Burglar broke police officer's nose in Leeds car-park scuffle over prison-return fears
A convicted burglar out on licence punched a police officer and tried to run over fears of being recalled to prison.
The officer suffered a broken nose during the early-morning scuffle in Leeds city centre, before Sam Oxley then threatened to stab the tenacious officer who refused to let him escape.
Oxley was given a new jail sentence at Leeds Crown Court this week after admitting assault with intent to resist arrest and escaping from lawful custody.
The court heard that two officers had been on patrol on Marsh Lane at around 5.15am on February 20 when their eyes were drawn to a Ford Fiesta.
A check revealed the car was linked to Oxley, who was wanted on recall to prison having been released part-way through a five-year sentence for attempted burglaries.
But as the car got near to an underground car park, Oxley got and started running into the car park, pursued by one of the officers. He managed to grab hold of 34-year-old Oxley who twice told the officer: “You do not want to do this.”
He then punched him to the face, breaking the officer’s nose as they continued to struggle.
Oxley got free and tried to run off and scale a wall, but failed. He then turned to the officer, put his hand his waistband and claimed he had a knife before running at the officer.
A further scuffle ensued, they both threw punches and ended up on the floor with Oxley grabbing the officer’s baton. He was able to wrestle it back from Oxley and hit him with it, but it had little impact, prosecutor Heather Gilmore said.
Oxley began to run again, and squeezed through an open fire door before closing it behind him, meaning the officer could not follow.
Oxley, of no fixed address, was later arrested. He appeared in court this week from HMP Leeds.
He has previous convictions for burglaries, robbery, ABH and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He was jailed for five years in July 2022 for a raft of offences including attempted burglaries, ABH and theft of a vehicle.
Mitigating of his latest offences, Adrian Pollard said that Oxley conceded that the “outcome is inevitable” and he faced a jail sentence.
He said: “He understands his actions are totally unacceptable. There’s no excuse or justification.
“His temper got the better of him. He panicked and did not want to be recalled.
“Had he gone quietly it would have been a 28-day recall. He really did make matters substantially worse for himself and caused pain and suffering to the officer.”
Judge Anesh Pema told Oxley he had an “horrific previous-conviction record for pretty much every offence”.
He gave him 12 months’ jail, but it will concurrently to his existing sentence so will little difference to his release date, which will be July 2027.