POLICE have charged a man for allegedly damaging items inside a private Oxfordshire country estate.

Luke Howard, 31, has been accused of breaking a front door and light fitting at Foresters House in Ditchley Park on June 14.

Ditchley Park is home to one of the United Kingdon’s ‘finest houses’, known for being a retreat for Queen Elizabeth I. The mansion is Grade I-listed and was built in the 1720s.

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Howard, of Cornish Road, Chipping Norton, appeared at Oxford Magistrates Court on Thursday (December 21) charged with the offence at one of the private properties within the estate, belonging to Edmund Hall.

He also faces another charge of criminal damage – Hector Lopez’s t-shirt and neck chain – as well as assault by beating of Mr Lopez at the house and assault by beating of a police constable.

Howard is next due at the lower courts on January 18 at 10am.

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