POLICE are now hunting for a homeless Army veteran who was given a ‘last chance’ by a court judge and failed to turn up for his latest court hearing.

In January last year Judge Maria Lamb gave Trevor Stewart a lifeline and spared him a jail sentence after a lunchtime brawl near Oxford’s crown court building.

At that hearing she told the 37-year-old of no fixed abode ‘this is a last chance’ before handing him a community order.

Today, the same court judge issued a warrant for his arrest after he failed to turn up for a hearing into an alleged breach of a community order.

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At the hearing a representative of the National Probation Service said that efforts to contact Stewart had been fruitless and that this was the third breach of the community order.

The court heard that Stewart was not looking at reducing his alcohol use and so it was suggested the order be revoked and he be re-sentenced for the original offence.

Judge Lamb duly issued a warrant for his arrest and said: “I am satisfied he should have been here.

“On reading the reports there is certainly information there for believing that he should be answering to that summons, whether or not he accepts the various breaches.”

Previously, at the same court, Stewart pleaded guilty to one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

He was sentenced for that offence in January last year.

Prosecutors said that a street fight took place on the afternoon of October 26 2018 at Luther Street, Oxford.

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Stewart kicked his victim Paul Williams in the groin before slapping him to the face and then knocking him to the ground with a single punch to the head.

At the hearing the court was shown CCTV footage of the attack, described as ‘nasty and unprovoked’, which saw his victim Mr Williams left lying unconscious on the ground.

In mitigation his defence barrister Guy Wyatt said that his client had a long-standing alcohol problem and was a veteran of the Armed Forces, having served in Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.

He said that Stewart was determined to beat his addiction and to re-connect with his wife and children with whom he is separated.

Sentencing, Judge Maria Lamb said at the time that Stewart had a ‘shocking record for violence’ and called the attack ‘nasty’ and ‘unprovoked.’

She said: “It was a thoroughly unpleasant incident.

“I am going to give you a chance, this is a last chance, if this does not work, if you breach the order I am going to impose on you, this is a direct alternative to something like 21 months in prison.

“If it doesn’t work you are going to be back in front of me and I will send you inside.”

Stewart was handed at that hearing a community order to include 25 rehabilitation days and alcohol treatment.