The sole owner of a takeaway joint called Royal Spice was convicted of the manslaughter of a teenage school going girl who had a severe allergic reaction to peanuts, which was widely spread throughout her meal. Nevertheless, he won his appeal against his conviction.
Mohammed Abdul Kuddus was given a two-year jail sentence for the death of Megan Lee, a 15-year-old girl, in her home city of Lancashire.
The court of appeals has quashed his “unsafe” conviction.
It was on the 30th of December that the victim Megan and her friend had ordered takeout online from Royal Spice, where they highlighted prawns and peanuts to suggest that Megan was allergic to these.
Megan who suffered a chronic asthma attack died a couple of days later in the hospital.
It was the decision of three judges in London to permit an appeal to Kuddus, ruling that his conviction of manslaughter doesn’t hold good and “cannot stand”
According to Sir Brian Leveson, Rashid the manager of the takeout place had seen the order placed by Megan and her friend and he had even noticed the comments about peanuts and prawns.
In this situation, there was no tangible evidence to suggest that Kuddus was aware of this and hence due to these circumstances his conviction of negligence and manslaughter cannot stand to be true.
It was after this that awareness about the potential risks to customers with food allergies started to be understood and it was brought to notice that will be very thorough in scrutinizing how restaurants handle the care and safety of their customers.
It had just been a year since Kuddus had taken over the restaurant, he spoke poor English and knew nothing about potential customer’s allergies to food. There was no way to prove at any point that Kuddus was aware or notified of Megan’s allergies.
Rashid, on the other hand, was imprisoned for a term of three years.
Rashid denied the charges of the manslaughter of teenage girl Megan, however, he admitted to health, safety, and food offenses.
According to Sir Brian, no such application was made for his retrial against the charges that were convicted of.
