The courtroom was left in suspense when an asylum seeker, set for sentencing, was found indulging in a classic British meal, delaying justice once more.
Fish and chips (Image: Stephen Peel / SWNS)
An asylum seeker convicted of a violent attack avoided justice after leaving court to get some fish and chips. Shkar Jamal, 24, was due to be sentenced for threatening another man with a snooker cue in Bournemouth, Dorset. An interpreter who speaks Kurdish Sorani, the language spoken in Iraq or Kurdistan, was also booked for the hearing.
But when his case was called on at Poole Magistrates’ Court at 12.30pm, Jamal was nowhere to be found. A search party including his defence solicitor went looking for Jamal but there was no sign of him in the public lobby or elsewhere on site.
Poole Magistrates Court in Dorset (Image: PA)
It was 15 minutes before the defendant was spotted outside, sitting on a bench, embracing the much-loved staple of British culture by eating fish and chips.
They were apparently bought from the nearby Parkway Fish Bar.
By the time Jamal, who was wearing a Nike puffer coat and Nike Air Max trainers that usually retail for £140 and £165, re-entered the building another case had been called on and the magistrates tasked with hearing the case broke for their own lunch.
A backlog of cases from the morning then meant that the afternoon schedule was too full to hear his case, which was finally adjourned for another day at 4.30pm.
Fish and chips (Image: -)
Jamal was allowed to leave court on bail with his fate delayed until the end of October.
At a previous hearing, Jamal admitted threatening Sherwan Abdalrahman with an offensive weapon, namely a snooker cue, in a public place on Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, on May 6.
Jamal is currently staying at the Britannia Hotel which is one of three hotels in Bournemouth which have been converted into migrant accommodation.
His case was adjourned until October 24.
