Kitchen assistant gets one year in prison for threatening men with meat cleaver

A Chinese kitchen assistant who threatened two men with a meat cleaver was sentenced to one year in jail

A Chinese kitchen assistant who threatened two men with a meat cleaver last October has been jailed for a year.

29-year-old Xiao Guan had been charged with threatening two men with the chopping knife after a pay dispute. Guan had complained of having received only €752 for all the hours of work he had performed between April and 8 October. He also claimed he had been threatened and assaulted by his boss.

Prosecuting Inspector Robert Said Sarreo had told Magistrate Doreen Clarke that the man had claimed to have been threatened and assaulted by his boss, as well as having received only €752 for six months’ work. The court had heard how Xiao allegedly attacked his former colleagues on 18 October before the kitchen implement was snatched from Xiao’s hands by a Ghanaian man passing by the Marsa apartment.

One of the two alleged victims, Kevin Penghcheng Zhang, testified that Xiao was “not good at his job” and had threatened kitchen staff with a knife at the Valletta Waterfront restaurant some days after it was pointed out to him that he was overcooking prawns.

He had been told not to return to work and was sent a letter, three days later, confirming that his contract had been terminated. Xiao was given ten days to vacate the apartment which his employer had provided in Patri Felicjan Bilocca street in Marsa, but Xiao had refused to leave until he was paid the wages he was owed.

Zhang and Xiao had argued and Zhang had explained that the accused then became aggressive and chased him out of his bedroom, cornering him in the kitchen. The accused allegedly picked up the meat cleaver and threatened Zhang.

“I was so scared I ran back upstairs and jumped out of the balcony onto an adjoining roof,” he said. Xiao had then run downstairs and threatened the restaurant’s general manager, where he had also threatened to kill the head chef, Zhang said.

Xiao had initially denied chasing the men, claiming instead that Zhang had threatened him with a frying pan, after he took one of his two mobile phones. He later changed his plea to an admission of the charges.

Magistrate Clarke sentenced the man to imprisonment for one year and ordered him to pay a fine of €116.47. The defendant was prohibited from holding or obtaining any weapons licence for five years. He was also condemned to pay €393.32 in costs.