Ipswich kebab shop owner is cleared by jury of threatening to kill former employee

An Ipswich cafe owner accused of bursting into a kebab shop and threatening to kill a former employee has been cleared by a jury.

Amer El-Sadat, who owns a fish and chip shop and the Krazy Kitchen Cafe in Upper Orwell Street, Ipswich, denied picking up a knife in the Fresh Kebab shop, which is also in Upper Orwell Street, and swinging it at the owner, Irfan Anwar.

El-Sadat told the court Mr Anwar had previously worked for him for about three weeks and they had parted on good terms.

He said on October 14 last year he went to the Fresh Kebab shop after being told by his second cousin Mr Anwar had been abusive to him.

El-Sadat said his brother had been in the Fresh Kebab kitchen and he had a row with him in Arabic for allowing Mr Anwar to be abusive to their cousin.

He claimed Mr Anwar had then come into the kitchen and had walked towards him with a knife.

“He had a very violent demeanour,” said El-Sadat.

He claimed he had grabbed hold of Mr Anwar’s shirt and his hands in a bid to get the knife resulting in Mr Anwar dropping the knife on to an oven.

El-Sadat said he “chucked” the knife on the floor and then walked out of the kitchen.

El-Sadat, 49, of Wilson Marriage Road, Colchester, denied making a threat to kill Mr Anwar and racially aggravated assault by beating and was found not guilty by a jury after a three-day trial.

It was alleged that Mr Anwar was serving customers at Fresh Kebab when El-Sadat allegedly burst in shouting threats including:”Come outside. I’m going to kill you “.

Mr Anwar told him to go away, but shortly afterwards El-Sadat re-entered the premises thorough a side door into the kitchen where he allegedly picked up a kitchen knife with a six-inch blade.

El-Sadat had then walked towards Mr Anwar who was still in the serving area allegedly shouting: “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you.”

In addition to threatening Mr Anwar, El-Sadat had allegedly shouted obscenities at him and made racial comments.

El-Sadat had then allegedly swung at Mr Anwar with the knife he was holding and caught the sleeve of his shirt.

Mr Anwar grabbed El-Sadat’s hands and was then allegedly butted in the face by him five or six times causing him to fall against a fridge, claimed Mr Taylor.