An unnamed man was assaulted in the St. Clement’s area on Wednesday night. He later died in hospital as the result of his injuries.

The police have begun an investigation and have already arrested four people, two men and two women, under suspicion of murder.

The area around Dawson Street, where the incident occurred, was cordoned off for Wednesday night and much of Thursday morning while police examined the scene of the crime.

The man was found by police at 8.42pm on Wednesday evening with serious injuries, the nature of which have yet to be revealed.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Tolmie, Senior Investigating Officer, commented in a statement to the press, “We are at the very early stages of the investigation and a number of enquiries remain ongoing.

He also appealed to the public for their help, saying, “I would urge anyone who was in the St Clement’s area of Oxford last night who saw any suspicious activity or has any information about the incident, to contact police.”

This news follows reports of another sexual assault in Cowley earlier this week. A 29 year old woman was attacked by a man described to be “of middle eastern origin, aged about 22, about 5’10” and of large build.”

In a statement from Thames Valley Police, it was also revealed, “He has short hair and a closely shaven beard, spoke with a foreign accent, and was wearing a tracksuit.”

Sexual attacks in East Oxford are not uncommon, with five occurring over a period of eight days last June. Violence is also not unknown to the area, with various incidents of knife crime occurring in recent years. In October last year two serious knife attacks happened in one week and in 2009 a man was stabbed to death during the day on Cowley Road.

Claire Barnes, a Classics and English student who lives on Rectory Road off St Clement’s, when asked what she felt about the fatal attack was defensive of the area saying, “It’s horrible obviously but I don’t think it’s necessarily the area. I’m sure next time something like this happens it won’t be right next to where I live.”

She added that she was more concerned by the seemingly regular occurrence of sexual attacks in the Cowley area commenting, “You have to be on your guard, but then you have to be on your guard in any major city. Even the city centre is a place to be careful because there are just as many dark alleys and drunk people stumbling around.”

Ben Deaner, a second year PPEist who lives near St. Clement’s, echoed the sentiment that all cities are dangerous adding, “I walked past the police cordon about half two in the morning on my way home from Park End and wondered in passing what was going on.

‘I don’t think the murder’s that shocking though, in fact I’m surprised this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often in a city this size. It doesn’t make me feel particularly worried because I presume there was a grievance behind the act. I find the sexual attacks more concerning on the basis that those attacks are random and could happen to anyone.”

Some were less accepting of the crimes, with one student who wished to remain anonymous saying, “As a student at a college where second years live out, I worry for my friends who have houses in that area. I find it shocking that such violence occurs on our streets. I’m from a small village and I feel much safer there: this wouldn’t happen in Wensleydale.”  

For the St Clement’s neighbourhood, Thames Valley Police have identified as major priorities drunkenness and alcohol-related antisocial behaviour, as well as drug dealing and misuse. Iffley Fields has been given the same assessment, and in the Cowley Marsh area anti-social behaviour has been deemed the biggest problem to be tackled by the police.

Oxford University has been chosen to host the New Zealand triathlon team for next summer’s Olympic games. The team will be based at the the Iffley Road sports complex during the run-up to the competition.

Competitors for the event have not yet been selected, but sources at the Iffley Road centre confirmed that around six or seven athletes, together with a support crew of eight or nine, will use the Rosenblatt swimming pool and the Roger Bannister athletics track, as well as nearby cycling routes. Jon Roycroft, Director of Sport for the University, welcomed the news, telling Cherwell, “Having these athletes here will be very exciting for everyone and we are delighted that the New Zealand triathlon team have chosen to use our sporting facilities.”

Helen Hanstock, President of the Oxford University Sports Federation, agreed. She said, “This is certainly an exciting opportunity for the University to showcase our current facilities – in particular the high quality Rosenblatt Pool and historic Iffley Road track.

“I hope that by successfully hosting a team of elite Olympic athletes that we may raise the profile of Oxford University as a successful sporting institution with constantly improving provision for sport.”

The University is currently fundraising for a £40m redevelopment of the sports facilities at Iffley Road, and both Hanstock and Roycroft hoped that the presence of an Olympic team would help their efforts towards this. Roycroft said, “We are proud that Iffley Road caters for student athletes, staff and Oxford residents, and we hope that the interest surrounding the Olympics will help our fundraising efforts as we seek to expand our provision of space for indoor sports and improve the grandstand at Iffley Road.”

Lydia Levy, a third year student at Pembroke and member of the women’s first boat, commented, “It’s very exciting that an Olympic team would consider the sports centre a worthy place to train. Obviously it’s not the first time that great people have trained there, but it’s always good to raise the profile of sport in Oxford.”

However, not all Oxford’s sportsmen were equally enthusiastic. Felix Neate, Captain of Coxes at Corpus Christi College, asked whether the New Zealand rugby team would be coming. When informed that they would not, he remarked, “Unless it’s a proper sport like rowing or rugby, I’m not interested.”

Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of London on Wednesday in a demonstration against the government’s White Paper on higher education.

Reports suggest that around 100 protesters travelled from Oxford to take part in the march which attracted all sorts of groups from students and trade union members to anarchists.  

The demonstration, organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, saw protesters set off from Malet Street in London’s university district and march through central London carrying banners and placards with slogans such as “Scrap Tuition Fees” and “Free education” and chanting “No ifs, no buts, no education cuts!”
 
As the march went through Trafalgar Square a small group broke away and attempted to set up tents at the base of Nelson’s Column but were swiftly moved on by Police. The official route of the march ended at London Wall at around 4pm.  

In an attempt to avoid the violence and disorder of last year’s higher education protest the Metropolitan Police had 4,000 officers on duty and were authorised to use rubber bullets on crowds if necessary although this eventuality was not required on the day. Reports of the number of protesters taking part in the march vary from 2,000 to 15,000 but the general consensus from eyewitness accounts suggests that there were about as many protesters as police officers.

Tristan Honeybourne, a PPEist from Magdalen who describes himself as a Conservative, commented “I’m glad that the protest passed without violence and disorder, and proud of a police force that went out en masse to ensure there wasn’t violence like last time.”

However, he also questioned some of the aims and views of the protesters, saying, “People are too quick to forget that Labour are in favour of £6000 fees, and to campaign against change to university funding is to take a view held by a minority in parliament.”

He added, “I believe that in an ideal world we would not have tuition fees, but given the state of the public purse and problems with a graduate tax, high tuition fees are the only way forward. It is better to charge those who will one day be better off than their peers -fees are in effect a progressive tax.”

Police have announced that 24 arrests were made on the day – three arrests were for public order offences, one was for possession of an offensive weapon, three were for going equipped and 12 were breaches of the peace.

BBC correspondent Mike Sergeant called the demonstration, “the most tightly controlled march through London that I have ever seen.”

Despite the relative peace compared with previous events, there remained some hostile feeling towards police from some protesters. A protester from Oxford who wished to be referred to only as ‘Dave’ commented, “The police response was heavy-handed, violent and irresponsible.”

He described a localised incident of violence, “The police tried to provoke people to react violently, and some people had to act in self defence against police attacks but we all supported one another and prevented the police from causing a riot. There was an incident where people were moving forward and the police wouldn’t let people go through. I was kneed in the balls, pushed over and punched in the back of the head by police. But I was saved from further beatings by other people.”

Education Activist Network member and 1st year History and Politics student, Nathan Akehurst, also told Cherwell about the “heavy presence” of the Police, saying, “undercover police snatch squads attacked and grabbed people from the demo, and an arrest was made on board a coach with the only apparent reason being that the student had a felt-tip pen.”

Akehurst commented, “Overall it was a lively and vibrant march, if rather long! The link-up with workers’ struggles on the same day sent a clear message- for a range of groups of people, this government has gone far enough. This can only be the beginning of putting a stop to a White Paper that would otherwise drive a wrecking-ball through higher education.”

Oxford students were subjected to homophobic abuse as they made their way home from a night out last week, with evidence linking the attack to members of Lincoln College.

The four students were walking along Turl Street at around 2am Wednesday morning, when a group of five or six began shouting at them, asking where they had been for their evening. When they replied that they had been at Baby Love, the group referred to the bar as “Gay love”, with one shouting that the group were “faggots” to the amusement of his friends.

Two of the students on the receiving end of the abuse lodged complaints with the JCR at Lincoln the next day, with suspicions that the attack had come from members of the College. 

Matthew Isard, a third year psychologist at Somerville and one of the victims of the abuse, explained why he chose to take this action. He said, “As I turned round after the comment, they were going into accommodation that was close to the Mitre. I’ve heard that those rooms are for Lincoln students.”

He added, “None of them were wearing college hoodies or anything, but the college officials seemed to accept the evidence we reported.” A Lincoln student later confirmed that the door off Turl Street leads to accommodation for second year students.

In response to the complaint, the Senior Dean of Lincoln emailed the JCR to inform them that such incidents would not be tolerated. He wrote, “It has been brought to my attention that earlier this week, Lincoln College students directed homophobic abuse towards a student from another college. This is an issue that the College takes very seriously and this type of behaviour is totally unacceptable.”

Lincoln College later issued a statement saying that they treated such allegations of harassment seriously and respectfully, emphasising that they would respond to any formal complaint made “to ensure that it remains a safe, comfortable and happy environment for all staff, students and visitors.”

There is, however, no evidence that the college has identified the culprits. Isard commented, “Sadly I can’t give a description as it was dark and they were too far away from us.”

Other students at Lincoln have reacted with sympathy but have been unable to help with this process. Fresher Anna Leszkiewicz expressed her confusion, saying, “I was completely unaware anything had happened until I got the email from the Dean, there weren’t any rumours flying around. It just doesn’t fit in with the nature of our college. Obviously it’s really disconcerting and disappointing.” 

The Lincoln community has expressed its shock at the incident. LGBTQ representative for Lincoln, Lewis Wingfield, told Cherwell that “Lincoln is a tight-knit, supportive community”, adding that he had never encountered anything similar to the events last week.

Wingfield went on to defend the college’s LGBTQ record, saying “Just because some abusive comments were made by a few drunk students this does not by any stretch of the imagination indicate that Lincoln does not protect its LGBTQ community. Further, I fail to see how College could control drunken comments made by its members.” 

Patrick Reid, a Lincoln second year qualified Wingfield’s statement, saying, “Being drunk does not make it acceptable to verbally assault other students.” Leszkiewicz added, “In whatever light you look at it, abuse is abuse and it’s unacceptable.”

Isard spoke of his disappointment not just with the one particularly vocal individual but with the whole group, commenting, “There was only one guy who was an issue, but the others laughed and didn’t seem appalled so they are not much better.”

Katie Colliver, the current LGBTQ Officer for OUSU, added, “Homophobic or transphobic abuse is not acceptable in any circumstance,” continuing, “Unfortunately, abusive language is often excused as ‘banter’. It is important that the perpetrators recognise not only that their behaviour isn’t funny, but that it could be reported to the police.”

Homophobic abuse is frequently not reported, so Colliver could not give accurate figures for such abuse cases in Oxford. However Thames Valley Police’s Homophobia Awareness Liaison Team received 15 reports of such abuse in the first half of this year, showing that last week’s incident was not unique. Isard commented, “I have had abuse in Oxford, more than I’ve ever got in London, but it has always (previously) been from people in the town, never students.”

Oxford’s Labour Club (OULC) has denied disunity after members of its executive have pledged their support to different OUSU president candidates.  Traditionally OULC has supported one candidate in the OUSU elections but this year members of their executive are running on different slates.

 One of the club’s co-chairs, Nicola Sugden, emphasised that it has been “many years since OULC officially supported any OUSU candidate” or ran an “OULC slate”. She commented that “there hasn’t been any formal discussion in OULC about who to back” and so it shouldn’t be surprising that members of OULC are running on different slates.

 Whilst Colin Jackson, OULC co-chair, pointed out that the last time OULC officially backed an OUSU presidential candidate was in 2008. However an OULC member highlighted that the club has conventionally stood for one slate, for example in 2010 when Martha Mackenzie received their support in her, ultimately, successful campaign.

Of the OULC executive, 9 of 12 are running for various positions; the majority divided between OUSU presidential candidates Jacob Diggle, David Railton and David Townsend. Notably, ex-OULC co-chair Jack Evans and current treasurer Chris Gray are running for vice-president position on opposing slates.

Nicola Sugden was insistent in stating that “there are no tensions within OULC”. She stated that no candidates had sought endorsement from OULC, nor had there been any formal discussion on the matter. Furthermore she highlighted that OULC’s focus this term “is based around policy discussion on contentious national issues, and weekly campaigning in East Oxford” rather than the OUSU elections.

In response to suggestions of disunity, Colin Jackson remarked that despite the perception of OULC as a student political powerhouse, it is “a large, diverse student society committed to the Labour Party cause in Britain and beyond”.  He noted that “the composition of our exec reflects the club’s diversity of opinion” and thus the divided support in the OUSU elections.

Both OULC co-chairs billed running in the OUSU elections as wider involvement in university life that didn’t necessarily relate to the Labour Club. Sugden commented that “I am incredibly happy that almost all of my exec are also active in their JCRs, give much time to other clubs and societies, and engage with OUSU”. Jackson concurred, saying most important is that OULC members are “getting involved and  serving as active and responsible members of the student union” .

Both OULC co-chairs are themselves running; Sudgen for vice president on the ‘Sugden and Fox 4 OUSU’ slate and Jackson is running in support of  Jacob Diggle’s presidential campaign. The elections manifestos have been submitted and voting is due to take place between 8am and 6pm on Thursday of 6th week.

Jackson rejected suggestions that the high number of OULC executive running meant being split across different slates. The OULC leadership emphasised again, however, that no formal discussion had taken place on OUSU support as took place in the run-up to the Labour Party Leadership Election.