No jail for victim of chip pan oil attack

Thursday 27th May 2010, 2:56PM BST.

A FOREMAN who kicked his lodger in the head in retaliation for having boiling oil poured down his back was spared prison in the Royal Court because he had suffered ‘severe provocation’.

Andrew Muir (44), of Rue du Nord, Trinity, admitted kicking Christophe Debieuvre five times in the head and face after his victim had turned a chip pan over him.

Muir, who is originally from Scotland and has lived in Jersey for 16 years, pleaded guilty to committing a grave and criminal assault. But though the court agreed with the Crown’s recommendation of two years in prison, the sentence was suspended for two years.

In court on Tuesday, Crown Advocate Stephen Baker said that both men had been drinking before the incident on 15 May 2009, which happened at Muir’s house where Mr Debieuvre was a lodger.

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