Glassing woman avoids jail term (From Gazette & Herald)

Glassing woman avoids jail term

A 23-year-old North Yorkshire administrative assistant has avoided a jail term for throwing a wine glass at a woman's face, scarring her for life.

Carmen Lori-Ann Waters, of Hamilton Road, Norton, appeared at Scarborough Magistrates Court and pleaded guilty to wounding causing grievous bodily harm.

Magistrates seriously considered jailing Waters, who works for Jarvis in York, but instead sentenced her to 240 hours community punishment and ordered her to pay £3,000 compensation and £70 costs.

Martin Summers, prosecuting, said that on March 27 Elizabeth Pickering, who is known as Libby, and her husband, Brian, of Castlegate, Malton, were having a meal with Mrs Pickering's brother, David Booth, and his girlfriend, Alison Waters, at Hamilton Road, Norton.

Ms Waters's daughter came home and a heated discussion ensued about Louise Booth, who is Mr Booth's daughter and Mr and Mrs Pickering's niece and god-daughter, which culminated in Carmen Waters throwing a wine glass at Mrs Pickering's face.

In a statement read by Mr Summers, Dr Doctor Thornton, a plastic surgery registrar at Castle Hill Hospital, Cottingham, said an 8cm by 2.5cm area of Mrs Pickering's right cheek had been sliced off, but there was no evidence of injuries to the facial nerve. There were also three smaller cuts. "It will leave a permanent scar. It will never fully disappear," said Dr Thornton.

Franklin Garvey, for Waters, said: "There had been a dinner party with convivial conversation, then all of a sudden something blew up out of nowhere and there was an almighty difference of opinion."

He said Waters had become "incensed and inflamed" about remarks made about Miss Booth. "She threw the contents of her glass at the other person and in doing so the glass slipped out of her hand.

"It wasn't as though it was a deliberate act to throw (the glass) in her face."

Mr Garvey said Waters bitterly regretted her actions and had suffered weight loss through worry and suicidal thoughts after the incident.

After hearing the sentence, Mr Pickering, a 44-year-old engineer, said his wife, a 41-year-old supervisor and cook at Eden Camp, Malton, was "pretty distraught".

He said: "It was a deliberate act. She should be locked up. The compensation is nothing compared to the physical and mental scarring my wife has suffered.

"She'll be out on the town, but my wife will be lucky if she goes out socially now."

Updated: 11:01 Thursday, May 13, 2004