Two sentenced as customer drinks caustic detergent
Bakery staff were given suspended sentences yesterday (Weds) after they sold a bottle of mineral water filled with detergent last year.David D. is still recovering from taking one gulp from the bottle he bought at the shop in Grafenschachen in Burgenlands Oberwart district last November.The bakerys 40-year-old boss told judges at Eisenstadts provincial court that she ordered a shop assistant, 46, to take care of getting some cleaning agent after she was told by the cleaner she was running out of stock.The employee ordered a 16-year-old trainee to get the substance from the bakery chains headquarter.The male teenager put the half-litre plastic bottle on the floor, and it remains unclear how it eventually ended up among the shops refreshment offerings in the fridge.The manager of the company told judge Karl Mitterhöfer he would have never allowed the agent to be refilled into a plastic bottle.The 36-year-old man and the teen trainee were acquitted while the two female defendants were charged with causing negligent bodily harm.While the shops head manager accepted her eight-month suspended sentence, her employee asked for respite over her six-month suspended sentence.The two accused were also ordered to pay 15,000 in compensation to victim David D.It meanwhile remains uncertain whether the 23-year-old can ever work again as a plumber after the tragic incident.Doctors had to put the man from Neustift an der Lafnitz into an artificial coma for one week during which they removed parts of his stomach, small bowel and oesophagus.