Woman cleared of attack in city bar

By Staff Reporter

Last updated 12:09, Wednesday, 09 July 2008

A young woman has told a court how a bottle was smashed in her face while she was on a Boxing Day night out with friends in a Carlisle bar.

Danielle Griffiths said she needed hospital treatment to remove the shards of glass after the incident in the Litten Tree in Botchergate.

But the woman she accused of inflicting the injury – 22-year-old Kristy Andrews – was cleared of assaulting her when the judge at Carlisle Crown Court said a conviction would be unsafe.

Ms Griffiths told the court she was attacked twice by a woman wearing a red top with brown flowers on it.

First, she said the woman punched her in the face after accusing her of kicking her.

Then a short time later, she said, the same woman ran at her with a raised bottle, which she smashed against her forehead.

But in evidence Ms Andrews, of Pennine Way, Harraby, said that although she had been in the Litten Tree that night it was a case of mistaken identity because she was not the woman who had assaulted Ms Griffiths.

And her sister, Faye Andrews, and cousin Jacqueline Dalglish supported her claim that she had been dressed all in black, – in a T-shirt, waistcoat and shorts – rather than in the clothes described by Ms Griffiths.

And they said Ms Andrews would have been at home at the time of the bottle attack.

After the intervention by Judge Peter Hughes QC Ms Andrews was formally found not guilty of common assault and causing actual bodily harm.