Oxford McDonald's attack with broken Coke bottle results in jail

Intoxicated Dale Sallis was said to have been trying to goad a group of men in the Cornmarket fast food restaurant into fighting him at around 2.30am on April 14 last year.

The 29-year-old Banbury man was heard by a member of McDonald’s staff to shout ‘I’m going to punch you’ at the men before calling one of his imagined adversaries ‘fat’.

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Prosecuting, Keith Hadrill told Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday (April 25) that Sallis also threw Coca-Cola over a screen near where staff members were standing.

The defendant, who was identified by a member of McDonald’s staff as ‘ginger guy’, was stated to have thrown punches at the group but was pushed away.

He spat at one of the members of the group, the witness said.

McDonald's in Oxford's Cornmarket Picture: Ed Nix

Sallis got out a glass bottle, went outside after being told he would have to leave, smashed the bottle then waved its broken neck at the men in the restaurant.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “It gives me absolutely no pleasure to have to send you to prison today, but a very clear message has to go out from this court that those who arm themselves with makeshift weapons in the form of broken bottles and threaten people with them can only be dealt with by way of immediate custody.”

He jailed Sallis for a year-and-a-half for the incident in McDonald’s and added a further 28 days for failing to attend his magistrates’ court trial in breach of bail conditions requiring him to return to court.

Sallis, of Jubilee Way, Banbury, was found guilty in his absence in March of threatening behaviour and possession of an offensive weapon.

He admitted failing to surrender to bail after he was arrested on a warrant issued by the justices.

Mitigating, Angela Porter asked the judge to bear in mind that her client might lose his home of 11 years if he were sent to prison for a prolonged period.

He was being supervised by the probation service, having been given a suspended sentence last year for an unrelated offence.

She suggested that Sallis could be given a 120 day alcohol abstinence tag, which would monitor his sweat and alert the authorities if he had been drinking.

After he jailed the defendant, Judge Gledhill removed the requirements of his earlier suspended sentence order including unpaid work and probation sessions. 

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