PUB chef Mark Hunt accidentally stabbed himself to death after a knife trick went grotesquely wrong.

The ex-Para told a teenage kitchen porter to watch, promising him: “This has got to be the best one!”

Mark, 40, intended to plunge the knife towards his stomach, before reversing it at the last second — making it appear as if he had stabbed himself.

But an inquest heard he mistimed it and thrust the 12-inch blade in so deeply it severed his spinal cord.

He screamed for help and his girlfriend Margarita Lima and boss found him slumped over a sink mumbling: “It slipped, it slipped.”

He collapsed unconscious and was rushed to hospital but medics were unable to save him.

Portuguese Margarita told the hearing in Newbury, Berks, how she cradled her boyfriend on the kitchen floor.

She said: “I tried to hold his head and talk to him but it all happened very quickly.”

The 14-year-old porter, who cannot be named, said: “The first time he showed me I was shocked, then I knew what he was doing. But he must have lost concentration.”

Pub owner Anna Berry had only hired Mark two weeks earlier at The Stag in Leckhampstead, Berks.

She said: “There was absolutely no blood. I thought it was an old war wound.

“He lifted his jacket up and realised what he had done — that’s when he fainted.”

A post mortem showed Mark, of Coventry, West Mids, had not been drinking. Verdict: Accidental death.

end of text

Bad day at the office ?

Submitted on 02/02/2006

Submitted by: wyn williams
Reference: Sun newspaper 3.01.06

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
This could benefit from a much funnier write-up, but it does have all the hallmarks of a simple but "classic" Darwin! I imagine that with a blade of sufficient length and sharpness (and if you strike in JUST the right spot, ie between vertebrae), it might be possible to sever or at least severely damage one's own spinal cord. I'll vote nominal DA.

Jack said:
Neutral: Darwin Award
Ah, ex-paras! Good for a laugh (or a DA) anytime. Thanks, wyn.

Jorge said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
It doesn't get more darwinian than this.

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