A hammer man told a judge he’d been ‘out with the boys’ when he waggled the tool he had found in the city centre.

CCTV footage played to Oxford Crown Court on Friday showed Amir Hamza exchanging words with a group in Park End Street at around 2am on January 28.

As yellow-jacketed police officers ran across the street, the 32-year-old could be seen flinging the hammer away from him, over the bridge and into the stream.

The weapon was not recovered by the police.

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Appearing before Oxford Crown Court on Friday (March 3), Hamza, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.

Matthew Hodgetts, mitigating, said his client had found the hammer earlier in the evening – and picked it up thinking it might be useful for his work as a builder.

Shortly before the incident, a member of the opposing group had allegedly said ‘something rather unpleasant’ to Hamza, the court was told.

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The judge adjourned the case for the preparation of a pre-sentence report. Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “I am concerned there is something more behind his behaviour than just being a delinquent or however you are meant to phrase it.”

After being told the case would be adjourned for a month, Hamza said from the dock that he had been ‘rejected’ from a club around 30 seconds before the incident captured on CCTV. “I was out on a night out with the boys,” he added.