Mum-of-two sentenced after glassing woman in the face at Towcester pub

Northampton Crown Court heard that during a drinking session at The Old Talbot in Potterspury, near Towcester, Rachael Castleton, of Springfield Gardens, Deanshanger, had lunged her glass-laden hand into her victim’s face.

CCTV footage shown to the court showed Castleton attacking the victim following a disagreement between two other pub-goers earlier in the evening.

The victim suffered serious lacerations to her lip and her septum and other cuts to the remainder of her face. She has been left permanently scarred and is having ongoing treatment from specialist plastic surgeons at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Castleton had pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm without intent at an earlier court hearing.

The court heard how Castleton, 38, had been out in the pub in the village in which she grew up on July 7 last year for the first time since her mother’s wake. She estimated her intoxication level at ‘six out of ten’.

After the attack she left the pub with a friend then handed herself into an off-duty police officer friend the following morning.

In a moving victim impact statement, the victim told the court that she had been left scared of anyone holding any glass or of making sudden movements.

She said: “This incident still controls every day of my life.

“It’s been awful. I can’t make sense of it.

“I am left, every day since, looking over my shoulder.

“I’ve not been out socially. I now have to do my Tesco run when the store is quiet.

“Just inches higher or lower could have left my children without a mother.

“Several times every day I feel the pain of my scars.

“The stigma of a glass attack, I’ve since learned, falls into a certain category.”

The statement outlined how the victim had heard people talking about her when she dropped her four-year-old off at school.

It went on: “I’ve since lost my job.

“I can’t drive past there.

“I don’t feel safe in my own home.”

The court heard how Castleton, an occupational therapist, had two young children and a husband who were reliant on her salary.

She had only one previous conviction - for a shop theft many years ago - and none of her family had ever been involved with the criminal justice system.

She had expressed regret for her actions and admitted culpability at the first opportunity.

Castleton said that she would do anything to make the victim’s life better and to turn the clock back.

Recorder David Chinery heard how the defendant had dedicated herself to doing voluntary work since the incident.

The defendant broke down in tears as she was sentenced to an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, Recorder Chinery said that he had given the defendant credit for pleading guilty at the first opportunity.

He said: “This was a cause of great harm. It’s left the victim with permanent scarring and it’s left her with a good deal more emotional scarring. It has had an effect on her children.”

Castleton was also ordered to pay £425 in costs and £750 in compensation to her victim.