A MAN who attacked a tenant in the street following a “campaign of harassment and violence” over rent has been jailed for seven years.

Tahir Ali denied punching Thangaperumal Rajasingh twice in the face while an unknown accomplice hit him on the leg with a cricket bat.

However, a jury of six men and six women unanimously found him guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm yesterday.

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

Judge Peter Ross said he was satisfied that the attack was the end of a campaign of violence against tenants in the house, which came to a head when Mr Rajasingh missed a rent payment.

The judge told Ali: “The attack represented the culmination of what I regard as harassment and violence towards tenants at that address.

“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 to stop Mr Rajasingh getting in.

He said: “It is clear you used violence towards another tenant – you boasted about it in a text message. ‘Three punches and he was down’ – those were your words.”

The jury heard that Mr Rajasingh had left the Marston Street house in the early hours of Friday, June 6, last year when two men got out of a car and attacked him.

Judge Ross said that Ali had gone to the house to threaten his victim before attacking him and leaving him bleeding with “horrific” injuries.

He said: “You were not going there to receive an explanation, you were going there to frighten and threaten and, if need be, attack Mr Rajasingh.

“I am sure that you were carrying some kind of weapon because you struck Mr Rajasingh twice in the face – two punches to the face would not have caused the horrific lacerations that we see.”

Defending Claire Fraser said that her client had suffered from depression, anxiety and panic attacks since a 10-year relationship broke down a year before the attack.

Miss Fraser said that Ali, of Howard Street, East Oxford, had been a valued cancer research employee, was highly thought of in the community and appealed for as short a jail term as possible.

She added: “He had been working for cancer research for approximately five years. He was certainly a valued member of staff. Those who knew him in the community spoke very highly of him.

“This is the first custodial sentence that Mr Ali will serve and for him, regardless of length, it will be a significant one for him.”