A man who attacked a tenant who missed a rent payment has been jailed for seven years.

Tahir Ali denied punching Thangaperumal Rajasingh twice in the face while an unknown accomplice hit him with a cricket bat. The attack happened on a street and left the victim with severe injuries.

However, a jury unanimously found him guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

In 2013, Rajasingh had moved into a house in Oxford owned by Ali’s family and was paying £325 a month in rent, Oxford Crown Court heard.

Judge Peter Ross said the attack was the end of a campaign of violence against tenants in the house.

The judge told Ali: “Basically it boiled down to this – you and your family thought you could get higher rents than those being paid by the tenants that were there.”

Judge Ross accepted the prosecution’s evidence that 35-year-old Ali had beaten another tenant who had been asked to leave and hours before the attack had changed the locks on the front door.

Defending, Claire Fraser said Ali had been a valued Cancer Research employee, who was highly thought of in the community.

The case is covered fully in the Oxford Times here