Bricklayer sent family 'monkey selfie' greetings card in run up to Christmas

The card, sent to the Read family on Christmas Eve, had a large picture of a monkey on the front together with the word ‘selfie’ in red lettering.

Enquiries with the firm, Red Frog Designs, that sold the card from its eBay store in December 2019. It was bought using Bryan Olliver’s PayPal account and sent to his home in Woodcote, Oxfordshire.

Bricklayer Olliver, 48, denied being the one to send the card to former workmate Michael Read, suggesting that a friend of his 15-year-old son whom he alleged bore a grudge against Mr Read could have ordered the card.

But Oxford magistrates rejected his story, taking less than an hour to find him guilty of sending malicious communications, assault by beating and common assault.

Bailing him to return to court for sentence next month, chairman of the bench Fiona Clarke said that despite Olliver’s lack of previous convictions the justices did not find his evidence to be as credible as that of his two victims.

Speaking after the hearing, Michael Read’s partner, Heidi Price, welcomed the verdicts.

“It’s standing up to bullying and racism; that’s what it means to me. Olliver has been held accountable for his bullying and racism,” she told the Oxford Mail.

The court heard Mr Read had returned home around Christmas 2019 to find the greeting card.

Asked about the card, which contained the words ‘be off with u' cut from newsprint, and what message it conveyed, Mr Read said: “Racism to my family.”

“What was your partner’s reaction?” prosecutor Richard Atkins asked.

Mr Read, whose partner of 20 years is of mixed Jamaican and German heritage, replied: “She was devastated.”

The envelope and card had not been submitted for DNA analysis or fingerprints.

Four months’ later, on April 26, 2020, it was alleged Mr Read was cycling in Woodcote when Olliver leant out the passenger window of a car and spat at him. The spittle landed on the victim’s arm and trousers. He told the magistrates he was not asked by the police to bag the trousers for forensic analysis.

The greetings card sent to the Read family by Bryan Olliver Picture: SUBMITTED

The greetings card sent to the Read family by Bryan Olliver Picture: SUBMITTED

On May 15, 2020, Mr Read’s mother, Angela, said she was walking her dog in the village when she became aware of Olliver driving past in a grey van. He spat, although did not strike her. She said she shouted ‘you f***ing b******’ at the van, which was overheard by a friend to whom she was speaking on the phone at the time.

Both said they were sure they’d seen Olliver. Mrs Read, a school dinner lady, had known him when he was a pupil at the local school. The mother and son strenuously denied making up their accounts.

Put in the witness stand, Olliver said he’d known Mr Read when they both worked for building contractors Butler and Proctor around a decade earlier. They did not know each other socially.

He claimed the victim had employed a friend of his teenage son, alleging Mr Read had not paid the youth a pre-agreed daily rate. “He grafted all week and got peanuts for it,” he said.

The aggrieved teenager had stayed at Olliver’s house for a couple of months in late 2019 and could have been able to access his laptop, which was stored in the bathroom and was not password protected, he told JPs.

The bricklayer claimed to have ‘had it out’ with them, but ‘they’ve all stood there and said it wasn’t me’.

Olliver, who had no previous convictions but made a number of allegations about his victims from the stand, told the justices he was ‘bemused’ by the charges.

He denied spitting at the Reads, saying he would have been walking his dog or shopping when Mr Read claimed he was attacked on a Sunday morning. He was in the area where Mrs Read said she was spat at but denied committing the assault.

Olliver, of Bensgrove Close, Woodcote, was bailed to return to Oxford Magistrates’ Court on October 20 for sentence. The magistrates ordered a pre-sentence report.

Bryan Olliver outside Oxford Magistrates' Court