A man who set about a delivery driver with a baseball bat later told police he ‘wasn’t angry’.
Michael Caunter, 57, launched the assault a day after confronting the same deliveryman – bringing a barrel to a customer in Jordan Hill, north Oxford – when he ‘aggressively’ approached the driver’s wife and asked if she wanted to be shot.
Appearing before Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (May 30), Caunter, of Jordan Hill, pleaded guilty to assault by beating and possession of an offensive weapon.
He was bailed by District Judge Kamlesh Rana, who ordered a pre-sentence report to be compiled by the probation service, and will be sentenced on June 27.
The conditions of his bail prevent him from ‘interfering with any delivery personnel’ or contacting the neighbours to him the barrel was being delivered.
Earlier, prosecutor Kathleen O’Callaghan told the judge that victim Jason Edwards parked outside his customers’ home in Jordan Hill on May 10. His wife, also said to be involved in the business, was with him.
Caunter confronted first Mr Edwards and then his wife, ‘aggressively approaching’ the latter and asking ‘if she wanted to be shot’.
The husband intervened and asked the defendant not to speak to his wife like that.
After making further threats, Caunter went into his home and came out with a golf club then made more threats.
Fearing his family’s safety, Mr Edwards left. He returned the following day to complete the delivery, but this time filmed the entire drop-off on his iPhone.
Caunter came out of his house and began making ‘comments’ to the delivery driver, including a bizarre allegation that the cask courier was disqualified from driving.
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Ms O’Callaghan said: “Mr Edwards told the defendant to stay away from him. However, the defendant went towards him, and hit his phone and his hand with the baseball bat, causing the phone to fly out of Mr Edwards’ hands and fall to the floor.”
He was arrested and interviewed by the police on May 13, two days after the incident with the baseball bat. He answered ‘no comment other than to say he wasn’t angry’, Ms O’Callaghan said.
Mitigating, Phil Kouvaritakis told the court on Tuesday that he had spent ‘quite some time’ with his client that morning, who told him he suffered ‘very ill health’ and had only recently had heart surgery.
District Judge Kamlesh Rana warned that she was ‘keeping all sentencing options open’, including committing the matter to the crown court if she felt her powers of punishment were insufficient.
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