Mum hit woman with wine bottle
A mother with a record for violence smashed a wine bottle over a woman’s head after accusing her of sleeping with her boyfriend.
Maidstone Crown Court heard how Collette O’Flaherty left her victim covered in blood in the street attack.
Her lawyer made a plea for a suspended sentence so she could try to win back her two children, who are in foster care, but she was jailed for 19 months.
O’Flaherty, of Victoria Road, Chatham, was given an indeterminate sentence in 2011 with a minimum of three years after she armed herself with a loaded pistol. In February, she was with a friend in New Road, Chatham, when she saw the victim and accused her of having sex with her partner.
There was a heated exchange before the mother- of- two punched the other woman in the face, twice. O’Flaherty, 28, took out a wine bottle and struck the woman with it, after the victim tried to defend herself.
The victim was treated in hospital for an open wound to her scalp, which was glued. She also had bruising to the side of her face.
O’Flaherty, who had 12 previous court appearances for 19 offences denied assault causing actual bodily harm but changed her plea to guilty.
She had a previous conviction for a similar offence having again accused the victim of sleeping with her then boyfriend. Passing sentence, Judge David Griffith-Jones said: “This was a disgraceful offence.”