News

Bartender convicted for patron’s 56 shot death

29 May 2015 By Annie Hayes

A French bartender has been convicted of manslaughter for serving a man 56 shots during a drinking contest which led to his death the following day.

Gilles Crepin has been convicted of manslaughter after serving a patron who later died 56 shots

Gilles Crepin, 47, received a four-month suspended jail sentence and was banned from working in a bar for a year – a ruling his lawyer Renaud Portejoie has claimed he will appeal.

The customer, 56-year-old Renaud Prudhomme, downed the alcohol at the bar, Starter, in the central French town of Clermont-Ferrand, in an attempt to beat the bar’s record of 55 shots.

He reportedly drank the first 30 shots in around one minute.

Prudhomme’s daughter and friends helped him home, but the emergency services had to be called after he went into cardiac arrest, and he died in hospital the following day.

Portejoie highlighted that the customer had existing respiratory and alcohol abuse problems.

“We can’t ask every customer who buys alcohol to present their medical certificates,” he said.

The lawyer representing Prudhomme’s daughter, Antoine Portal, argues that Crepin encouraged the dangerous stunt.
He added: “We want to remind some professionals that it is illegal to serve alcohol to clients who are in an advanced state of inebriation.”