A 53-year old Chinese woman, who chased a restaurant owner into his kitchen waving a meat cleaver, after a row over money, has had sentence deferred on her for a year to be of good behaviour.
When she was arrested, a kitchen knife with a three inch blade was found in her handbag, and she told police she used it for peeling apples.
The woman, Hua Zhang, of no fixed abode, had pleaded guilty previously to assaulting Zhi Yuan Dong on Oct
ober 4 this year by repeatedly waving the cleaver at him in Wang's Restaurant in Lady Lawson Street and to being in possession of a knife. Sentence was deferred until today for background reports.
Fiscal Depute, Michelle Young, said Zhang entered the restaurant at 6.15 in the evening. Several witnesses watched as she began arguing with Mr Dong "over money".
She was asked to calm down, but when Mr Dong went into the kitchen, she ran in after him, grabbed the cleaver and began waving it at him. The Fiscal said that after a struggle, the cleaver was forced from Zhang and the police called. At the police station the knife was found in her handbag and she told the officers it was for peeling apples.
Defence agent, Mathew Patrick, said his client was a Chinese national who had been in this country for eight years and had never come to the attention of the police or courts before. She had entered Britain on a six month visa, but later applied for asylum. She was required to sign on regularly at a police station and had been doing so until becoming ill with cancer.
She had, however, restarted signing on at the West End station in the city. Zhang, he added, had sold property she owned in China and had gone into business with Mr Dong, investing in Wangs Restaurant. "It appeared Mr Dong bought her out, but she received no money" said Mr Patrick "and the incident arose out a dispute over that".
The solicitor said Zhang had received a telephone call from Mr Dong asking her to come to the restaurant and discuss the matter. When she did, Mr Patrick said Mr Dong "simply showed her a piece of paper with numbers on it and tried to pass it off as an explanation for not having given her the money she claimed she was due".
His client, he added, was in a strange country, with no English, she was scared and frightened and months of frustration had caused her to blow up".
As for the possession of the knife, Mr Patrick said Zhang had false teeth and used the knife to slice up fruit to eat. "She did not know it was an offence to carry it" he said.
The full article contains 474 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
