Gross Negligence Manslaughter, Restaurant Owners and the Foreseeability Question: R v Kuddus [2019] EWCA Crim 837, Court of Appeal

DOI10.1177/0022018319893775
AuthorTony Storey
Date01 December 2019
Published date01 December 2019
Subject MatterCase Notes
CLJ893775 516..518 Case Note
The Journal of Criminal Law
2019, Vol. 83(6) 516–518
Gross Negligence Manslaughter,
ª The Author(s) 2019
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Restaurant Owners and the
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DOI: 10.1177/0022018319893775
Foreseeability Question
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R v Kuddus [2019] EWCA Crim 837, Court of Appeal
Keywords
Gross negligence manslaughter, food allergy, duty of care, foresight of an obvious and serious
risk of death
Mohammed Kuddus (K) was the owner of a takeaway business, the Royal Spice Indian restaurant in
Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire. He also worked there as the chef. Alongside his co-accused, the restaurant
manager Harun Rashid (R), K was charged with the gross negligence manslaughter of a 15-year-old girl,
Megan Lee (L), who died on New Year’s Day 2017 due to an allergic reaction after she ate a takeaway
meal containing nuts from the restaurant two days’ earlier. K and R and appeared before Yip J and a jury
at Manchester Crown Court in October 2018.
On 30th December 2016, L and her friend had ordered food from the restaurant via the Just Eat
website. As they were doing so, a prompt appeared inviting customers to ‘Leave a note for the restau-
rant’. When that was clicked, a further prompt appeared asking (inter alia) ‘Got an allergy?’ Here, L’s
friend typed ‘nuts, prawns’. L had been diagnosed with asthma as a child, and with allergies to nuts when
she was 8, but her allergies were believed to be mild.
The order (including the comment ‘nuts, prawns’) was received by Royal Spice and was seen by R,
but not by K, who was working in the kitchen. The food was prepared and delivered to L and her friend.
Despite the comment about L having a nut allergy, the food contained peanut protein. L suffered an
allergic reaction, which was mild, at least initially. Shortly afterwards, however, she stopped breathing
and her heart stopped. She was taken to hospital in an ambulance but had suffered irreversible brain
damage. Two days’ later, life support was...

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