Chef's Throat Slashed In Front Of Diners

[bloodrayne]

Chef's throat slashed in front of customers

A CHEF was slashed across the throat by a gang of thugs as diners looked on in horror.

Thirty-two-year-old Mark Fountain was working in the kitchen of No 1 The Square, Beveridge Square, Livingston, when three men walked in and asked to speak to him.

But when the cook walked out of the kitchen and into the dining area to see them, one of the men pulled out a penknife.

The attacker slashed the chef across the throat, causing a ten-inch gash from his left ear to below his cheek.

The three men fled while staff and diners rushed to the victim’s aid. Paramedics were called to the premises in Dedridge and Mr Fountain, whose brother owns the eaterie, was taken to St John’s Hospital in Livingston.

He required nine stitches and three butterfly straps to seal the ten-inch gash on his neck, and was told by doctors he would be scarred for life by the seemingly motiveless attack.

Now recovering at home with his wife and three children, Mr Fountain, who plays for amateur football team Tower, said he had no idea who the men were or why they would want to hurt him.

"I was in the kitchen, and my sister, who works in the bar, came in and said someone wanted to talk to me about the football," he said.

"I was very busy and I thought it must be a friend, so I asked if she could just take a number.

"A couple of minutes later she came back in and said he was still there. I asked if she recognised him and she said she had no idea who it was, and then I noticed he was coming into the kitchen. I told him he couldn’t do that, and we went out into the bar. He started telling me he knew a couple of players from Glasgow who wanted to play for the team. I said I was just a player, I’m not the manager or anything, and it seemed very strange.

"Then he just moved his hand up and slashed me.

"I thought he had just punched me at first, I didn’t really feel anything, and then I saw the knife in his hand and I asked him what he was going to do with it.

"Then I felt the blood running down my neck and I saw it in the mirrors behind the bar."

Detectives are now hunting for the men and have appealed for information about the attack, which happened at about 6.30pm on Friday.

Police sources said the men were not known to either staff or customers at the bar and restaurant. The source said: "There doesn’t appear to be any background to this and the victim did not recognise any of the men."

Mr Fountain, who has worked in the kitchen for more than three years, said there had been at least ten people in the bar when the attack happened and none of them recognised any of the men.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "This was a horrific attack on a man in his place of work, which left both staff and diners very shocked.

"It would appear this attack has been unprovoked."

The manager of the restaurant today said she could not make any comment on the incident.

The man who slashed Mr Fountain was 5ft 8ins tall, in his late 30s or early 40s, with a tanned complexion, dark, short, wavy hair and a broken nose. He spoke with a Glasgow accent.

In a separate incident in West Lothian, a 17-year-old man was left with serious injuries after being stabbed in the abdomen on Saturday at about 2pm.

Shoppers watched in horror as the teenager collapsed in agony in Linlithgow High Street.

It is understood the knife punctured his liver and he is in a stable condition at St John’s Hospital.

Police later arrested an 18-year-old man in connection with the incident and he appeared at Linlithgow Sheriff Court yesterday.

[Killer Clown#1]

Wan't ketchup with that sir.:D I've always wondered though, where the hell do you find these storys??