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Statement by Ms Katherine Oakshott, student at Oxford High School, taken by DC Monica Philipson (in the presence of her father)
We (Aimee Whitley and I) had been shopping in town. We came back across the parks. We went along the path by the river and the pond and then turned left to go along to the Norham Garden entrance. We heard some people shouting and looked over see what was happening. We saw a man on the ground attacking a girl in a blue dress. Some men were running towards him shouting – two of them, I think, but there may have been more.
He got up off the ground and ran off and the other men ran after him. They ran across in front of us. The first man threw something into the bushes. Then the other men caught up with him and grabbed him and they all fell on the ground. Then the two other men pulled the first man up and dragged him back along the path to the bench. We hung around by the path, wondering what to do and if we ought to say anything about the thing the man threw in the bushes.
There was more shouting and more people came running over to where we were. Someone said that the man had stolen the girl’s purse, so then we said about him throwing something in the bushes. Everyone started looking and Aimee found it. We knew we shouldn’t touch it because of fingerprints, so I got out the plastic bag that the DVD I’d bought was in and put my hand inside like a glove and picked it up like that. I carried it back to where there was a crowd of people round the bench with the girl sitting on it.
There were some police officers in uniform standing there, so I gave it to one of them. They asked us some questions and then Aimee and I went home. Later on, my Dad brought me down to the police station to make this statement.