Bar boss jailed for attack
DAD JAILED FOR ‘PARANOID’ ATTACK ON TERRIFIED YOUNGSTER
A RESTAURANT boss took a terrified teenager hostage inside his swanky cocktail bar and threatened to cut off his toes after bingeing on cocaine and red wine.
Ashley Brown, 40, bundled 19-year old Max Slipper into Hale Wine Bar and subjected him to a terrifying 45-minute ordeal after he spotted the youngster walking past his premises late at night.
Brown forced Mr Slipper to remove his coat, shoes and socks and also roll up his trouser leg before he began swinging a kitchen knife at him.
He also repeatedly punched his victim about the head in bouts of aggression – then moments later tried to hug him and shake his hand.
The teenager – who worked as a barman at a nearby pub – eventually escaped when he kicked the glass front door of the bar as Brown tried to give him a bundle of £20 notes, saying: “I want to die.”
Brown’s defence team said he was a family man who ‘did not recognise himself’ in CCTV footage of the incident and was ‘shocked’ at his behaviour.
Brown, who had previously vowed to put the ‘wow factor’ into his bar, later blamed his consumption of cocaine and red wine for him suffering a ‘paranoid delusion’ and claimed he mistakenly thought his victim was a drug dealer.
But in a statement Mr Slipper – who lived just a few streets away in Hale, near Altrincham – said he no longer felt safe in the wealthy village.
The victim, now 20, who escaped with minor injuries, told police: “I have had many sleepless nights as I wake up thinking about what happened and what could have happened that night.
“I was in fear for my life and I really did believe he was going to cause me serious harm. To me the whole thing just seemed like a nightmare and I would not want anyone else to through what I did.”
At Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court, Brown, a father-ofone from Wilmslow, admitted false imprisonment and assault and was jailed for 14 months.
The incident took place last October just 10 months after Brown opened his wine and cocktail bar using money from his wealthy father having earlier been operations director at the former celebrity nightspot Brasingamens in Alderley Edge.
Brown’s lawyer Guy Mathieson said: “When Mr Brown was presented with the CCTV footage he was supremely shocked. The person that was subjecting the complainant to intimidation and violence is not someone that he recognises. He is a businessman and a family man with a daughter.”