The victim of a Beechworth glassing has been left scared to go out in the town and is constantly scanning his surroundings, with a court told the man feared he would die after the incident.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Danielle Carew, 39, has admitted to smashing her champagne glass into the man's face outside of Tanswell's Hotel on February 16, but says she only meant to splash her drink on him.
Carew, a kindergarten worker who lost her job as a result of coverage of the incident, had a fractured history with the man.
The Wodonga court on Friday, December 1, heard there had been rumours in the town that the 39-year-old had said something bad about the victim's partner.
Carew's group and the victim's group came to blows outside the Hibernian Hotel on September 17 last year, with Carew punching the man during that incident.
The court heard the man had approached Carew moments before the February glassing, got up in her face, and said words to the effect of "I wasn't expecting to see your ugly dog c--- face here, I just wanna smash it".
Carew thrust her champagne flute into the man's face, causing "immediate and substantial" bleeding.
Carew didn't seek to help the victim, other than confirming that an ambulance had been called, and she left.
The man was taken to Wangaratta hospital and received stitches to a deep four centimetre wound.
"He thought he would die," Sergeant Liam Murdock told the court.
The man still has scarring from the incident and says he is disfigured.
He told the court through a victim impact statement he had changed his movements to avoid bumping into Carew, rarely went out, and became anxious.
"I'm always hypervigilant in my home town," he said, and noted on the few times he had gone out since the ordeal he constantly scanned the room.
"I feel my big smile has been taken away from me," he said.
Carew's lawyer told magistrate Ian Watkins his client hadn't meant to glass the victim.
"It was very quick and without thinking," he said.
The court heard it could have been a far more serious incident if the glass hit the man in his eye.
Mr Watkins had Carew assessed for a community corrections order.
She will be sentenced on December 14.
