Skull fractured in McDonald’s brawl
DINER ‘LASHED OUT’ WITH SECURITY LOCK AFTER BEING HIT
A DINER smashed a security lock over a stranger’s head after a row erupted when he was ‘brushed against’ outside McDonald’s.
The victim was left with a fractured skull following the attack on Regent Road, Salford, in October last year.
Tiberiu-George Balahura went to the fast food chain with his partner around 3am when a man stood between them, a court heard.
When they went outside, the man then ‘seemed to be in some kind of hurry and in doing so brushed against’ Balahura.
“With the benefit of hindsight you would have let that go,” judge Recorder Eric Lamb told Balahura during a sentence hearing at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court. Balahura, of Esmond Road,
Cheetham Hill, nodded in agreement. The judge added: “But that is not how things went. There was a verbal confrontation. In the course of that confrontation there was pushing and shoving.”
Balahura then walked away from the group towards his car, where he had an ‘item that could be used as a weapon’, the court heard.
The man followed Balahura with his pals and there was more pushing and shoving. Balahura, 34, took out his security lock as a means to frighten the group.
Balahura, who works in the construction industry, then felt a ‘strike to the back of his head’ and then ‘lashed out’ with the security lock.
It was a single blow but the man suffered a fracture to his skull and was in hospital for 24 hours.
He needed seven staples to his head following the attack and was impacted in the ‘short term’. The court heard he lacked concentration at work and was embarrassed by the scarring.
The day before a trial was due to take place, Balahura pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding.
Sarah Haque, defending, said his motives were not ‘malicious’ and he wasn’t ‘in drink’ or aggressive.
“He felt blows to the back of his head, at that point he used the weapon. He takes full responsibility for his actions and realises he shouldn’t have reacted in that way. He does express a wish to apologise, a wish to make amends,” she said. She pointed out that he has complied with the terms of a curfew he has been living under for 15 months. Balahura was handed a 16-month sentence, suspended for two years. He must also undertake 25 days of rehabilitation activity.