‘How come I’m the guilty one?’

Court for woman who was punched unconscious

A burly reveller knocked a middle-aged woman out cold – yet police arrested her.

The stranger walked up to Shirley Dooley, who didn’t know him, and punched her so hard she was unconscious for five minutes.

But it was Dooley who was brought to court, a decision labelled “appalling” by her solicitor who said her assailant had faced no action.

At Scarborough Magistrates’ Court, she was handed a conditional discharge after admitted using threatening words and behaviour inside The Sun Inn, prior to her attack. She was also ordered to pay £250 costs.

But speaking after Thursday’s hearing, the 46-year-old said: “It’s a miscarriage of justice.”

The court heard how the former alcoholic, of Church Stairs Street, had gone out to walk her dogs when she broke five years of sobriety by having some wine with a friend.

This mixed with prescription pills, creating a cocktail which left her “very drunk”.

Her subsequent rowdy antics inside the St Thomas Street pub caught the eyes of bouncers, who told her to leave.

But Dooley “kicked out”, taking her shoes off and adopting what the court heard was a fighting stance.

But it was at this point the mystery man floored her, with the blow captured on CCTV.

The court heard that Dooley lay outside the pub for five minutes. Paramedics finally came but Dooley refused treatment after coming around.

However, after being persuaded to go to the police the next day to report the attack, she was astonished when she was arrested.

“I admit my behaviour was out of order, but what kind of man does something like that?’ she said.

“They showed me the footage at the station and while I admit I was drunk, that man’s behaviour was disgusting.”

The Scarborough News requested a copy of the footage from the Crown Prosecution Service, but they declined, claiming it may hinder any future prosecutions centring around the August 10 incident.

But at court, her solicitor Robert Vining blasted the decision to prosector his client and not her mystery assailant.

“The punishment she received...to be dragged by the hair backwards to the ground and punched to the point that she was unconscious - I can’t see how anyone can say that behaviour is reasonable,” he said. “But yet nothing has happened.”