An irate customer who beat a late-arriving cab driver over the head with a glass bottle has walked from court with a suspended sentence.

Malcolm Njururi’s six month suspended jail term will be served when an existing two-year term – imposed last December for dealing hard drugs – comes to an end in 2023.

Yesterday, Oxford Magistrates’ Court heard how the 24-year-old ordered a Royal Cars car to pick him up from a property in Allder Close on April 30 last year.

When the driver arrived, there was no one waiting for the car. He called the number of the man who had booked the cab. Njururi answered, telling the driver he was too late and he no longer wanted the taxi.

As the first cab was waiting outside the property, a vehicle from another firm turned up. Njururi went to speak to the second driver.

The defendant was directed to the first taxi and a heated discussion began, the court was previously told.

Prosecutor Ann Sawyer-Brandish said the driver of the first vehicle was unsure whether Njururi opened the car door or reached through the open window.

He felt a crack to his head and, when he touched the wound, discovered he was bleeding.

The driver was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital and treated for a 5cm wound to his head.

Photographs previously shown to the magistrates’ court pictured pooled blood on the pavement and the taxi driver’s bloodied head.

In his police statement, the minicab driver said the fracas had left him ‘very scared and shaken up’.

“I am no longer going to be a taxi driver because of this incident,” he added.

“I do not come to work to be assaulted by someone when I am just trying to complete my job.”

Njururi, of Normandy Crescent, Oxford, pleaded guilty last month to causing actual bodily harm.

On Thursday, when he returned to Oxford Magistrates’ Court to be sentenced, the justices heard that the assault was committed before he received a two-year suspended sentence from a crown court judge in December.

That was important, defence advocate Gordana Austin said, as it meant he was not in breach of the judge’s sentence – and would not face a near-automatic activation of the two year jail term.

Ms Austin asked the bench to bear in mind the delay in the case being charged – the reasons for which were unclear. Her client, a dad-of-two, had moved back in with his mum, was in work and had stayed out of trouble.

Njururi had not realised he had a bottle in his hand when he struck the cabbie, she added.

The bench imposed six months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, with 200 hours of unpaid work and ordered he pay £300 in compensation and £213 in costs and surcharge.

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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

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