A woman has opened up about how her life changed forever after she was glassed in the face by a man. The woman wishes to remain anonymous but has bravely allowed pictures of her injury to be published.
She says the violent assault has left her physically scarred for life and caused nerve damage to her cheek. Warning: this article includes distressing images of her wounds.
Her attacker, Harrison Gibson, was 18 years old at the time of the incident. He assaulted her with a broken glass at the Red Lion pub in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, after she threw a drink over his girlfriend during an argument.
Now aged 20, Gibson, of Hull Road, was sentenced to two years and three months in a young offenders' institute after appearing at Leeds Crown Court on Friday. He previously pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The shocking violence was captured on CCTV. Gibson had already hit the woman once before picking up the broken glass and striking her again.
The wound left on the woman's face after the attack required 10 stitches. She has spoken to HullLive about the heavy toll the incident has had on her mental health.
“I have been in hospital for self-harming,” she said following the court case. “He has ruined my life. I now have a scar down the side of my face and the cut was a millimetre from my eye, so I could have been blinded.
“The cut is down my cheek and it has caused nerve damage. I can’t feel anything there now.
“I had mental health issues five or six years ago but I overcame them. I met my fiancée and my life was perfect up until that day. I don’t really drink and rarely go out. That night was the first time we had been out for a while.”
The woman denied claims posted on social media suggesting she had been aggressive. She said the CCTV recording showed what had happened.
“I never threw a glass and if I had we would have all been locked up for affray, but the camera can’t lie. It was a stupid petty argument which turned into something so life-changing for me. I didn’t even know either of them.”
She continued: “It was nasty and the worst thing I’ve ever been through. I am now looking to appeal and I have already begun looking into that. I truly believe he deserves a longer sentence.”
Although the woman is relieved to see Gibson locked up, she has not been given the closure she hoped for. Instead, she says she has received abuse online.
She said: “When he was sentenced I thought then I could start to move on but then I just came across all these trolls,” she said. “I don’t understand how people can defend someone who was so violent. People have threatened to burn me and make my scar bigger.
“I will never get over this. I have a reminder of it every day and every time I look in the mirror. We went on holiday after two years of the pandemic. It was supposed to be a way of making memories, but people just looked at my scar and pointed at me.
“I am very close to my nephew and niece, but they screamed when they saw me and I have stopped going round.”
On Friday, the court was shown CCTV footage from September 24, 2021, that showed Gibson and a group of people at the Red Lion. The footage captured the argument between the victim and Gibson's girlfriend, and then showed Gibson smashing the glass in the victim's face.
Michael Masson, mitigating, asked Recorder Haslam KC to consider a suspended sentence and pointed out Gibson was a man of 'previous good character'. He went on to say: "Mr Gibson has sincere remorse above all. It's clear there were two groups of people. Mr Gibson is [sitting] in the corner with his partner. He isn't part of what causes the complainant to come over.
"In a moment of madness, he lost his temper, picked up a glass and smashed it in the face of the complainant." Mr Masson added: "It's a lack of maturity. He was 18 at the time of this incident. With a few years on him he might have had a few moments to take a breath."
However, Recorder Haslam was not persuaded to suspend any sentence and sent Gibson to the young offenders' institute.
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
