AN ASBO imposed on an “aggressive alcoholic” who attacked paramedics, screamed at a vicar, and was wrestled off stage at Abingdon’s Got Talent, has been criticised for still allowing him to visit pubs.

Thames Valley Police secured an order against 55-year-old Howard Russell, of Langley Road, Abingdon, banning him from drinking in public anywhere in Oxfordshire.

But the conditions do not stop him having a drink in the town’s pubs.

Now Abingdon Pubwatch is planning to bar him from every licensed premises in the town.

Imposing the order, magistrates in Oxford were told of 32 separate public order offences committed by Russell since October 2008, including causing a public nuisance at the auditions of Abingdon’s Got Talent, in Market Place, on Saturday, June 26.

During the X Factor-style event, he invaded the stage in front of families with young children, shouting, swearing and trying to grab the microphone. He was eventually removed from the stage by soldiers who were promoting their fun day at Dalton Barracks.

On Sunday, July 18, he went into St Aldate’s Church, Oxford, and shouted and swore at the vicar.

Russell has a record of attacking medical staff, including kicking a paramedic in the knee on February 1, 2009, and being abusive towards a hospital nurse on September 13, 2009.

Under the terms of the Criminal Asbo, the only place he is still allowed to drink in public is at licensed premises.

Pc Jim Abram said: “We are very pleased to have secured this order. Howard Russell is an aggressive alcoholic who has put himself at risk by walking along roads while drunk and also tried to attack members of the emergency services who have tried to help him.

“This order offers us another tool which will help us and the courts deal more effectively if he continues to behave in this manner.”

Thames Valley Police said the Crown Prosecution Service had not sought to have him banned from pubs because all his past offences had taken place in the street.

But the chairman of Abingdon Pubwatch, Keith Long, of Strattons nightclub, said the Asbo should have covered pubs and the town’s landlords were now likely to ban him.

He said: “If the police have given him an Asbo, it really does mean he should not be let into local pubs.

“Letting him into pubs seems very silly. For someone like that, there should be communication between police and Pubwatch.”

Mayor of Abingdon Duncan Brown, who was a judge at Abingdon’s Got Talent, welcomed the Asbo, saying it was important to make the town welcoming and safe.

The order was imposed in the same week Home Secretary Teresa May signalled the end of the Asbo in favour of more “rehabilitating and restorative” penalties.

Russell appeared at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, July 27, where he pleaded guilty to breaching his Asbo. He will appear again on September 2, after a pre-sentence report has been prepared.