Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Woman ‘blinded by hammer attacker’
Court told of women’s fight in street
A WOMAN told a jury yesterday how she has been left blind in one eye after she was struck “right in the eyeball” with a hammer.
The alleged victim was giving evidence at Belfast Crown Court, where her suspected attacker is standing trial on three charges after an incident in the Woodvale area of North Belfast.
Beautician Samantha Goldring denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent and possessing an offensive weapon with intent.
The 36-year-old, from Tynan Drive in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, claims she was acting in self defence.
The court was told the other female was so badly injured on Saturday, April 8, last year, she will need an artificial eye.
It is the Crown’s case that following an earlier incident involving the two, the alleged injured party called at Goldring’s house, which at the time was on Enfield Drive, looking for her boyfriend. She then smashed Goldring’s living room window after words were said.
The injured woman claimed that after she smashed the window, Goldring came running out of the house and struck her several times with a weapon.
When asked about the sequence of events, the alleged victim recalled it was the day of the Grand National, she and her boyfriend had made plans for the evening and when he didn’t return home by 5pm, she went looking for him.
Having been told he was in Goldring’s, the woman called at her door. When asked what happened, the woman said Goldring “let on she didn’t know who he was”. The woman explained: “I obviously kicked off, she called me something then I tried to put my foot in the door.”
The woman added she spent time with her sister before returning home.
She revealed she continued to try and contact her boyfriend on his mobile, and some time after 10pm, she saw him on the street from her bedroom window.
When asked what happened next, the woman told the court: “I wrapped my own window to see if he would look up. He ran on and I obviously knew where he was going.
“I went round and rang [Goldring’s] door and there was no answer. Then I just had a moment of madness. There was a magnet in my pocket. I threw it and put the wee girl’s windows in.
“She ran out... I didn’t realise she had a hammer in her hand. I felt a couple of blows but I didn’t go down. I thought it was just going to be a fist fight, so I thought, ‘Right, come on then’.
“She got me first, she had the hammer. I think I had her by the hair or something. I felt the blow to the head but I didn’t know what it was.”
The woman said she sustained several blows and can recall being hit “right in the eyeball”. She added: “I hit her back. She tried to grab me by the face, so I sunk my teeth into her hand. I was acting in self defence.”
The woman said the incident ended when her now ex split them up.
Goldring is due to give her version of events today.