A spurned husband pistol whipped his supposed love rival in a trampoline centre car park.

Rihards Mezinieks, 37, had booked his children a ticket to Bicester trampoline park Bounce on October 29 last year and asked his estranged wife to bring the children.

When the man he believed to be the rival for his wife’s affections turned up, having spent the night under her roof, he lost his temper.

CCTV showed Mezinieks marching up to the victim, who felt a gun press into his stomach.

Prosecuting, Jonathan Stone told Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday: “He looked down and saw it was a pistol or similar. He said he grabbed the muzzle and rotated his arm in such a way that he managed to push the defendant away.”

The victim was distracted by a mystery man standing further away on the pavement. “As his attention was diverted it seems the defendant took the opportunity to hit the complainant with the pistol on his right temple.”

The men traded blows, with one witness suggesting that Mezinieks had kicked his victim as he lay on the ground. The second man came off significantly worse and pictures showed what appeared to be the impression of a pistol butt on the right-side of his face.

Mezinieks’ estranged wife, who witnessed the confrontation, said she heard her husband threaten to kill his opponent.

Six days after the attack, the defendant sent a series of sinister messages apparently threatening the man he’d pistol whipped - and appearing to show his jealous belief his wife and his victim were in a relationship.

Mezinieks said he would ‘never give [his] kids away’. He added in a chilling postscript, read to the court: “[The victim] will not mess up their lives, I swear. But if he leaves myself and my kids in peace let them [the victim and Mezinieks’ wife] do whatever they want.

“If they continue to lie they will continue living in fear. Even if I will go to prison he will pay for it. They will live in fear/agony, I will swear.”

On November 11, Warwickshire Police spotted Mezinieks’ BMW on the M40 and arrested him in the car park of the Banbury Gateway shopping centre.

The defendant was recorded saying ‘I smashed him’ as he was cuffed by the officers.

They found a Glock-style BB gun in glove box and another realistic imitation pistol in the front passenger’s side door pocket. The weapons were so powerful that, although BB guns, they were classified as firearms by law. Ammunition was found in the car.

Mezinieks, of Witnell Road, Coventry, pleaded guilty earlier this month to possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and possession of two firearms and ammunition. A Latvian national, he had no previous convictions.

However, at his sentencing hearing on Tuesday he was asked to submit a basis of plea differences emerged between the prosecution and defence over whether the defendant had planned the attack outside the trampoline park.

Judge Maria Lamb put the case back until January 27.