FARM caretaker Barry Brown attacked a disabled woman and a young girl with a walking stick after they went to ask him for a ride on some horses, Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Wheelchair-bound Janet Duguid and the 11-year-old girl, who cannot be named, said they fled in terror after Brown, 47, set upon them shouting: "Get off my land." The pair, along with two other girls, aged nine and 15, had gone to Ridgeway Farm, in Chilton, near Didcot, on July 22 last year to ask if they could have a free ride on some horses in a nearby field.

Jonathan Coode, prosecuting, said Brown stormed out of his caravan when one of the girls knocked on his door.

Mr Coode said: "The Crown say that in overseeing the premises he was somewhat over-zealous. In short he told her to get off the land." Brown got into a lorry and drove to the bottom of the track where Mrs Duguid, from Chilton, who is in her 50s, and the two other girls were waiting, the court was told.

Mr Coode said: "Mr Brown had a problem about some signs at the bottom of the track.

"He jumped out of the lorry and said, 'Who has been touching my signs?'." The 11-year-old girl, who broke down in tears as she gave evidence, said that Brown blamed her for damaging the signs. She said: "That is when he hit me with a big stick." She said she was also kicked to the ground by Brown, and he pushed Mrs Duguid out of her wheelchair and hit her with the stick. Brown allegedly grabbed the wheelchair and threw it in a nearby cornfield.

Mrs Duguid and the two girls went to a nearby garden centre where they called the police. The girl was later found to have a three-inch bruise on her right arm and a bruise on her right thigh.

Brown denies causing actual bodily harm to the girl and common assault on Mrs Duguid. He told police he had only shouted at them and that Mrs Duguid was not in a wheelchair. The wheelchair has never been found.

The case continues.

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