Wetherspoons chaos as punters forced to flee after barred dad douses pub in petrol

A dad dubbed "a ticking time bomb" recklessly splashed petrol around a bustling Wetherspoons pub, turning it into "a potential inferno" and endangering the lives of up to 200 people. 

Nottingham Crown Court heard that David Shaw, 42, unleashed chaos on the Butter Cross pub, in Market Place, Bingham, on the afternoon of June 15 last year, just a day after being barred.

As Shaw began splashing the substance around the pub, an elderly couple in their 80s, one of whom was recovering from a recent stroke, slipped on the spilled fuel and sustained injuries.

Sentencing him to two years in prison, Judge Stuart Rafferty KC said: "Knowing you had difficulties, you tried to live with them without seeking help for them. There was nothing to prevent you from going to the doctors to say 'I am depressed, I need help'.

"By not doing that you made yourself, whether you knew it or not and I suspect you did know it, a very angry man. A ticking time bomb in effect.

"You thought, whether it is true or not, that other people were saying things about you and that caused you some considerable anger. You then made a decision to put the lives of over 100 people or nearer 200 people, at risk.

"You went into a busy pub, in a small town, on a sunny afternoon where people were enjoying themselves - elderly people, people your age and younger, and children - armed with two fuel containers of petrol which you began spraying about.

"Potentially these premises were an inferno, with you in the centre of it, reports Nottinghamshire Live. "You did not think about that at all. People were panicking, you were shouting 'everyone get out'.

The sentencing judge added: "One man, 84, was recovering from a stroke he suffered just two weeks before, he slipped on the petrol and smashed his face on the floor. Pandemonium could have broken out and what did you do? Having been refused a drink in that pub, you got in your van and drove to another one.

"That hardly shows immediate remorse."

Richardo Childs, prosecuting, said Shaw had earlier entered the premises but was refused service as he had been banned just the night before. The prosecutor said as the defendant left he said to a staff member "don't bother coming to work tomorrow there is going to be no pub".

Mr Childs said: "Around 30 minutes later, when there were 150 to 200 customers enjoying a drink the same staff member saw the defendant enter the kitchen door carrying two petrol cans.

"He started shouting 'everyone get out' over and over again causing panic in the public bar. A couple in their 80s were inside and she later said she told her husband that it looked like the defendant 'meant business'.

"One of the staff members tried to get him out and pushed him and some of the petrol he was splashing about got on their clothing. And the elderly couple slipped and fell as they tried to get out.

Mr Childs said Shaw, of Thornfield Way, Aslockton, left but was confronted nearby by a man who had witnessed the incident and told him "there are kids in the pub". The defendant then got in his van and drove off but was arrested at a nearby pub later.

He pleaded guilty to affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Rebecca Coleman, mitigating, said her client had suffered a number of traumatic episodes in his life, especially when he moved to live in Spain as a teenager.

The precise details of what happened to him were not revealed in court. She said: "The trigger for the incident was not the pub itself but that certain individuals were taunting him and he simply wanted it to stop."

As well as the jail term, the judge banned the defendant from entering any licensed premises for two years.