A WOMAN who glassed a fellow pub-goer in the face has failed to get her conviction quashed.
Carley Dempster, 23, smashed a pint glass into the face of Paris Stuart in the Queen’s Pub, Grays, in October 2006.
She was found guilty of actual bodily harm by a jury, at Basildon Crown Court, last December.
She was jailed for a year, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to pay £340 compensation to her victim.
But her legal team argued before three top judges at London’s Court of Appeal – Lord Justice Gage, Mr Justice Silber and Judge David Radford – that witnesses at Dempster’s trial could not be relied upon, because they did not refer to her “very distinctive”, dyed blonde, fringe.
They also claimed the judge gave a “misleading” direction to the jury, concerning the evidence of a friend of Dempster’s which, they said, had “enhanced” her account of events.
The court heard it was the prosecution’s case that Dempster rowed with a girl in the pub, in Clarence Road, then threw a pint over her.
Dempster, of Wickham Road, Grays, also smashed the glass in Miss Stuart’s face, leaving her with a cut on her left eyelid and cheek.
At her trial, Dempster said she did not remember a thing about the incident and had “blacked out”.
In his ruling, Lord Justice Gage agreed that a comment made by the judge to the jury was open to criticism – but that was not enough to render Dempster’s conviction unsafe.
The appeal was dismissed.
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