A FATHER has told how his eight-month-old baby was kept awake through the night by youngsters holding an illegal rave in woods near his home.

Edward Grant, who lives near King’s Wood off the B4335 near Charlbury, described how a large group of youngsters revved cars up a muddy track before lighting fires, pumping music from sound systems and filling the night sky with strobe lighting.

Mr Grant, 35, who lives near the woods, said: “It kept us up all night. It kept waking my son up and we had to move him to the other side of the house.

“My wife didn’t sleep at all as she was of course worried someone would come knocking at the door high as a kite.”

He added: “They had a big fire and a car with strobe lighting going and a sound system.

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“There were a lot of beer bottles everywhere and a lot of little packets and drug paraphernalia.

“People began drifting away about seven in the morning.”

Mr Grant said police officers arrived very quickly at the scene, but there were only about eight of them.

Father-of-one Mr Grant said: “They told me when it has happened before they have been pelted with bottles.

“They didn’t want to cause a lot of people to start running away in an inebriated state, as it could have been very dangerous for them.

“They had to limit their activities to making sure people were leaving down the road and getting taxis rather than driving.”

Mr Grant, who runs a property company, added: “If those people had turned on them they could have ended up in a much worse situation.

“Now I completely think the police acted as they should have.

“If they had done anything bar protect the people there it would have turned nasty and a lot of people could have potentially been hurt.”

He added: “We’ve all done stupid things when we were younger and found somewhere to have a drink but this was an illegal rave organised by someone. They put the people who were going to it at risk.”

Thames Valley Police spokeswoman Hannah Williams said officers reported about 30 people taking part in the rave.

Officers charged two men in connection with what police described as an “unlicensed music event” on Sunday.

Samuel Heslop, 39, of Lower Radley, Abingdon, and Darren Moses, 45, of St Martin’s Road, London, were both charged with one count of failure to leave land and will appear at Banbury Magistrates’ Court on March 30.