A SACKED waiter took revenge on a seafront restaurant by using a rock from a nearby beach to smash the glass panels around its quayside seating area.

Shaun Campbell was fired by the owner of the Pier Point restaurant in Torquay for pocketing tips which were meant to have been shared with other staff.

He spent months begging her to give him his job back before launching his attack in the early hours of June 15, 2021, 48 hours before Freedom Day, when Covid restrictions were due to be eased.

He was seen on CCTV walking up to the outside seating area, which was fenced off with glass panels, and throwing a large rock through it.

He then climbed through the hole which he had just made and threw the rock back out through a different panel before exiting again and repeating the process four times.

Police found blood stains on the glass where he had cut himself during the drunken rampage and DNA from the panels and the rock proved he was the attacker.

He went on to kick one police officer and spit at two others after being found on the nearby beach with serious cuts to his hands and arms.

His revenge attack cost restaurateur Lorraine Arnold more than £8,000, including £4,700 repairs and loss of income when the business was closed for repairs.

Campbell, aged 27, of Innerbrook Road, Torquay, admitted criminal damage and three assaults on emergency workers. He was jailed for six months, suspended for a year and ordered to pay £600 costs by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him he needed to work to control his temper and alcohol abuse.

Miss Felicity Payne, prosecuting, said police were called to the quayside at 3 am on June 15, 2021, and found serious damage to the windows. The arrested Campbell on the beach where he had found the rock.

Owner Miss Arnold wrote a victim impact statement explaining that she had sacked Campbell in October 2020 for stealing tips but he had pestered her for his job back, sending his last request in April 2021.

She said she had chosen not to claim on her insurance and had absorbed the cost herself and that she now worried about the safety of the restaurant when she was not there.

She wrote: 'I feel very shocked and angry that he did that. I feel sick. I feel I treated him fairly and had no option but to sack him. I was shocked to see him throwing the boulder with such venom and determination. 

Miss Emily Pitts, defending, said Campbell has found a new job at a hotel and has stayed out of trouble for almost two years since this incident. He has just started receiving treatment for mental health issues.