Asbo update: Residents speak of joy

5:45pm Thursday 12th June 2008

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Residents have spoken of their joy after a teenager was handed a five year antisocial behaviour order banning him from entering his stomping ground.

Persistent trouble maker Jordan Anderson, 19, of Southfield Park, East Oxford, is now banned from entering the Marston area of Oxford.

He was also banned from meeting, gathering or associating in any public place with Christopher Lemonius, brothers Kane and Zack Gaskell and Hayden and Casey Townsend.

And he is also banned from threatening, using violence, intimidating, abusing or swearing at members of the public.

The case against Anderson - who in 2006 was convicted of burgling a house while a pensioner lay dead inside - was made even stronger by the fact three Marston residents were prepared to testify against him at Oxford Magistrates' Court.

Diane Wakeley, 47, of Nicholas Avenue, was one of those willing to give evidence.

Her mother, pensioner Sylvia, of Croft Road, Marston, was targeted by Anderson in June last year, when a fence post was thrown through her front window.

She said: "I know a lot of people in Croft Road will be throwing a street party when they find out he is banned from the area for five years.

"He is a waste of space and I'm just so glad he's off the estate. I know my mother will feel a lot safer when she finds out he's not allowed round here any more."

Fellow Croft Road resident Vanessa Humphrey said: "He would taunt me and say to me 'you'll need some new tyres tomorrow' and I would wake up the next day and find my tyres slashed.

"He would drive up and down the road really fast, hanging out the window, and slam on the breaks so they would screech.

"I've been living round her for four years and from day one I could see he was trouble."

Anderson was served with an interim Asbo in April, with the above conditions.

However, he breached it within days and soon after was sentenced to a 60-day custodial sentence in a youth offenders' institute.

He was released on licence on May 22, but two days later breached the Asbo again.

On June 3, he was sentenced to 120 days for breaching his Asbo for the second time - and a further 30 days for breaching his licence conditions.

Pc Jon Shaw, neighbourhood officer for Marston, said: "Jordan Anderson is the prime example of why antisocial behavioural orders are in existence, showing complete disregard other residents and authorities.

"I hope this will also show to other individuals in the Marston area acting in an antisocial way that it will not be tolerated."

Naeem Chudry, of Oxford City Council's Canact team, said: "We believe the Asbo term - one of the longest given out in Oxford - is absolutely necessary."