A bitter lover who savaged her boyfriend’s former partner with a nail-studded plank in an unprovoked attack has been spared jail.
Michelle Harrison, 38, from Heathcote, near Warwick, hit beautician Sophie Moreton 12 times in front of the victim’s three children on August 1 last year.
The blows left her covered in blood with severe injuries including ligament damage and a permanent dent in her forehead.
There had been a ‘bad feeling’ between the two but Harrison’s ‘ferocious’ attack was unprovoked, the court heard.
Ms Moreton, from Leamington Spa, had taken her kids to Nathan Turpin’s home that morning, but he warned her his new girlfriend would ‘batter her’.
Graeme Simpson, prosecuting, said Harrison ‘then stormed up to her with a plank of wood with a nail embedded in it at each end, and a ferocious attack ensued and she was struck to the face, head and neck’.
‘As a result of the vicious attack, Ms Moreton suffered facial injuries and a number of puncture wounds.’
In a statement read out in court, the victim said her work has been affected by her injuries and she now suffers from nightmares and psychological trauma.
Harrison, who has five previous convictions for violence, admitted assault and was handed a 14-month suspended sentence as well as a two-year restraining order.
Her defence lawyers said she suffers from epilepsy and multiple personality disorder and was recovering from drug addiction.
She was said to have ‘very little recollection’ of the incident but has ‘regretted it from that day to this’.
The judge said her actions were ‘appalling’ but decided not to send her to jail, taking into account her ‘genuine remorse’ and ‘efforts you have made to change your life since then’.
Sentencing, Recorder Francesca Levett added: ‘It has been a close shave. Keep up the good work.’
Speaking after the trial, Ms Moreton said: ‘I’m outraged by such a lenient sentence.
‘The attack has left me physically and mentally scarred. She lives round the corner and I’m scared to go out with my kids in case we bump into her.
‘How on earth is she not behind bars?
‘She attacked me, out of the blue, with a plank embedded with nails. What more did she you have to do to get jailed?’
mrto
