It is always wise to actually quote the post that you are replying to or confusion reigns, especially if your post isn’t directly after the offending post and or would be on a different topic page.

You should have seen in the profile information to the left of his posts, that he is ‘Watched’ prior to that he was Muted, e.g. his posts had to be first approved before they appear in the topic.

Deletion of posts is rare, I think mainly because having deleted a post there would be no evidence as such.