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A young woman admitting unlawful wounding was let off by the court with suspended sentence as she was a hardworking descent girl (25 May 2012)

Date: 25/05/2012
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, A young woman admitting unlawful wounding was let off by the court with suspended sentence as she was a hardworking descent girl

Claire Stephens an accounts manager who attacked Rachel Spikula and left her fighting for her life after smashing a wine glass into her neck was allowed to go free after the judge described her as a ‘decent young woman’.
Stephens, 23, attacked Rachel Spikula a student after they knocked into each other on the dance floor at Club 49 in London’s West End.
The American national was rushed to hospital in a passing ambulance after suffering a severed artery in the assault in the early hours of June 11, 2011.
Prosecutor Gavin Ludlow-Thompson said the victim would have been in serious danger had she not been treated so quickly.
He said that it was only luck that there was an ambulance to take the victim to the hospital or else in the absence of immediate treatment she might very well have lost her life,’ he said.
But Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith spared Stephens from a jail term after hearing she was a ‘decent, hardworking, young woman.’
Handing her a ten-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, he said there was nothing to suggests that she had a violent history in fact it was the very opposite which was completely out of character he said.
Stephens, an accounts manager for a property and planning firm, had been out with friends at Club 49 in Greek Street, Soho, when she and Miss Spikula clashed after colliding on the dance floor.
While trying to shove Miss Spikula away, Stephens pushed the glass into the victim’s neck, cutting her with a jagged edge.
Mr Ludlow-Thompson said she was rushed to hospital and discharged after 18 hours, before being readmitted after her condition worsened weeks later.
Tests revealed the wound had caused ‘blood pressure problems’ and doctors were forced to operate to block off the artery. The prosecutor said in a life changing experience to the victim was left with only three arteries to feed her brain rather than four.
He told the court that she suffered from significant loss of concentration needing continual treatment and angiograms every year.
Following the attack Stephens left the club before confessing to a friend’s father, who told her to hand herself in to the police.
The defence lawyer, said the episode had had a ‘traumatic effect’ on his client.
He said she was now extremely quiet and withdrawn and practically never goes out, when she does she does not drink and she is often tearful.
Stephens, of Harlow, Essex, admitted unlawful wounding.
She was made the subject of a three-month curfew between 9pm and 6am, told to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay £9,100 in compensation as well as £500 towards the prosecution costs.

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