A PLASTERER who smashed a pint glass into a black accountant’s face after repeatedly asking him where he was from has been jailed.

Thomas Eshiwani said “justice has been done” after Richard Randall was jailed for two years at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday.

He was repeatedly asked “where are you from?” by plasterer Richard Randall, who then attacked his victim and left him needing stitches.

Last month the 49-year-old was unanimously convicted by a jury of causing actual bodily harm on the evening of March 28 this year.

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Prosecutor Jerome Silva said Randall, of Hillsborough Close, Littlemore, approached Mr Eshiwani in the Marsh Harrier pub, Marsh Road, in Cowley, while the accountant was drinking with colleagues.

He said it was late in the evening and the defendant, who was very drunk, asked his victim in a “sneering way’’ where he was from.

The barrister said Mr Eshiwani, who is from Oxford, tried to ignore Randall as he asked the question but eventually told him to “f*** off”.

Mr Silva said the plasterer responded by pushing his pint into his victim’s face, causing the glass to smash “into smithereens’’.

Mr Eshiwani was taken to hospital and treated for cuts to his left eyebrow and to the inside of his mouth, the prosecutor said.

He told Judge Ian Pringle the assault left the complainant unable to eat solid food for a week and seriously affected his confidence.

Randall has 10 previous convictions for 17 offences, including for manslaughter after a man was hit and killed by a car during a drunken fight, Mr Silva added.

Claire Fraser, defending, said most of her client’s crimes were old and had been committed while he was under the influence of alcohol.

She said: “Mr Randall wished me to apologise on his behalf to Mr Eshiwani for what took place that evening.

“He states how deeply ashamed he is now looking back about his behaviour.

“Had it not been for him consuming alcohol on that evening this incident never would have occurred.”

Sentencing Randall, Judge Pringle told him: “You asked Mr Eshiwani where he was from time and time again.

“You suggested to him that he wasn’t from round here. Then you attacked him in a very serious way.

“Six months later he has not fully recovered from the effects of what you did to him.

“It has destroyed his confidence.”

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Eshiwani said: “I’m just glad he has been found guilty – I feel justice has been done.”

Randall, who was found not guilty of racially aggravated ABH, will have to pay a £120 victims’ surcharge when he is released from prison.

 

 

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