A MAN who went to his former best friend’s house and assaulted him while his victim’s two young children were upstairs has been spared jail.

Andrew Schoenemann, of Bates Lane, Souldern, near Bicester, admitted one count of causing actual bodily harm to Timothy Plant on July 7 last year at a house in Souldern.

At Oxford Crown Court on Friday prosecutor Rachel Drake said the 27-year-old turned up at his victim’s home to talk about a debt Mr Plant owed him. She said: “Mr Schoenemann’s temper got the better of him and he assaulted Mr Plant in the living room.”

She told Recorder Simon Blackford that Mr Plant’s partner intervened and stopped the assault, and his two children were in the house upstairs.

Miss Drake said Schoenemann’s victim was left with lacerations to his head that had to be stapled.

She added when he was arrested and his home was searched police officers found small amounts of cannabis and cocaine. Schoenemann admitted possessing the Class A and Class B drugs.

Alistair Grainger, defending, said his client was owed money by his victim, who had reacted “aggressively”.

He said: “The injuries in this case were not particularly grave.

“I would submit that this came on the back of what may be regarded as extreme provocation.”

But Recorder Blackford told the barrister that if Schoenemann was having trouble recovering a debt he should have gone to the police.

Recorder Blackford told the defendant: “You did not have to go round to his house.”

Recorder Blackford sentenced Schoenemann to 15 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and told him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work. He will be under supervision for 12 months and has to pay a £100 victim surcharge.