A dangerous criminal who nearly killed a Bicester man in a drug-fuelled stabbing was jailed indefinitely yesterday for the public's protection.

Oxford Crown Court heard Clifford Garnon, 25, was on licence from prison for another violent attack when he knifed Craig Kelly in the town's Market Square.

The court heard Garnon, who had previously admitted wounding with intent, had been smoking coke in joints and could barely remember the attack last August. In February, his brother Darren Garnon, 21, of Avocet Way, was jailed for two years for violent disorder, and Dean Taylor, 19, of Linden Road, was sentenced to four months for using threatening behaviour during the disturbance.

Clifford Garnon's sentencing was delayed for psychiatric reports.

Garnon, of West Street, Bicester, had been out of jail for just seven weeks after serving about half of an 18-month sentence. David Bright, defending, said Garnon deserved credit for his guilty plea and had expressed remorse.

Judge Julian Hall said: "The problem I have in sentencing you is you have done it before and I think at the moment that you are a dangerous young man."

It will be up to the parole board when he is released but Judge Hall said the earliest Garnon could be considered was after two years and 111 days.