38-year-old Matthew Oxley has been handed a suspended prison sentence after threatening a shop worker with acid during an attempted robbery at his local Co-Op.
Oxley, of Green Street, appeared before the Isle of Wight Crown Court last week (Thursday 1st May), having previously admitted attempted robbery.
It was on the morning of 19th January this year that 37-year-old Oxley entered the West Street Co-Op in Ryde and threatened a member of staff working behind the till, whilst holding a bottle of colourless liquid he claimed was acid. He had taken the lid off.
The brave staff members inside the supermarket refused to comply with his demands and Oxley left the premises without any goods or money, as first reported by Island Echo. The workers were uninjured.
In the days that followed the incident – and Oxley’s subsequent arrest – the store hired a security guard, Island Echo understands.
Oxley has appeared on Island Echo on previous occasions, including back in May 2024 when he was sentenced for 4 shoplifting offences.
At the sentencing hearing last Thursday, Recorder Malcolm Gibney handed Oxley a 20-month prison sentence, suspended for 2 years.
A 12-month rehabilitation order has been attached to the Suspended Sentence Order.
Scumbag, I live in a village this little toerag and his gang used to “terrorise”. He needs to be locked up, the key chucked away. Obviously time has not made him any better, he even told my wife on one occasion “to f*** off and die”, lovely character. Suspended sentence not good enough. His little gang even threatened to hang a kid from a tree, so I am not surprised he tried to throw acid over someone. Scumbag in the extreme.
We need Saudi rules, they know how to deal
with scumbags.
Are you fucking joking??
This really is NO DETERRENT, he is clearly dangerous.
His sentence will have no effect.
Shop staff are being let down by the courts.
Robert Peel is probably turning in his grave,
there is NO law and order thesedays.
If this scumbag likes acid so much, throw some in his face and see how he likes it. If it were not for the waste of a good bullet, he should be shot.