Nando’s worker who waved meat cleaver at customer walks free from court
Lewis Tassell grabbed the blade from the kitchen in a romance row.
A Nando’s worker who threatened a customer with a meat cleaver has been spared jail.
Lewis Tassell, 20, was arrested after grabbing the blade from the kitchen before waving it around in the air in front of customers in May last year.
He had been working when someone he knew from school asked to speak to him, wrongly believing his partner had cheated on him with the Nando’s worker.
Prosecutor Shabbir Issat said the ‘situation escalated’ once the pair began talking.
Mr Issat said: ‘He has walked over to where the grill is, picked up a meat cleaver, raised it and pointed it at him.’
A court heard another staff member was able to calmly take the knife before Tassell was arrested and lost his job at the branch in Kettering, Northamptonshire.
Tassell, from the village of Burton Latimer near the East Midlands town, later left the restaurant and was found with cannabis when he was arrested by police.
He admitted threatening a person with a bladed article and possession of cannabis when he appeared at Northampton Magistrates’ Court.
Tassell was was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 10 days of rehabilitation activities and 80 hours of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to pay £85 in costs and a victim surcharge of £114 last Wednesday.
Tassell asked to address magistrates to apologise for his behaviour.
He said: ‘I’m sorry. This is not me. I accept whatever you are going to give me.
‘I’m sorry. I should not have done this. I acted out. I’m sorry.’
Chair of the bench Suzanne Gibbard replied: ‘Don’t worry, it’s not going to be bad and you are going to go home.
‘You are 20 years old and sometimes you do things without thinking. This was clearly the case – we can see that from the CCTV.
‘But there are consequences for actions and at this young age you are going to learn that.’
Ben Brown, defending, said Tassell was initially placid and it only escalated when the victim made an alleged threat to his family, telling him ‘he knew where they lived’.
He said Tassell then picked up the blade and told him to get out, holding the weapon in his hand for about three seconds.
Mr Brown added that the incident was out of character.
He said: ‘He is extremely remorseful about what’s happened… he is just not that kind of lad.’
Tassell faced a spell behind bars but Mr Brown added that it would be ‘unjust’ to send him to prison.
He said: ‘He wants to put this behind him.’
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