‘Jealous’ woman smashed glass on her partner’s head in bar row

A WOMAN smashed a glass on her partner’s head during a drunken row in a bar, a court has heard.

Violence erupted after her boyfriend used her bank card to buy drinks for a group of female customers in the pub.

Zoe Matthews hit her partner twice to the side of the head, causing the glass in her hand to smash and leaving her victim with cuts to his neck, ear, and face. The 27-year-old later claimed her boyfriend had stumbled into the glass.

A judge at Swansea Crown Court told her the attack could easily have resulted in “catastrophic injury” such as the loss of an eye, and said using a glass was like using a knife.

Helen Randall, prosecuting, said the incident took place in the Six bar in Swansea city centre on the evening of November 28 last year.

An altercation took place between the pair before Matthews struck her boyfriend twice to the side of the head while holding a glass in her hand. Matthews was told to leave the bar and staff recovered a broken glass from a table.

The court heard her boyfriend suffered cuts to the left side of his face and neck but declined to make a complaint to police or to provide a statement.

Matthews, of Iscoed Road, Hendy, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm. She has no previous convictions.

David Singh, for Matthews, said on the night in question both the defendant and victim had consumed more alcohol than was usually the case. He said the complainant had bought drinks for a group of women in the bar using Matthews’s bank card, which was something the defendant “took issue with” – though her behaviour thereafter had been “inexcusable”.

The barrister said by her own actions the defendant had jeopardised a job she had worked hard at and given her lack of previous convictions, the contents of the detailed pre-sentence report, and a personal reference from a Councillor Beynon, he invited the court to impose a sentence which was not one of immediate custody.

Judge Paul Thomas QC said it was clear the defendant had been hopelessly drunk and that “consumed with petty jealousy” she had lashed out.

The judge said it was concerning Matthews had told a probation officer during her interview for a pre-sentence report that her partner had stumbled into the glass, which she knew was untrue.

Giving the defendant a 25% discount for her guilty plea, the judge sentenced her to 36 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months, and imposed a threemonth nightly curfew and ordered her to complete a rehabilitation course.

The judge added that the councillor who provided the testimonial for the defendant “quite clearly has not seen you in drink”.