A man breached a court order banning him from lying down in the road – as PTSD following a crash had led him to deliberately going to the site of the collision and lying on the tarmac.
Anthony Martin’s solicitor, India Ferris, said the Range Rover that struck him ‘around six years ago’ had left him with a significant brain injury.
The 43-year-old had been diagnosed with serious post-traumatic stress disorder. Ms Ferris said: “He finds himself going back to the road and he finds himself walking in the road, lying in the road and getting flashbacks of when he was hit.
“That doesn’t sound like a very sensible thing to do but, unfortunately, that is what happens with his PTSD.”
The police had previously obtained a criminal behaviour order from the magistrates' court, which has since come to an end, that banned him from walking in the road or holding up traffic while intoxicated or in possession of an open can or bottle of alcohol.
“What the CBO did not recognise was he was ultimately doing this because of his mental health and because of his brain injury,” his solicitor said.
“Mr Martin accepts he has an alcohol issue and he was drunk but he says that is directly linked to his mental health.”
He was now working with a brain injury charity, Headway, Ms Ferris added.
The magistrates’ court heard that on May 2, Martin was outside the Waterfront Shop and Café in Benson when he was walking in the middle of the road and slowing down traffic.
Two days later, on May 4, he was in Henley Road, Shillingford, when he was found lying in the road with an open container of alcohol.
The following month, on June 29, he was seen outside Waitrose in Wallingford, shouting and swearing at the supermarket manager while carrying a can of beer in his hand. By that point the criminal behaviour order had lapsed, resulting in a charge of being drunk and disorderly rather than breaching the court order.
Martin, of Churchfield, Nuffield, pleaded guilty to the second breach of the CBO and being drunk and disorderly. He was found guilty in his absence of the first breach.
The court heard he had 120 previous convictions for almost 190 offences, including multiple breaches of the CBO.
After learning that he was due before the courts next month for breaching an earlier community order, the magistrates bailed Martin to return for sentence on September 13.
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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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