Top Scottish chef guilty of cricket bat assault
Chef Willie Deans, who runs Deans at Let's Eat restaurant in Perth, Scotland has been found guilty of attacking a local businessman with a cricket bat in a row over a parking space.
Garry Cumming, 45, a director of Lettings Direct, told Perth Sheriff Court he feared for his life during the Sunday lunchtime confrontation with Deans outside the restaurant, according to the Daily Record.
He claimed that Deans, who was named Scottish Chef of the Year in 1995 and won Gold for Scotland at the culinary Olympics, repeatedly struck him on the head and body with the bat which had been left by a previous customer.
Giving their accounts of what sparked the confrontation, Cumming insisted that he had "politely asked" Deans to move his car when he went to the back door of the restaurant.
But Deans alleged that Cumming had come into the kitchen and shouted: "Whose is that f*ing car? "Get it f*ing moved right now."
According to the chef's version of events, Cumming, who works out at the gym and was said to be 6ft in height, weighing 16 stones, had lifted a "fully laden" wheelie bin above his head and thrown it at Deans. As a result, Deans suffered a broken finger and a cracked rib, at which point he picked up the cricket bat.
Deans, of Glenorchil View, Auchterarder, had denied assaulting Cumming in Carpenter Street, Perth, on 7 June 2015, by repeatedly striking him on the head and body with the green-handled bat, claiming he had acted in self-defence.
But Sheriff Lindsay Foulis convicted him after a day-long trial on Friday, pointing out that he had numerous options that didn't require arming himself with a bat.
Deans will be sentenced on 4 May.