Violence flared in home packed with 20 people

The house in Chester Street, Werneth

Police called to a brawl between two Romanians at a two-up-two-down terrace house discovered up to 20 people were living there.

Three large families moved into the tiny Victorian house in Oldham, and up to seven people shared a room.

But violence flared when one man attacked his wife’s uncle with a belt because the victim had resorted to cooking in the bedroom instead of the kitchen due to the cramped conditions.

Details emerged as Franci-Ionut Buruian (23) was given a suspended sentence after a judge said arguments and tension would be ‘’rife’’ in such cramped conditions.

Manchester Crown Court heard the victim, Florin Dragomir, had moved his whole family — including his wife, their three children and his mother-in-law — to Britain and into the single bedroom after their house in Romania burned down.

Buruian’s entire family, including his sons, lived in the other adjoining bedroom upstairs, while a third Romanian family managed to squeeze into a downstairs room in Chester Street, Werneth.

Trouble began when Mr Dragomir riled Buruian by not doing his housework and preferred cooking in the bedroom rather than the kitchen.

Philip Barnes, prosecuting, said matters came to a head on August 26 last year when Mr Dragomir returned home to find Buruian drunk at the kitchen table.

An argument began which ended when Buruian punched, kicked and whiped with a belt Mr Dragomir in front of his wife and children.

Buruian, who listened through an interpreter, was given 12 months in prison, suspended for 12 months and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work after admitting assault on the day of the trial.

Judge John Potter told him: “Your victim is your wife’s uncle. In these cramped conditions, tensions and arguments became rife - difficult conditions made significantly worse by you deciding to get drunk and be abusive, then aggressive.”