Bartender convicted of manslaughter after customer takes 56 shots, dies

A French bartender was sentenced on Wednesday after being convicted of manslaughter over the death of a customer he served 56 shots to during a drinking contest last October.

Renaud Prudhomme, 56, broke the drinking record at the bar Starter in Clermont-Ferrand, Agence France-Presse reports. He was served by bartender Gilles Crepin, 47, who said during a hearing that he had made a mistake by tallying how many shots Prudhomme was drinking on a board, encouraging him to continue. Prudhomme was severely inebriated when he went home, and he died in the hospital the next day.

Crepin received a suspended sentence of four months and was banned from working in a bar for a year. His attorney, Renaud Portejoie, placed the blame on Prudhomme and his daughter, saying the man had respiratory and alcohol problems and his daughter wanted him to break the record. "We can't ask every customer who buys alcohol to present their medical certificates," he said. An attorney for Prudhomme's daughter said she was not at the bar when the drinking competition took place, and hopes this case reminds people that it's illegal to serve drinks to customers when they are extremely intoxicated.

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