Hot pie horror at Ladies’ Day
New mum is left with ‘napalm-like’ burns after chicken and mushroom snack is shoved in face
DANIeLLA Richards had been looking forward to celebrating the birth of her new baby with a trip to a glamorous Ladies’ Day race meeting.
As well as a smart navy blue and turquoise dress she put on a matching fascinator and set out to enjoy herself with friends and family.
But the day of fun turned to a nightmare when she was left with ‘napalml i ke’ burns after a drunken woman racially abused her and pushed a baking hot pie in her face.
Miss Richards, 29, was waiting in the queue for the toilet at Newcastle racecourse when she was attacked by Rachel Turner in July 2018.
She had been holding a chicken and mushroom pie as it cooled when Turner, 37, grabbed her hand and forced it into her face. The hot filling left Miss Richards’s skin so blistered she was too
‘Extremely hot, causing scarring’
embarrassed to leave home after the incident, which happened six weeks after the birth of her fifth child.
Newcastle Crown Court heard the attack happened after Turner had sworn at the new mum and racially abused her. Miss Richards said: ‘I could feel my face burning and I was trying to scoop it off. I was in a lot of pain. I could feel my whole face burning and boiling and it was up my nose and on my nose. It was completely unprovoked, there was no reason for it at all.’
Miss Richards was taken to hospital by ambulance and was treated at the burns unit. Her wounds have healed but there is permanent discolouration to her skin. Turner, of Newcastle, a dmitted assault after the attack in 2018 and has been given a suspended jail sentence.
Prosecutor Matthew Collins told the court trouble flared near the toilets at the venue during the event.
He said: ‘The defendant was outside and entered the ladies’ toilets. There was some confrontation with a number of other, completely unrelated females and the victim in this case turned around to say: “What’s the problem?” The defendant said: “It’s got nowt to do with you, you fat black b****” and pushed a pie, which the victim had been holding in her hand, into the victim’s face... the contents were so hot that they burned the victim’s face. Not, it has to be said, unlike napalm.’
In a statement Miss Richards, of County Durham, said: ‘I distanced myself from family and friends because of my face, I was embarrassed. I felt that everyone was going to be looking at me. I wouldn’t complete the school run or go to the shop for milk.’ She added: ‘I was worried someone was going to ask about my face... The assault happened during the school holidays and as a result I was unable to take my children for days out as I had planned, we remained in the house for a significant part of the time.’
Judge Penny Moreland sentenced Turner to nine months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with 200 hours unpaid work. The judge said: ‘You involved yourself in some sort of altercation in the ladies’ lavatory, during the course of which you used racially abusive language towards the complainant and then you took her hand.
‘She was holding a pie, from which she had removed the top and you pushed her hand towards her face so the pie made contact with her face and it t urns out i t was extremely hot and has caused her permanent scarring.’
Jane Foley, defending Turner, said: ‘It is a highly regrettable i ncident that has l eft the defendant feeling a great deal of embarrassment and shame. She is very sorry indeed.’