Chef arrested after stabbing customer, for ‘staring at his girlfriend’ in restaurant

After blaming him for “staring at his girlfriend” in a London restaurant, a chef stabbed a customer in the neck with a steak knife.

Fabio Montoya, 27, was incarcerated on Friday for three years and nine months after admitting injury with the intention of doing serious bodily harm.

On September 27 last year, the Inner London Crown Court heard Montoya, who’s been living in Britain for the last eight years, picked up his meat cleaver and thrust it into the throat of Diego Olave in a ‘dangerous and reprehensible way’

After the victim kept looking over at his mother, the Spanish national said he “saw red” and called her a “whore” as he left La Barra in Walworth, south London.

The knife sliced through the skin, but barely missed a major artery, and was then used “in an attempt to disfigure him” to slice the face of the victim.

Prosecutor Gareth Munday said, “The defendant entered the restaurant with a friend at almost 12 in the afternoon, sat at the bar and began drinking. He had seven or eight beers and some food by the time of the stabbing.”

“The defendant and his partner came into the restaurant and they sat in a window booth, the defendant and his partner confronted the victim about the fact he was looking at them.”

The court learned that Mr. Olave was confronted by Montoya to ask him to stop looking at his mother, but the victim was “abusive” and called them “derogatory terms”

Eventually, friends and restaurant workers persuaded Mr. Olave to leave, and it was said that in Spanish he called Montoya’s girlfriend a “whore or bitch”

Mr. Munday said, “The defendant has selected a steak knife from the table having heard the word and the defendant, holding the knife downwards in his hand, stabbed him in the neck in a sideways motion then aimed for his face.” the defendant said.

Montoya then returned to the restaurant and apologized to the workers before returning the knife and paying the bill, the court heard.

He was detained in December and, in a police interview, admitted the attack.

Defending, Mark Stevens said, “He doesn’t know exactly what happened. He admits he was in a rage.”

Mr. Olave was left with a stab wound in his neck that had to be closed, and a 5cm cut under his hairline where the knife was “raked” across his forehead, requiring scars and stitches.