A KNIFE-WIELDING balaclava gang burst into a back garden before threatening to kill a man and robbing him of his cash and cannabis, a court heard.

Ben Miller, 25, of Broad Oak, Oxford, and Jay Reynolds, 21, of no fixed abode, both deny one count of robbery and Miller denies one count of having a bladed article.

Prosecutors at their trial at Oxford Crown Court told jurors yesterday that the pair were part of a group of men who burst into the back garden of a house in Grove on the night of May 11 this year.

Detailing the case against the two men prosecutor Jonathan Sank told the court that while at the house the men violently attacked their victim – Joseph Cartwright, before making off with some £600 in cash and a quantity of the class B drug.

Taking to the witness box the alleged victim told jurors yesterday that one of the men held a knife to his face during the onslaught.

He said: “They had grabbed me, punched me, kicked me, chucked me to the ground, [and] threw me around.

“I got dragged down to the wooden shed at the bottom of the garden first but this was after I had a beating on the floor.

“They wanted my money, they wanted my cannabis, they referred to the cannabis as drugs.

“They said ‘money and drugs’ and then they were saying, while they had me on the floor, they said they were going to kill me if I didn’t give it to them and they would rape my ex-partner.”

He said that later he was forced inside the house and a knife was held to his face while the men took £600 in cash as well as two ounces of cannabis before stashing it inside an Adidas bag belonging to the alleged victim.

Mr Cartwright went on to tell jurors that the reason he had the cash and drugs at home was because he dealt cannabis to his friends and said this could have been the reason the men came to rob him.

Jurors also heard a 999 call made by a neighbour while the incident was unfolding. In that call she told police of ‘an altercation’ by a group of men at the house.

A call made to emergency services by the alleged victim was also played to the court in which he claims to have been assaulted by a gang of men ‘ballied-up’ – wearing balaclavas. Jurors were told that while he was still on the phone to the police a number of patrol cars soon arrived at the scene.

Later, the court heard, police investigators found an Adidas bag allegedly stolen by the group, at the home of one of the men. DNA evidence linked to Reynolds was also found on a balaclava seized from the alleged victim’s home, seemingly left behind by the group, jurors were told.

After Miller and Reynolds were arrested, prosecutors said, they each denied being at the scene and playing any part in the robbery.

The trial continues.