A TEENAGER who has terrorised his neighbourhood for two years was finally jailed for 10 months yesterday for a hammer attack.

Sandeep Kumar of Saunders Road, East Oxford, appeared before Oxford Youth Court yesterday where he was sentenced for breaching his Antisocial Behaviour Order (Asbo), possessing an offensive weapon and assault.

Magistrate Christine Dawson told the 16-year-old – who was given an Asbo to try to make him behave – he had “undermined the public confidence in the safety of the community in Cowley and East Oxford”.

The Oxford Mail won a legal battle to fully report the case because magistrates agreed he was so out of control that the public needed to be reassured that the courts and police were taking action to safeguard the community.

Kumar, who denied the charges, was given his Asbo in December 2009 after making life a misery for neighbours with his aggressive and antisocial behaviour. Last night, one of them said his jailing was a relief.

Karen Cushing, prosecuting, said: “Sandeep is a prolific offender, almost all of his offences have taken place in the East Oxford and Cowley region.”

l Continued from Page 1 Ms Cushing told magistrates the victim of the hammer attack, Lewis Heaver, had been walking with his dog on June 2, when Kumar attacked him from behind, knocking him to the floor before raining down blows with the hammer.

Mr Heaver was left with cuts and bruises from the attack.

“(Kumar) is clearly to be sentenced for serious offences, possession of an offensive weapon which he used to inflict violence – which he did in Cowley Road in the middle of the day,” Ms Cushing said.

“It was so brazen that police officers simply driving in the Cowley Road witnessed everything.”

Referring to his string of previous convictions, Ms Cushing told of a previous hammer attack carried out by Kumar.

She said: “His previous offences include a very young boy who sustained serious head injuries.

“He didn’t know Sandeep, he was simply walking through an East Oxford park and, unfortunately, so was Sandeep.

“It is not an insignificant hammer, it was seized at the time, but Sandeep is a boy who regularly carries hammers and who regularly uses them to inflict violence on others in East Oxford.”

Richard Mohabir, defending, said that Kumar has spoken to social services about moving to Birmingham in a bid to turn his life around.

Mr Mohabir added: “He doesn’t want to be one of those adults who goes in and out of jail. He wants to go into work.”

Kumar was sentenced to three concurrent sentences – six months’ detention and supervision in a young offenders’ institution for assault, 10 months for possession of an offensive weapon, and 10 months for breaching his Asbo.

One of his Saunders Road neighbours said: “I think if he’s been sentenced to 10 months then that’s a good thing, but it sounds like it should have been more.

“The fact that he’s been sentenced for 10 months means I won’t have to see him for months and it should be relatively quiet.”

ljones@oxfordmail.co.uk