Over the years we’ve reported on various hazing rituals – however what Martial Arts Instructor Steven Grant, 29 had unique is he was performing them on his underage students.

The boys had to be revived with smelling salts but Grant offered to buy one of the boys a McDonald’s meal if he let him repeat the choke out.
Steven Grant, who ran Slicks Martial Arts in Milford Haven, said he had been trying to teach the teenagers a lesson.

Reportedly Grant was a fake black belt:
“Unfortunately, there is no law against anyone buying a black belt and fake matching certificate online and opening a club teaching whatever they want to the unsuspecting trusting public. Steven Grant a.k.a “Slick” (a nickname, like his many black belts in multiple styles, he gave himself) of Slick’s Martial Arts is well known in the martial arts community for his lies and has been an accident waiting to happen for years. This could have been a lot worse, the two young boys are lucky no permanent damage was done. Regardless of the style/type of martial art you or your child attends please check the credentials of the instructor and the legitimacy of the organisation they say their affiliated to and be wary of anyone who seems reluctant or makes excuses not to comply with this common sense request. ”

 

Slicks Martial Art dojo reportedly offered: “We teach many aspects of Martial Arts including, but not limited to, Kung Fu, Kickboxing and MMA.”

The mother of one of the boys said it was lucky no one was killed in Grant’s lessons.

The judge in the case called for a nationwide investigation into martial arts classes run by unqualified instructors in Wales.

according to Wales online:

Prosecutor Robin Rouch said: “One of the boys turned up at the lesson angry after falling out with another boy and wanted to knock him out.

“Grant said he would show him what it felt like to be knocked out.

“He demonstrated it on the older boy who was put in a choke hold from behind.

“The next thing he was aware of was waking up on the floor.

“He came around in a state of panic and needed smelling salts.

“Grant offered to show him again and said he would buy him a McDonald’s if he did it.”

Mother of the older boy made a victim impact statement. She had revealed she sent the boy to Grant because he was being bullied at school.

Grant pleaded guilty to 2 charges of causing actual bodily harm to the schoolboys who can’t be named for legal reasons.

He was given a 6 month suspended prison sentence for two years and ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.

Judge Geraint Walters told him:

“What you did was very serious and should never have happened.

“You were in a position of power – parents trusted you with their children as they had every right to do.

“But you applied choke holds and one of the boy’s legs wobbled as he was rendered unconscious.

“You did that twice to him and once to the other boy.

“Smelling salts had to be used to bring the boys around.”

adding “Someone needs to look into how these classes are operated so the risk of this happening again is managed in a proper way.”

An earlier version of Grant’s site details:

“Steven went on to learn Kung Fu and Kickboxing as well as attending Martial Arts Summer Courses in the Chris Edgerhill Academy for 3 years. Steven also travelled 3 times a week to train in kickboxing and gained his black belt in kung fu by the age of 12 and his brown belt in kickboxing by the age of 17.”
According to his own earlier account he’s only started Kung fu in 1999 – at age 11.
“Enrolling in a Kung Fu class in 1999, Steven had become a 1st Dan Black Belt in Kung Fu by 2005.”
source: https://web.archive.org/web/20121228011507/http://www.slicksmartialarts.co.uk:80/