A MAN who slashed his brother’s face with a makeshift knife made out of a toothbrush and a razor blade has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.

Joshua Derosa admitted attacking Lewis Derosa on his sibling’s doorstep after the pair had an abusive argument on the phone on September 22 last year.

The 22-year-old defendant, of Clarks Row, Oxford, stormed round to his brother’s flat in Banbury and slashed him with his self-fashioned weapon after the victim answered the front door at about 6pm, Oxford Crown Court heard on Friday.

Derosa’s brother needed eight stitches to the left side of his face which prosecuting barrister Jonathan Stone said would leave a permanent scar.

Sentencing Derosa, who had 19 previous convictions for a total of 41 offences, recorder Andrew Burrows QC said Derosa’s attack was ‘clearly premeditated’.

He said the slash with the weapon left a ‘deep cut’ to his brother’s face and added an ‘aggravating factor’ in sentencing Derosa was the fact he committed the crime while serving a 16-month licence period for a previous conviction of actual bodily harm in June 2015.

Mr Stone told the court how the brothers did not have a good relationship.

He added: The complainant says the last time he saw the defendant was about a year before this incident.

“They had an argument on the phone and he says they were quite abusive on both sides. It resulted in the complainant hanging up on the defendant.”

Defence barrister Graham Bennett told the court a comment made to the defendant about his deceased child during the phone argument ‘wrangled’ him, adding Derosa acknowledged his culpability and responsibility for what happened. Derosa admitted one count of wounding with intent and one count of possessing an offensive weapon on the same date in Banbury.

He was sentenced to five years and six months imprisonment for the wounding offence, and 12 months, to run concurrent, for possessing the weapon.