Their stall, run in collaboration with the NIHR Clinical Research Facility, included a creative paper flower-making activity using rainbow-coloured paper to help start conversations.

Visitors shared thoughts on taking part in research, with many expressing interest in opportunities that benefit others and give back to the community.

Participants identified time constraints and discomfort with unfamiliar settings as barriers, and suggested improvements such as flexible or remote participation options and clearer information about the research process.

Jo Searle, memory and cognition research delivery team lead, said: “It was an amazing, colourful day where we had the pleasure of meeting so many people interested in our research.”

Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, visited the stand to show her support.

Angela Conlan, public and patient involvement, engagement and participation lead at the NIHR CRF, said: “We were honoured to return to Oxford Pride again this year to showcase the important research delivered by the Trust and CRF: Oxford Health at such a fun event.

“This insight is invaluable to our work, helping us better understand awareness of research and improve how we communicate it to the public.”

Evans, a plus-size clothing brand catering to sizes 14 to 32, shut down all stores and concessions in December 2020 after its parent company, Arcadia Group, fell into administration.

The retailer initially shifted to an online-only model before being acquired by AK Retail in 2023, which also owns Yours Clothing and M&Co.

Now, the business has returned to the high street in locations across the UK, being housed inside Yours Clothing stores.

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After the relaunch, a spokesperson for Yours Clothing, speaking to Fashion Network, said: “Plus-size women are among the most loyal fashion shoppers in the UK.

“When a brand gets it right – when the fit works, the range is genuine, and the product reflects real women, they come back.

“Evans earned that loyalty over decades. And when the brand reduced its high street presence, its customers did not stop looking.”

There was previously an Evans store in Oxford, and this newspaper contacted Yours Clothing to see if there were any plans for the brand to return to the city.

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A spokesperson confirmed the possibility of standalone stores opening up in the future, opening the doors for a potential Oxfordshire spot.

“We are generally looking at expansion; however, Evans forms part of our brands within our Yours stores currently,” they said.

“We may indeed in the future review standalone Evans stores.”

Previously, there was an Evans store on Queen Street in Oxford city centre, as well as a location at Marriotts Walk Shopping Centre in Witney.

Najeebullah Arab, of Mayfield Avenue in Grove, was sentenced for five counts of sexual offences committed against two women and a 14-year-old girl in Wantage, at Oxford Crown Court on Friday, June 19.

During the court’s sentencing remarks, Arab was disruptive to the court, began openly weeping and wailing, attempted to throw chairs and throw himself against the wall, and forced the judge to order him to be physically restrained and taken back down to the custody cells.

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The 40-year-old, who lived in Grove with his wife, mother and four children, committed the first offence on May 14, 2024.

Najeebullah Arab, jailed for committing violent sexual offences against women in Wantage (Image: Madeleine Evans)

He watched a 14-year-old girl who was waiting at a bus stop in the middle of the day until she was alone, when he approached her and began asking her questions.

This “quickly developed into a series of unsolicited and explicitly sexualised comments about her appearance”, including saying “you have a very nice body,” “you are very, very sexy” and “I love you”.

Despite the girl telling him she was 14, he asked her personal questions, including where she lived, and repeatedly pestered her to give her a phone number until she felt ‘sufficiently frightened’ to provide one ‘to make the encounter come to an end’.

She provided the man with her mother’s phone number, and in the following days he sent the number a series of sexual messages believing it was the young girl, asking her to delete the messages ‘so her parents would not see them’.

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While on court bail for this offence, Arab committed two violent sexual offences against other women, within the same week.

On January 21, he targeted a young woman walking alone at night, near her home in Grove.

He first watched her then approached under the pretext of asking for directions, before attacking her with his hands on her shoulders and neck and repeatedly trying to kiss her.

The woman shouted at him and was able to run away, immediately reporting the incident to the police.

“Unfortunately,” Judge Emma Nott KC said, “he could not be traced or apprehended before he kidnapped and raped his next victim within less than a week of this failed attempt.”

Judge Emma Nott KC (Image: Contributed)

On January 27, Arab approached a 19-year-old woman walking alone at night along a dark and largely empty road, starting by talking to her, but immediately escalating the situation.

He grabbed her, tried to kiss her and sexually assaulted her, and when she tried to resist, he grabbed her by the arm and took her away from the road.

Trying to avoid violence, she complied, but he then dragged her into a field where he “subjected her to a sustained sexual assault, culminating in rape”.

She was restrained and pinned to the ground by the offender’s full body weight, overpowering her. He then fled the scene on a bike, the court heard.

Judge Nott said: “This was a grave, degrading and deeply traumatising offence.”

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The two victims of Arab’s physical attacks attended the court in person to give their victim personal statement. Neither woman can be named for legal reasons.

Oxford Crown Court, St. Aldate’s. (Image: Contributed)

The victim of the sexual assault addressed the court from the stand. She said: “I have had intrusive thoughts about how bad this could have been, had I not escaped you.

“After I learned about the young woman you raped, I have thought about her every day and cannot imagine how she must feel.

“I was terrified that you would inflict more hell on others or on myself again.

“You ruined my sense of safety in a place I called home and I have had to live with reminders of you every day.”

The victim that Arab went on to sexually assault, kidnap and rape just days later spoke to the court from behind a screen.

In a moving statement, she said: “Why, why did you touch me?

“Is living wrong, is just wearing clothes wrong, is being a woman invitation to touch her and grope her, does being a woman mean I can never just exist?

“Does being a woman mean to be touched as if you are nothing, as if you are a piece of dust?”

Judge Nott praised their courage, resilience and endurance to go through the legal system to see Arab prosecuted, describing them as ‘heroines’ rather than victims.

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The court heard how the Afghan national had worked for the British government’s Ministry of Defence as a mechanic in Afghanistan for 20 years before he was captured by the Taliban and tortured.

He and his family were brought to the UK by the government for their own safety.

Judge Emma Nott KC said his background provided no excuse for the serious offences he committed against the women and girl and said he showed ‘opportunistic and predatory behaviour escalating overtime, worsened by entrenched attitudes towards women and girls concerning entitlement, boundaries and consent’.

Arab was sentenced to nine years and seven months respectively for rape and kidnapping, 12 months to run consecutively to that for two counts of sexual assault, and a further five months to run consecutively for sexual communication with a child.

The total sentence of 10 years and 11 months was extended by the judge on licence for a further six years as Arab was considered a ‘dangerous offender’.

He received a Sexual Harm Prevention Order to last 20 years and restraining orders for each victim for life.