A barista, who burned his co-worker’s face after splashing boiling water on her, then hit her with a kettle and attempted to strangle her, has lost his appeal against his sentence.
The Supreme Criminal Appeals Court upheld a three-year sentence issued in the case of the young Bahraini man, who was found guilty of physical assault.
According to a medical report, the attack caused a ‘five per cent disability’, and the victim testified that the burns caused her ‘severe pain’.
The court heard that the 20-year-old appellant had attacked the victim after the two began to argue behind the café counter over an order they were preparing.
He turned violent towards the 26-year-old Ugandan barista, hitting her, which led her to fall to the ground.
Delivery drivers came to the woman’s aid and broke up the altercation, and she called their manager to complain, thinking the fight was over.
As the woman was on the phone, the appellant called her name. She turned towards him, only to be surprised with a splash of scalding hot water to her face, which he had boiled using the shop’s coffeemaker.
A delivery driver once again intervened and helped her leave the shop, but the vengeful appellant’s fury did not end there. He followed her onto the street, hit her on the head with the kettle and even attempted to strangle her.
“The morning of the incident, I asked the appellant to help me but he didn’t respond, so I closed his account on the cash register and opened my own,” she earlier testified. “Soon after, he began beating me.”
The man reportedly demanded that she return inside so they could deal with the matter ‘privately’ but she refused. Instead, she hurriedly crossed the street and entered a store opposite to the coffee shop and pleaded for help. Once people inside heard what had happened, they called the police, who arrested the man.
A medical report stated that the victim suffered minor injuries to the face, shoulders and other parts of the body, including a burn on her face that caused the skin to peel.
The GDN earlier reported that security footage from just outside the shop showed the Ugandan woman rushing out of the coffee shop and approaching the surprised delivery man.
The footage also showed the accused following her shortly afterwards, hitting her with the kettle and attempting to strangle her, before the brave delivery driver stepped in and held him back while she fled across the street.
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