Telford woman with troubled background avoids jail after ‘lashing out’
A woman from Telford with a troubled background, including falling victim to a “predatory” man who left her pregnant, lashed out in temper leaving another young woman scarred.
A court heard that the woman, who spent some time in care and became pregnant as a teenager, had made “great strides” in her life and not been in trouble for several years.
The court heard the experience had had a detrimental effect on her life.
On a night out in Liverpool she got into an altercation with a young Irish woman on the dance floor – and when that woman’s friend intervened the defendant grabbed her and she fell against a metal pillar.
One of the victims suffered lacerations to her forehead and eyebrow.
The wounds needed a total of 14 stitches, said Chris Taylor, prosecuting.
After she had fallen to the floor in the Baa Bar the defendant threw punches at her friend, who had come over specially from Ireland to celebrate her friend’s birthday.
The defendant, of Leegomery, Telford, who we are not naming, pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm on one of her victims and common assault on the other.
Kevin Jones, defending, told Liverpool Crown Court that while she had convictions for 10 previous offences, she had no convictions for violence since she was 15.
The court heard she had been in care for some time and gave up the child she conceived as a teenager for adoption. He said: “Her son has been adopted for a number of years and she recognises that was probably the right decision. She is now sole carer for her baby daughter with the help of her grandmother and she voluntarily liaises with social services.”
The woman had mental health issues and ADHD but these conditions have been stabilised with medication and she has made “great strides” forward, said Mr Jones. But he said she accepted there had been “a flare-up in her previous anger problems” on the night of the assaults for which she was remorseful.
Sentencing her to 18 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years the judge, Recorder Charles Garside QC, said: “I am satisfied that you had a very difficult childhood, in particular being taken advantage of by someone who can only be described as a predatory man and you ended up having a child and led a wild kind of life.
“There are reasons why people behave as they do and I am sure in your case that is one of the reasons. Your last offence for violence was six years ago and it looks like you have turned over a new leaf.”
