A SECURITY guard who gave a schoolboy a serious head injury at a McDonald's in York “should never have been approved” for his job, a court heard.

Zain Salim, 21, has escaped a prison sentence for causing the wound, which needed six staples inserted, at the fast food chain’s outlet in Blake Street, York, on April 2 last year.

The 15-year-old teenager’s mother said the incident had disrupted her son’s life and she is now planning to take further action against the relevant company.

She said: "I am extremely disappointed to hear the outcome of this sentence.”

Salim was an “adult who lost control, never mind if he was employed as a security guard or not. He was an adult against a child,” she said.

She added: “I do hope that Zain Salim receives the rehabilitation and support he needs as indicated in any reports used as part of his defence.”

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, sitting at York Crown Court, said after reading a medical report from Salim’s defence team, that the 21-year-old was in the “borderline intellectual functioning range” and had “real disability when it comes to verbal communication and interpretation".

It would not be appropriate to jail him, he said.

Instead, he made him subject to an 18-month community order with 20 days’ rehabilitative activities and 120 hours’ unpaid work. He did not order him to pay compensation to the boy.

Salim, of Moorbottom Road, Huddersfield, pleaded guilty to GBH. He no longer works at the Blake Street restaurant.

McDonald's declined to comment on the incident, saying that Salim had been employed by the security company contracted by the franchise holders of the Blake Street outlet and not McDonald's.

It has not responded to a York Press request for the security company's name.

The boy’s mother said: “I wrote to McDonald's shortly after the incident to gather facts and information about the incident and the reply I had only answered my questions in part and not fully.

"They also then gave us £20 worth of McDonald's vouchers as an apology and a means to help restore my faith!

“These vouchers have never been redeemed.”

Defence solicitor advocate Graham Parkin told the court Salim “should never, in my opinion and that of his family, he should never have been approved for the security job at McDonald's, never in this world. He is a man who cannot cope with unusual situations and that is part of the role.”

The solicitor said Salim had been working alone on April 2, when he should have been working with another person.

Mr Parkin said CCTV showed that Salim “didn’t know what to do” and that “most of what he did was wrong”.

York Crown Court heard that the injury happened after Salim told a group of teenagers to leave and the incident escalated.

Mr Parkin said Salim has since got employment elsewhere working 3am to 11am, with a set list of tasks to do, and he finds he can cope.

The judge said Salim had been elbowed during the incident and had reacted “over the top”.