Liquid nitrogen cocktail wine bar to be sentenced after teen had stomach removed

A wine bar will be sentenced after a teenager had her stomach removed after drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen.

Gaby Scanlon, from Heysham, Lancashire, was celebrating her 18th birthday with friends at Oscar's Wine Bar and Bistro in Lancaster in October 2012 when she drank the shot Nitro-Jagermeister.

Miss Scanlon, now aged 20, said her stomach began to expand and she was taken to Lancaster Royal Infirmary where a CT scan found a large perforation.

She spent three weeks in hospital as doctors removed her stomach and connected her oesophagus directly to her small bowel.

In June, Oscar's Wine Bar Limited pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to one count of failing in the duty of an employer to ensure the safety of persons not in its employment.

In its plea the company, registered in Swinton, South Yorkshire, admitted it failed to ensure the shot cocktail was safe for customers to consume.

It also failed to ensure there was a safe system in place with adequate controls to prevent customers being exposed to injury from the consumption of such drinks, and it had not made any suitable and sufficient risk assessment.

Following the plea, law firm Slater and Gordon said the incident had "completed changed" the life of its client Miss Scanlon who suffers from "episodes of agonising pain" and can no longer enjoy eating.

A verdict of not guilty was recorded against bar employee Matthew Harding, of George Street, Lancaster, who denied failing in his duty to take reasonable care for the health and safety of others at work.

His plea was accepted by the Crown.

It had been alleged he presented the Nitro-Jagermeister at the customer's table when it was still producing cold nitrogen gases and was unsafe to drink.

Oscar's Wine Bar director Andrew Dunn, of Old Earswick, York, pleaded not guilty to being part of a corporate employer which failed in its duty to ensure the safety of persons not in its employment.

The court heard that the prosecution would offer no evidence against him if a payment of £20,000 towards court costs was made before the sentencing date.