A SERIAL pest has been handed an Antisocial Behaviour Order (Asbo) for the second time after repeatedly terrorising people in Temple Cowley.

Ian Joseph, 44, of Crescent Road, Temple Cowley, was handed the five year legal curb restricting his movements around Cowley by Oxford magistrates yesterday.

He could be jailed if he is spotted anywhere near Crescent Hall and entering, or attempting to enter, Temple Cowley Pools.

The order also stops him using threatening or using intimidating language or behaviour, abusing or swearing at any person, and making unsolicited sexual comments to women either by spoken word, phone, email or in writing. The Asbo, which will run until 2015, comes after a string of incidents where Joseph was causing a serious nuisance.

It follows an interim Asbo which has been in place since March.

Three residents gave evidence in court yesterday.

Last night, Oxford City Council board member Saj Malik insisted the order was the right punishment, as Joseph’s behaviour had improved slightly.

He said: “It will work, it’s also sending a message out to the other people that this sort of behaviour is not going to be tolerated.

“He has been a nuisance and his behaviour will not be tolerated in civilised society. It was totally unacceptable. It will be a relief to the users of Temple Cowley Swimming Pool and Crescent Hall residents that they won’t see him.”

Joseph, who lives at Salesian House, was first issued with a four-year Asbo in November 2004 after sending city council staff sexually explicit material as part of a campaign of harassment.

In the same year, he became the first man in the county to have his photo put on a poster telling residents of the terms of the order.

In July 2005, Joseph was jailed for 15 months for attacking and beating a man with garden shears, and in 2006, he was banned from more areas of Oxford.

In March 2007, he won an appeal against parts of the order which banned him from sleeping in his brother’s flat, but he was jailed for three months later that year for breaching conditions of his Asbo after being seen in Temple Cowley.

Joseph is the second person in Oxford to be handed a five year order.

The first was alcoholic and convicted robber John Andranelli, 41, who was banned from Oxford for five years in July last year.

eallen@oxfordmail.co.uk