Pine-o-cleen Bar 'prank' Intended No Harm, Judge Rules
The Age
Tuesday February 5, 2008
AN APPRENTICE mechanic who was served a shot of Pine-O-Cleen as a practical joke at a Prahran nightclub last year said he felt like he was going to die after consuming the detergent.
"I just couldn't stop vomiting, I felt like I was going to die, my gut was so sore," he said in a statement tendered to Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday after the barmaid pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the incident. Matthew Papaluca, 19, told police he had been buying alcoholic drinks from "a very attractive" barmaid at Club Evolution in the early hours of March 4 when two security guards told him to have one more drink on them about 6am. He said that on the guards' instruction, the blonde barmaid, Emily Craig, 23, produced a shot glass with green liquid in it for him to drink."I skolled it. I swallowed a bit less than half of it. It didn't taste right. It did not taste like any alcoholic beverage that I had ever tasted before," he said in his statement."The security guards that were standing near the bar about five metres away started laughing and high fiving each other. The female bar person also started laughing . . . I knew that what they served me wasn't alcohol."After Mr Papaluca stumbled down the stairs of the club, an ambulance was called to treat him, the court heard. He refused to go to hospital and instead rang his parents to pick him up from the Commercial Road venue. Craig, of Park Orchards, yesterday pleaded guilty to one count of reckless conduct endangering serious injury over the incident. Her lawyer, George Balot, told the court she had been drinking before the incident, which occurred in a "jovial context" that prompted Mr Papaluca's friends to also "high five" the guards. "They (his friends) went along with it . . . and laughed at him as he was drinking the drink," he said. Mr Balot said Craig had never been charged with criminal offences before and was deeply remorseful for the "misguided and immature practical joke". He said Craig, now a clerical assistant, lost her job at two nightclubs where she worked at the time and had her licence to serve alcohol permanently revoked. "She'll never be able to work in a bar again," he said. The court heard that Craig had co-operated with police about the involvement of the two security guards, who could face charges over the incident. Magistrate Charles Rozencwajg accepted the crime was a joke and said there was no suggestion the Pine-O-Cleen caused any permanent harm to Mr Papaluca. "This was a prank not intended to cause any specific harm," he said. Craig was sentenced, without conviction, to a good behaviour bond for 18 months and ordered to donate $3000 to the Lighthouse Foundation - a charity that aims to reduce youth homelessness.
© 2008 The Age