March woman's jail term cut for glass attack

Jealous Zoe Pooley, 25, threw a bottle at Trudy Clayton as she danced with her daughters in the Griffin pub, March, in December last year, following a row about a man.

Pooley, of Peashill Road, was enraged because one of Mrs Clayton’s daughter’s “was in a relationship with a man with whom she had been having an affair”, London’s Appeal Court heard.

The flying bottle felled Mrs Clayton, who is in her 40s, and left her with a permanent scar on her forehead.

Pooley, who has a previous convictions for violence and for criminal damage arising out of sexual jealousy, was jailed for two years at Peterbrough Crown Court in February.

She had earlier admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm - but sentencing was delayed for almost a year because she was pregnant.

Lord Justice Davis, Mr Justice Spencer and Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing, onMarch 22 ruled her punishment excessive and cut her sentence to just nine months.

The court heard that Pooley experienced a difficult childhood and previously had problems with alcohol.

However her lawyers said she had pulled herself together since giving birth to her new daughter, who is in prison with her, and is now showing she has learnt her lesson.

Pooley’s barrister argued she should be freed on the spot, but Mr Justice Spencer said that would not be right, given the seriousness of her crime.

He added: “There were some powerful mitigating factors. This was a single blow. She had recently given birth when sentenced and endured a troubled childhood. She had not got into any further trouble in the period during which she was awaiting sentence.

“And she had to a marked extent turned around her life, as she accepted anew the responsibility of motherhood.

“We think that there are circumstances here which justify a sentence after plea of nine months’ immediate imprisonment,” the judge concluded.

The result of the court’s ruling today is that Pooley should walk free in June, having served half her sentence, if she is not released earlier on home detention curfew.