Gary Barton jailed for 7 years for serving under-cooked food at BBQ

A thug who served under-cooked food at his barbecue has been jailed for 7 years.

Gary Barton denied under-cooking food at his barbecue last August in Barming, Maidstone and giving the guests food poisoning, but was convicted by a jury.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Barton had on the day of the offence hosted a barbecue at his house in Barming, in which a large range of guests attended including friends, family, mutual friends and neighbors.

However Barton then began preparing various food such as burgers, steaks, sausages and chicken on his £349 Blooma Hanang 4 Burner Gas Barbecue from B&Q, but he failed to fully cook the food to recommended standards and began serving it to the guests.

John Smith, 31, a friend of Barton said in court "I had a burger from the barbecue which did taste a bit weird, but I didn't think anything of it. It was then the next day that I felt very ill. I went to the Doctor's and they told me I had food poisoning, once I heard that I immediately thought back to the burger I had at the barbecue the previous day."

"I had to take a full week off work" he said. "I was bed bound for the entire week unable to do anything."

Other guests of the barbecue also said basically the same thing in court.

Philip Westwood a local neighbor of Barton's who was also at the barbecue, said "I was only ill for two days, but I can't believe Gary would purposely compromise the health of his guests. I have now removed him from my Facebook friends list over this incident."

When most of the guests got ill after the barbecue had took place, everyone's suspicions turned to Barton. The police were called to his home where they arrested him last August.

Police confiscated his gas barbecue and found that he had under-cooked the food. Other evidence against Barton included medical reports from several of the guest's doctor's.

Judge Daniel Young said Barton had been "very stupid" to under cook the food at the barbecue before jailing him for 7 years. He was also ordered to carry out 500 hours unpaid work and pay £10,000 compensation to each guest who consumed food from his barbecue.

The judge also banned him from owning or using a barbecue for 40 years.