He caused damage to stock as he sprayed it ‘all over the place’
A drug-taking troublemaker was in a raging “fury” when he suddenly grabbed a bottle of bleach from a shelf in a shop, “chased” a terrified member of staff and started spraying the bleach towards him. David Salter carried on squirting the bleach “all over the place” and it caused damage to a large number of items that were for sale in the shop.
Some of the bleach splattered all over the man’s shoulder and he at first feared that it had splashed in his face, Hull Crown Court heard. Salter, 41, of Cambridge Grove, east Hull, admitted administering a noxious substance – bleach – with intent to cause injury and causing damage to items in the shop, on October 24 last year.
James O’Connor, prosecuting, said that the incident happened in the One Stop shop in Marfleet Lane, east Hull, when Salter followed a member of staff around the store. He took a bottle of bleach from a shelf and squirted it towards the man, who slipped on it. Items of stock, valued at £138, were damaged when Salter sprayed bleach over them.
Recorder David Kelly told a previous hearing on February 21 that the incident with the bleach was a “prolonged attack” and Salter “chased” a member of staff around the store. Recorder Kelly told Salter: “You were in a fury. It was on the spur of the moment and it wasn’t planned but you did deliberately grab a bottle of bleach off a shelf.
“You then, in your anger and fury, started spraying him all over and not caring where it went. It went on his shoulder. He seems to have been concerned that some of it went on his face.
“He started wiping his face and thought at the time that some had gone on his face. You, frankly, just didn’t care. You were angry.
“You were spraying it all over, not deliberately but recklessly, not caring where it went on his person.” Salter was “chasing him around the store, determined to get to him”.
Damage was caused to items in the shop after Salter sprayed the bleach, causing it to “go all over the place” in the shop. “The reality is that it did not cause very serious harm,” said Recorder Kelly.
Salter also admitted possessing a knuckle duster as an offensive weapon in a private place and possessing cannabis on October 29 last year. The knuckle duster that was found in Salter’s possession was a “memento” but it was “illegal” and would be confiscated, said Recorder Kelly.
Salter was in custody on remand at the time of the February hearing and he was, that day, given a 14-month suspended prison sentence, six months’ drug rehabilitation and 15 days’ rehabilitation. “You have been making great strides in recent months with your long-standing drug addiction and the personal issues that underlie it,” said Recorder Kelly at the time.
Salter was released from prison that day but he ended up back before the court after breaching the suspended sentence by failing to attend for probation service sessions on July 30 and August 20. At the latest hearing, Recorder Peter Makepeace KC said: “I don’t see any sign of him having a willingness to comply with this order.”
Salter did have a sick note, meaning that he was covered for not working, but he could still have attended appointments. Harry Bradford, mitigating, said that Salter had attended a meeting with the probation service as recently as the day before the court hearing and he was “working with multiple agencies” to tackle the root cause of his offending.
But Recorder Makepeace said that the probation service had reported that Salter had “returned to significant substance misuse” because of the company that he was finding himself in and that he would “benefit from a period in custody to allow him to engage with the services”. Recorder Makepeace told Mr Bradford: “The evidence that I have is contrary to what you have said.
“This is a court order. He must have known that when the court took a chance on him in February this year. He must have known that he would go to prison if he breached it yet he has completely disengaged from the probation service and done nothing to engage with this order.”
Mr Bradford said that the underlying offence involving the bleach was serious and that he was lucky to get a suspended sentence originally. Recorder Makepeace said: “I am going to give him one last chance – ONE last chance – and this is it.”
He told Salter: “If you miss a single appointment, if you refuse to cooperate or engage with probation in any way without a compelling excuse, you will go to prison.”