Psychology student glassed a woman in pub toilet
GRINNING in her cap and gown with a flute of fizz in hand, Bethany Joseph looks like any other proud graduate.
But days after posing for this picture, the psychology student pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm, having glassed another woman in a pub toilet.
Miss Joseph, 20, faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison, as well as an unlimited fine. However, she escaped jail altogether and was ordered instead to carry out community service.
The glassing left her victim Frances Flanagan with a cut scalp, and followed a fracas which saw both women grab the other’s hair after a row in the queue.
The tussle broke out after Miss Flanagan told Joseph to stop pushing as others waited for the toilet. Teesside Magistrates Court heard Joseph was on a night out with friends in Yarm, North Yorkshire, on December 21 when she clashed with Miss Flanagan in the queue for a cubicle.
Joanne Hesse, prosecuting, said Joseph was in the town’s Hide Bar with friends when there was an ‘altercation’ with Miss Flanagan.
After the pair bumped into each other, Miss Flanagan told Joseph: ‘Why are you pushing? You want to be careful.’
Both women then headed to the toilet mirrors – one checking their make-up, and the other helping to do up her friend’s zip – when the fight broke out. Joseph, then a third-year student at Teesside University, told police after she was arrested: ‘I don’t remember who grabbed whose hair first.
‘I had a glass in my hand. I accept during the scuffle I let go of it and it must have hit her on the head. I didn’t mean to cause injury, but my actions were reckless about what injury could be caused.’ Miss Flanagan, who suffered a cut above her hairline, told police after the incident: ‘I’m very upset.’
Cheryl Ford, defending Joseph, said: ‘In her mind she was acting in self-defence. But the consequences could have been catastrophic.’ She said the conviction ‘will have a considerable impact on her chosen career’.
Joseph was sentenced on Tuesday – ten days after she posted pictures of her graduation celebrations on July 20.
She had initially been due to stand trial for causing grievous bodily harm with intent, which can lead to a life sentence in the most extreme cases. She admitted grievous bodily harm without intent on the day her trial was set to begin last month.
The court heard Joseph, of Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, had no previous convictions. She had, however, received a caution at the age of ten for a shop theft.
Magistrates gave her a 12-month community order, including 100 hours unpaid work, and ordered her to pay at total £385, including £200 for Miss Flanagan.
‘Impact on her career’