A woman brandished a knife in fury after her neighbour called police on their house party.

Oxford Magistrates’ Court heard Jessica Granger’s knife waving came after learning that her neighbour in the supported accommodation on Rectory Road, St Clements, had reported the party a few days earlier to the authorities.

Prosecutor Danny Latham said the police attended the house party after the emergency call but no action was taken.

It got back to 26-year-old Granger that the neighbour at the supported accommodation, which is for young people with mental health difficulties, was the one who rang the police.

The day after the party, Granger went to the neighbour's bedroom and demanded she come out and 'fight her'. 

Concerned about her safety, the female neighbour decided to move back in with her parents a couple of days after the party.

On June 2 she asked staff to accompany her as she collected belongings from her room.

Mr Latham said that as they walked towards the bedroom ‘the kitchen doors swung open and the defendant is stood there with a large silver kitchen knife in her hand’.

The other young woman panicked and tried to run back the way she had come with the two staff members.

One of the members of staff tried to get the blade off Granger, who was shouting as she waved the knife around.

Interviewed by the police, Granger claimed to have been told that the neighbour kept a knife under her pillow, which ‘annoyed her’.

“She said she just saw red, walked to the kitchen, picked up a knife from the knife block. It was a big one [but] she did not do that on purpose,” Mr Latham summarised.

“She was shouting ‘if you have a knife then I’ve got one too’. She said [the neighbour’s] face dropped in shock then this snapped her out of her rage.”

In a victim personal statement summarised to the court, the neighbour who was the target of Granger’s ire said she suffered ‘nightmares about Jess with the knife and what could have happened – trying to bang down my door to get me’.

The young woman ‘couldn’t stop thinking about the incident and all the possibilities, what if staff had not been with me, what if she’d been able to get into my room’.

Granger, of Rectory Road, Oxford, pleaded guilty to three counts of common assault. She was said to have received a 13 month suspended sentence four years ago for causing grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm.

In mitigation, the young woman was said by her lawyer to be ‘extremely remorseful and embarrassed to be here today’.

District Judge Kamlesh Rana adjourned sentence until August 3 and ordered a pre-sentence report.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

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