBH and ABH and was sentenced to 10 months in a young offender’s institution, half of which will be spent in custody.
The victims were on their way to meet a friend in Oxford in the early hours of October 10th. Rachel Drakes, lawyer for the prosecution, told the court, ‘Jason Davenport called to Scott, referring to him as ‘black man’ as he was wearing a black coat.
‘The defendant inferred it as a racial insult. Both Messrs Davenports were conciliatory and offered to shake his hand, but he punched one of them, Jason, who falls to the ground.’
The 19-year-old has previous convictions as a juvenile for battery and public order offences. He had been working as a chef at Worcester College since September, joining on a one-year contract which was extended to a permanent one.
Defending her client, Lucy Tapper remarked, ‘It’s a horrible, horrible incident and nobody would be more prepared to admit that than Soloman-Cameron, but it does come out of character.’
She added, ‘It’s surprising, perhaps, seeing that degree of unprovoked violence from somebody who doesn’t have a violent nature’, and described Soloman-Cameron as ‘quiet, polite and clearly hard-working’.
Whilst some students at Worcester were reluctant to comment on the case, the Food & Bar Rep, George Pidgeon commented, ‘I think the general consensus of the JCR committee is that although this is obviously an unfortunate incident, it is clearly a one-off, and one which we hope will not recur in the future.
‘We were not aware of previous convictions, however I personally do not feel that we really should have been.
‘The JCR does not run the recruitment process, the college does, and it is one that seems generally to work very well.’
However some Worcester students expressed their surprise that someone working for their college has been convicted for such an offence.
On sentencing Soloman-Cameron, Judge Patrick Eccles said, ‘You are bringing misery and shame upon yourself, and you have brought hardship to your family and, more importantly, the victims.
‘You have affected the future of the two victims in a serious way. It was a very nasty attack.’
Detective Constable Iain Spencer, who investigated the incident, said, ‘These two men…were attacked for no apparent reason by the offender who was highly intoxicated.
‘I hope this sentence demonstrates that drunken, loutish, behaviour will not be tolerated in the city.’
When contacted by Cherwell, Worcester’s Catering Manager, Stuart McAllister, said, ‘With reference to any staff and personnel matters we decline to comment.’
