A drunken woman who slashed an innocent victim with a stiletto heel leaving her scarred for life was spared jail.
Abbie Van Hien, 25, launched the unprovoked attack on Christine Mohamed, 30, in the early hours of New Year’s Day last year.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Ms Mohamed saw Van Hien sitting down in Bold Street at around 5.15am and simply asked if she was okay.
Michael Jones, prosecuting, said the defendant replied “you’re with them” before picking up her shoe and hitting her in the head.
Ms Mohamed was taken to hospital, where she received stitches for a three centimetre cut to her forehead.
Judge Norman Wright said: “She will carry a scar for the rest of her life.”
Van Hien, of Whatcroft Close, Runcorn, accepted responsibility for the attack when arrested and interviewed by police.
However, she told officers she could not remember hitting the victim with her heel.
Paul Wood, defending, said: “We know she had been drinking too much on the night in question. This wasn’t her trying to be obstructive.”
Mr Wood accepted it was a “deeply unpleasant injury in a very obvious place” and caused by a single blow.
The defendant, with long brown hair and wearing a black top in court, admitted unlawful wounding. She has no previous convictions.
Mr Wood said his “emotionally vulnerable” client was of good character and had shown genuine remorse.
He said: “Your honour knows where this lady was at in her life when this incident happened – the loss she had suffered and distress she had been caused, through events that were clearly not her fault.”
More stories from the courts
Man charged with Liverpool ‘bomb hoax’ Selfie-obsessed teenage burglar Takeaway in court over infestation Care home worker stole from ill man 
Judge Wright said Van Hien had drunk “a considerable amount of alcohol” and the attack was made worse because the scar was in a prominent position on the victim’s face.
He said: “The shoe was held in such a way that the heel was in effect a weapon. It may well be that style of shoe, a stiletto, has taken its name from a stiletto dagger.
“This is now the third case in the last few months that has come before me where a female defendant has assaulted a victim using a stiletto as a weapon.
“You must understand that while these shoes aren’t pointed like a knife, they are capable of inflicting serious and nasty injuries.
“This victim will have for the rest of her life as a memento of this incident a scar on her forehead.
“There will ultimately be a white mark there. If not heavily camouflaged with make-up it will be something that is readily noticed by all that speak to her.”
Judge Wright handed Van Hien 16 months in prison, suspended for two years, and 250 hours of unpaid work.
He said: “I am satisfied this was an isolated incident, a drunken episode isolated in nature, and maybe in part attributable to matters in your personal background, which I am not going to ventilate in open court.
“It seems to me there are particular items in your background, which might be why you consumed too much alcohol and acted wholly out of character.”
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/