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Hospital Order for Oxford Man Who Stabbed Step-brother With China Mug

A man stabbed his step-brother in the chest with such force that he left a fragment from his makeshift coffee mug weapon embedded in his victim’s breastbone.

Andrew Davies seemed to have launched the brutal attack after his step-brother – angry that the 38-year-old was running a bath and playing very loud music at 4am – said he was ‘known at school as the paedo’s brother’.

During the attack, the victim had hot tea thrown at him, was stabbed repeatedly in the chest with a broken coffee mug then, after managing to get his brother off him by poking him in the eye, was throttled.

Pictures of the gaping wound in his chest were so graphic that, had Davies not pleaded guilty to wounding with intent and intentional strangulation, prosecutors had decided the images were too upsetting to be shown to a jury.

At Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday (May 9), Judge Michael Gledhill KC imposed an indefinite hospital order after hearing from a psychiatrist at the Littlemore Hospital where Davies is currently an inpatient.

The defendant had been diagnosed with ‘intellectual disabilities’ and autism. His poor psychiatric health was said to have been responsible for the ‘eruption of violence’ that left his brother with a potentially life-threatening chest wound.

Despite a formal assessment in 2012 showing he had a very low IQ, Davies’ mental health difficulties were said to have gone ‘under the radar’ of the authorities.

Imposing a hospital order under section 37 of the Mental Health Act with an added restriction under section 41, Judge Gledhill said: “It seems to me the public are best served by having you treated for your mental health conditions rather than simply locking you up.”

Earlier, prosecutor Jonathan Stone said the defendant and his victim were half-brothers living under their mother’s roof in Barton Village Road, Oxford.

At around 4am on October 11 last year, the victim and his girlfriend were woken-up by the sound of Davies running a bath and playing music loudly. Entreaties by the family to get him to stop or turn down the music were unsuccessful.

The victim, frustrated, told Davies he was ‘known at school as the paedo’s brother’. Mr Stone, for the Crown, said: “That seemed to be the catalyst for what happened next.”

Police were called to the home in the wake of the attack and performed first aid on the victim, whose chest wound had to be closed by plastic surgeons.

Davies, of Barton Village Road, Oxford, was originally charged with attempted murder. After he was ruled fit to plead earlier this year, he admitted alternative counts of wounding with intent and intentional strangulation.

Derek Barry, mitigating, said his client ‘deeply regrets’ what he did and hoped to apologise to his brother. “He wanted in his own words to say how sorry he was to his brother face to face.”

Addressing the judge on the motive for the assault, the barrister said: “He finds it difficult to explain why it happened, but the closest I could get from him this morning was the name-calling.

“He says that wherever he goes – and perhaps because he presents to other people in public as unusual…he approaches people and speaks to people – he’s been called names [like] ‘paedo’, ‘nonce’, ‘weirdo’ all his life.”

Source: oxfordmail

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