A father took a gang of friends around to his ex-girlfriend's house and then tried to set dogs on her, a jury heard yesterday.

David Holmes is also accused of being armed with a knife and threatening ex-girlfriend Kirsty Bradbury in a dispute about seeing their daughter Kayla.

Holmes denies three charges of putting a person in fear of violence or harassment, one of affray and one of possessing an offensive weapon.

Jonathan Coode, prosecuting, said the 29-year-old of Arnold's Way, Oxford, sent threatening messages to his ex-partner and her family.

Toyah Smith, Miss Bradbury's sister-in-law, said she was putting her children to bed at home in Buttercup Square, Greater Leys, when the front door lock was broken by Holmes.

Mr Coode said: "What David Holmes had done was gather up a posse, two car loads of mainly men, two or three dogs and a knife which he was wielding.

"At one point the dogs were let off the leads and instructed to attack. Fortunately for those in the house they did not."

The trial continues.