Scissors-armed man lunged at former friend in Oxford

Phillip Maffia, 60, had cycled past his victim and the man’s ‘community worker’ outside St Aldates church in Oxford, prosecutor Cathy Olliver told the crown court on Friday (March 24).

“The victim had apparently at some point borrowed a vacuum cleaner from Mr Maffia and failed to return it and that was the source of annoyance,” the prosecutor said.

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Having already passed his victim and the community worker once, the defendant returned.

He dismounted his bicycle and punched his former friend in the back while holding a pair of scissors.

Ms Olliver said: “The community worker was concerned he was going to injure him.” Happily, the victim was uninjured and Maffia cycled away.

The defendant was identified from CCTV and arrested.

Maffia, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession of a bladed article and common assault. He had three previous convictions.

Mitigating, Emma Hornby told the crown court that her client had previously put the victim up at his accommodation.

“That subsequently broke down and there was perhaps a degree of ill-feeling left between them,” she added.

Her client was a sound engineer by trade and a keen musician. He played the trombone, guitar and ‘sometimes turns his hand to the violin’.

However, since being remanded to prison, he had been unable to practice the brass or stringed instruments.

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Ms Hornby said Maffia hoped to give back to the prison community by volunteering.

The defendant apologised from the dock. He appeared to say of his victim: “Whatever this person did that’s for God and the courts to judge and I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

He said he had worked for eight years for various charities in Southampton and Manchester. He had previously suffered a head injury, he said, but had ‘tried to make the best of it’.

Recorder John Hardy KC imposed a 12 month community order with 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

He told the defendant: “You’ve pleaded guilty at the pre-trial preparation hearing to these two matters, which would be of concern to members of the public who witnessed them as we as to the care worker and, of course, to the victim himself.”

A restraining order prevents Maffia from contacting the victim for three years.

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