The girlfriend of a Derby County footballer has told of her ordeal after a horrific attack which led to hospitalisation and her collapse in a toilet in Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre. Keeley Carter, who is with former England U20 international Louie Sibley, described being rugby-tackled to the ground in Nottingham city centre when out with friends on June 11 last year, and waking up "covered in blood".
Her emotional statement was read out as a Nottinghamshire couple were sentenced at Nottingham Magistrates' Court for unleashing violence on Miss Carter and her friend, Cat Maltby, in Upper Parliament Street. After visiting pubs and going for a takeaway, Miss Maltby was involved in a verbal confrontation with a man who had said to her: "What the **** are you staring at."
As Miss Maltby argued with the couple, Miss Carter tried to get between them, but hairdresser Beth Wallace, one of the attackers, slapped her to the side of her face twice. Wallace's boyfriend, Kane Gutteridge, rugby-tackled Miss Carter to the floor and hit her to her face and body.
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Gutteridge's lawyer claimed it was Miss Carter who was shouting at the parties - and she was held back by her friends. Gutteridge, who admitted assaulting Miss Maltby and assault, causing bodily harm to Miss Carter, had witnessed his partner in a "physical altercation" and he wanted to protect her.
He claimed he was defending his partner excessively, and it was one strike to Miss Carter and further strikes to Miss Maltby.
Miss Carter had told in her statement she had managed to get to her feet - but was punched to the left side of her face - and again rugby-tackled her to the ground, knocking her off her feet and leaving her unconscious, the court heard. Miss Carter's lip and nose bled and her clothes "covered in blood".
Extremely dazed, she was taken to the QMC with her jaw and head in "excruciating pain" - but was told she had would have to wait eight hours in A&E. She went to the toilet - where she passed out and hit her head on the toilet, sending her blood pressure plummeting, and inflicting a deep cut to her lip as she fell.
She was kept in hospital until the following day - but the lasting effects of the attack had left her scared to go out in public, struggling to hear out of her ear. An updated statement, read out by prosecutor Peter Bettany on Tuesday (January 17), revealed Miss Carter is more "anxious over little things" and extremely wary around crowds, and has a perforated eardrum and lump to the side of her head because of her fall.
The cut to her lip left an indentation around her smile line, the court heard. Wallace, 21, of Wheatley Drive, Carlton, and Gutteridge, 22, of Cornwall Road, Arnold, were ordered to pay Miss Carter and Miss Maltby hundreds of pounds in compensation.
Midfielder Sibley had branded the attacker a "coward", and said another woman was involved in the confrontation, on his Twitter account at the time. Wallace went on to plead guilty to assault by beating both women at court and was handed a 12-month community order and 120 hours of unpaid work.
Chairman of the magistrates, Peter Walters, told her: "This would not have happened had you not crossed the road, do you understand that?" A crying Wallace replied: "Yes."
'My client's group saw the other group and something was shouted across'
Wallace, represented by Susan Gregson-Murray, said: "My client's group saw the other group and something was shouted across".
Gutteridge, a former shopfitter, was told the attack was nasty, and "you saw it on the video (CCTV), it was a whacking punch to a young lady in town", said Mr Walters. "You were in drink. This has got to stop."
He tagged Gutteridge for three months, between 9pm and 6am, ordered ten rehabilitation activity days, 120 hours of unpaid work, and a community order for 18 months.
"These two ladies you attacked were traumatised," added Mr Walters. "Imagine how they feel when they want to come into our lovely city at night and there are lunatics like you around.
"We want these victims to know we have thought about them today".
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