A judge told a man who took potshots out of a bedroom window it was ‘entirely his own fault’ he would spend Christmas in prison.
Judge Michael Gledhill KC told Mitchell Hodges: “You’ve only got yourself to blame.”
Hodges, 40, was due before Oxford Crown Court last Friday to be sentenced for possession of an air rifle when, because of a three year jail term imposed in 2010 for drug dealing, he was banned from possessing firearms for life.
When he failed to show up, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Learning of the warrant this week, he handed himself in to the police station.
On Tuesday, barrister Christopher Pembridge said his client had lost his phone last week. He found it on Friday, but only learnt about the court hearing he had missed from a text to the telephone.
Mr Pembridge said Hodges accepted he ‘did not have a reasonable excuse’ for failing to attend the hearing, as he could have been expected to contact his solicitors.
He asked the judge to bail his client ahead of a re-fixed sentencing hearing in January.
Judge Gledhill refused, remanding Hodges into custody until January 27.
He detailed the ways that Hodges had ‘only got himself to blame’, including for ‘taking potshots’ at a group of men who allegedly went on to stab him, ‘not telling the truth’ to the police or a probation officer preparing a pre-sentence report and for ‘failing to turn up’ to court last week.
“Entirely your own fault you are going to spend Christmas in custody,” he added.
In November, when Hodges pleaded guilty to possessing an air rifle in breach of a prohibition, the court heard he had been seen firing the weapon out of a Carterton flat window into the street on August 12, 2020.
The men at whom he fired subsequently ‘kicked the door of his flat in and stabbed him’, the barrister then prosecuting the case, Julian Lynch, said. The stabbers have not been identified.
Hodges, of Busby Drive, Minster Lovell, had been due to stand trial on charges of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and possession of the air rifle in breach of a prohibition.
He pleaded guilty to the second charge but maintained his not guilty plea to the first allegation. The pleas were accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Read more from this author
This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward
Share