Tuesday 14 February 2012

Frustrated smoker exacts chainsaw revenge

"A 24-year-old man has been jailed for three years after pleading guilty to attacking customers in a Hull pub with a chainsaw.  Dean Dinnen launched the assault at the Endyke public house, north Hull in August 2011, after being thrown out for smoking on the premises.  He was overpowered by customers, one of whom received injuries to his arm during the incident.  Dinnen was later arrested by armed police officers."  From BBC News.  You can see the full story and CCTV pictures here that clearly show terrified pub-goers fleeing for their lives.  The injured man had to undergo surgery for repairs to muscles and tendons and had 21 stitches.  In view of the seriousness of the attack, a three-year sentence seems rather lenient to me.

This extreme overreaction to being told not to smoke smacks to me of the selfish attitude of entitlement that I occasionally used to come across in my former day job - "I have a right to this" (regardless of whatever anyone else thinks, and irrespective of the law) - and refusing the supposed entitlement sometimes led to violent threats, although they were rarely carried out.  It is disturbing that there are those among us who will try to exact such serious and potentially lethal revenge for nothing more than being told to leave a pub after refusing to put out a cigarette.  The only encouraging aspect of this story is the number of ordinary people who, as you can see in the video, tackled this maniac to stop him causing further injuries or damage.

3 comments:

  1. It's the smoking ban wots driven him to it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Surely the great British pub is a robust institution where you can expect to hear strong language, bawdy songs and be assaulted with a chainsaw once in a while? It's this sort of political correctness that, starting with the smoking ban, is destroying pubs. Nobody seriously objects to being assaulted with a chainsaw, and even if they did, the problem could be solved by having chainsaw and non-chainsaw sections of pubs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really had hoped we wouldn't get into the tedious business of the pub chainsaw ban yet again ... oh, I give up.

    ReplyDelete

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