A Sydney barista says he was left shaken by an alleged assault on Friday 10 June.
Suman Dhital, 27, had two cups of hot coffee thrown at him when he was caught amongst a disagreement between two customers.
The dispute is believed to have occurred when a male customer insisted on paying for a woman’s coffee, and she refused.
“The man told me he wanted to pay for the woman’s coffee. I asked the woman if she was fine with it, and she slightly moved away saying she did know the man, and she could pay for her own coffee,” Dhital told SBS Nepali.
He said the man slowly got pushy and kept persuading to pay for the other customer’s order.
As Dhital explained, the man allegedly started verbally abusing him, which is then alleged to have led him to throwing two cups of hot coffee onto Dhital’s face.
I told the man I could not let him pay for the woman’s coffee. He got very angry, started shouting and swearing at me, and he splashed coffee over me and fled.
Semaan, who was not present at the time, immediately went to the cafe after Dhital told her about the incident over the phone.
“My staff member [Dhital] was respecting this lady’s wishes... this made the guy really angry.”
“He was soaking from head to toe. Coffee all over the shop,” she said.
My staff member – he felt really degraded. It’s degrading for somebody to throw food or coffee or swearing at you… it's not a nice thing.
The customer had already left the cafe before officers from Cumberland Police Area Command attended the site.
Soon after the incident, Soul Bowl circulated the CCTV footage of the incident on social media, and around 60 people reached out saying they recognised the man.
Following inquiries and a public appeal, the 31-year-old customer attended Granville police station and spoke with investigators.
He has since been issued a court attendance notice for common assault and is due to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday 26 July 2022.
Semaan said this kind of incident had never happened at her store before.
“I am not gonna allow my staff to get treated like that by anybody. Doing their best, coming to work, early hours, late nights, very busy on their feet all day,” Semaan said.
“He was just stuck in the middle, between her and him. But he chose to respect the girl, which was the right thing to do.”
