WA man who sprayed hot chilli into crowd of Bunnings shoppers jailed
Paul Andrew Hart, 52, admitted to taking the chilli spray to the Bunnings store when he attended with a friend and his son on the Anzac Day public holiday last year.
He later told police he was intending to disperse fart spray as a joke but mistakenly picked up Satan's Spit instead, which caused burning eyes, noses and sore throats to 15 people, 11 of whom required treatment in hospital for their injuries. Two victims were children.
Satan's Spit is used on food and comes with an extreme heat warning, and is described as: 'One of our hottest (and more dangerous) products, please handle with care!'
'Spray with caution as it can get travel through the air and get in eyes. You've been warned.'
The court was told at the time of the incident, shoppers were unaware of what they had been sprayed with so they were made to strip outside of hospital and forced to take decontamination showers.
Bunnings closed its doors for the day, causing a loss of $16,000 in income, while also paying thousands of dollars to eight affected employees in workers' compensation claims.
Victims were also forced to pay thousands for ambulances to the nearby hospital.
On Tuesday, Hart was sentenced over the prank with Perth District Court Judge Felicity Zempilas telling him she did not accept the claim he thought he had innocuous fart spray in his pocket and not Satan's Spit as he was seen on CCTV repeatedly looking at the product.
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