Trolley glue ‘prank’ left baby crying in agony
Shoplifter laughed when police told him little Riley got his hands stuck
A SERIAL shoplifter who was kicked out of a supermarket spread superglue over the handle of a trolley and caused a 17-month-old baby to get his hands stuck.
Dylan Henderson, 20, had been banned from Asda, off Atherleigh Way, in Leigh, but tried to enter the shop on Wednesday, October 21.
Security staff told him to leave the supermarket because of several previous thefts, prosecutor Mark Friend told Bolton Crown Court.
But, after walking out of the shop, he was caught on CCTV returning to the trolley bay and seemed to lean over the handle of one trolley to spread something on it.
At around 11.30am, Dennis White arrived to do his shopping at the store with his 17-month-old son Riley.
He got a trolley from the bay and put the toddler in the baby seat.
A few minutes later, Riley began crying and struggling to move his hands.
His father went to speak to security staff and managed to pull the youngster’s hands from the rail.
A member of staff soaked the baby’s hands in warm soapy water in an attempt to soothe some of the pain.
It took around two days to remove the glue from Riley’s hands and he had some blistering, Mr White said.
Police arrested Henderson in November – one officer said he started laughing when he was told what had happened to the little boy.
He has a number of previous convictions and had only just been released from four weeks in prison for shoplifting.
Philip Astbury, defending, said Henderson had been playing a ‘prank’ and did not intended to harm the child, branding the assault as ‘reckless’ rather than a calculated attack.
Addressing the defendant directly, judge Martin Walsh told him he has caused ‘immense distress’ to the child.
“This was a vulnerable child and it was foreseeable that anyone who might have been using the trolley might have been a vulnerable individual,” he said.
The judge handed Henderson a sentence of 44 weeks in prison.