A man in his 60s has been banned from east Oxford after he admitted punching his then partner during a drunken argument.

Andrew Brown threw two punches at the woman as she lay on the ground in her flat in Rose Hill, on March 22.

Prosecutor Richard Atkins told the court that the woman, with whom 60-year-old Brown had been in an on-off relationship, had screamed at him to leave.

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By way of reply, he simply laughed at her – although he did leave the flat when she repeated her request for him to leave.

Oxford Magistrates’ Court, sitting at the crown court due to a problem with the cells in the Speedwell Street courthouse, heard that the couple had a ‘toxic’ relationship.

On the morning of the assault, they had both been in the flat drinking vodka together.

In the afternoon an argument erupted between the pair concerning a friend of the woman's.

Brown had taken against the friend and was, according to his then partner’s statement, ‘bad mouthing’ her.

She defended the woman, which caused the argument to escalate.

His partner said Brown ‘didn’t like this’. He turned around, pulled her down to the floor and punched her twice in the face.

“He is a lot bigger than me and there was nothing I could do to fight back,” she said in a statement read to the court by Mr Atkins.

She yelled at him to get out of her flat and he laughed in her face. He then left when she repeated her demand.

Brown, now of William Lucy Way, Jericho, had been due to stand trial on two allegations of assault. However, one of those charges was dropped when he pleaded guilty on a basis to the March incident.

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His solicitor, Angela Porter, said Brown and his victim had been drinking together for several hours before the assault.

He ‘can’t be clear what happened’, she said, and accepted that he ‘must have’ grabbed her to the floor and hit her twice.

The couple’s on-off relationship was described as ‘toxic’. Police had been called to the flat a number of times following reports of assaults by both Brown and the woman.

Ms Porter said her client, who had various physical health ailments, had been found new accommodation on the opposite side of Oxford and intended to make a ‘fresh start’.

District Judge Kamlesh Rana sentenced him to 16 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for two years. He was banned from east Oxford for three months and a given a two year restraining order. He must pay £328 in costs and surcharge.

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