‘ Fragile’ woman who glassed a beauty queen is spared prison
A BUSINESSWOMAN who smashed a wine glass into a beauty queen’s face has been spared jail.
A judge told a sobbing China Gold that her “glassing” attack on Olivia Cooke during a pub row “crossed the custody threshold by a mile”.
But he said although Ms Cooke had been “profoundly affected”, a “strong list of personal mitigation” had allowed him to suspend Gold’s 18- month jail term for two years.
Gold, 28, was also ordered to pay Ms Cooke £ 7,000 in compensation, carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and was banned from any contact with her victim for five years.
Maidstone Crown Court had heard Gold grabbed the Miss England finalist and professional golfer by the throat and thrust her wine glass into her face, causing it to shatter.
She then pushed it into Ms Cooke’s forehead a second time, leaving her with a near two- inch cut to her forehead and glass embedded above her left eye, the jury heard.
Gold, who denied unlawful wounding, said she “instinctively reacted” after Ms Cooke, 22, allegedly hurled a glass at the back of her head outside The Farmhouse pub in West Malling, Kent, in October 2018.
Wounds
But the jury found Gold, who runs a vehicle recovery firm and a car body repair shop, guilty after less than an hour’s deliberation.
Ms Cooke, who attended Gold’s sentencing hearing yesterday, needed five stitches but went on to compete in last year’s Miss England final.
The court heard Ms Cooke, who is awaiting surgery to repair nerve damage and scarring on her face, had also suffered severe stress, anxiety and depression.
Ms Cooke, who teaches children golf, also feared disciplinary action from the Professional Golfers’ Association and the Miss World Organisation after they received anonymous calls that she had been in a fight, the court heard.
However, Judge Philip Statman said in reaching a
“fair and just” sentence he had considered Gold’s previous good character, her post- traumatic stress disorder, remorse and Covid- 19 restrictions within prisons. The court heard violence flared after Ms Cooke, of Barming, Kent, heard Gold make “crude comments” about her sex life during a night out. Judge Statman said Gold, of Ditton, Kent, was “fragile” from her mental health problems and severe depression from being bullied at school. But he told her: “The red mist descended upon you and you behaved in a way which was wholly unlawful, totally out of character, and led to these serious wounds being inflicted upon your victim.”
The court heard Ms Cooke’s mother Julie had admitted assaulting Gold when she arrived at the pub later and punched her in the face. She had received an 18- month conditional discharge in July.