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19
Aug 2022
Woman who headbutted Harrogate nightclub manager spared jail
A woman who headbutted a nightclub manager, busting her nose open, has been spared jail.
Jodie Milburn, 19, butted the victim with such force that blood “soaked” the wall outside the Viper Rooms in Harrogate town centre, prosecutor Eleanor Durdy told York Crown Court.
CCTV captured the moment Milburn repeatedly slapped the named woman, who was assistant manager at the popular nightclub, situated in the Grade II-listed Royal Baths building in Parliament Street.
With her arms restrained, Milburn, of Mayfield Grove, Harrogate, then head-butted the victim who was bleeding profusely.
Ms Durdy described the drunken attack, on August 15 last year, as “prolonged and persistent”.
A witness said there was “lots of blood, so much so that the blue wall was soaked in it”.
The victim’s clothes were also covered in blood and she was said to be “stunned”.
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Milburn set upon the manager after what she claimed was an incident inside the club involving a man and one of her family members, but this “wasn’t supported by the evidence”, the court heard.
It was initially suspected that the victim’s nose was broken but this didn’t prove to be the case.
Milburn was arrested and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm but denied the offence.
A jury found her guilty following a trial earlier this month.
She appeared for sentence yesterday when her barrister Andrew Stranex said that an immediate jail sentence would scupper her hopes of working abroad.
He said she had a troubled upbringing but had done well at college, had good references from her employer and had a new job lined up overseas.
'Disgraceful piece of behaviour'
Judge Simon Hickey described the attack as a “disgraceful piece of behaviour”.
He told Milburn:
However, Mr Hickey said the incident was “clearly out of character” and Milburn had “strong personal mitigation” including good character reports.
The judge said that for those reasons, he would not be locking her up and preventing her taking up her new job abroad.
Instead, Milburn was given a nine-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay the victim £1,000 compensation “for the hurt and the pain” caused to her.
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