LACEY Davison was glassed in the face with such force that the schooner shattered on impact, sending shards spearing into the left side of her face, severing the main nerve behind her eye and nearly stealing her sight.
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"I remember hearing people screaming and I felt blood running down my face and chest," Ms Davison said in her victim impact statement, which was read in Newcastle Local Court on Thursday. "I was in shock that someone could do this to another human. I honestly thought I was going to die."
She spent four days in hospital, had to get 57 stitches in her face and was told before a five-hour surgery that there was a chance she could lose the sight in her left eye.
And while Ms Davison will be left with the scarring for the rest of her life, the woman who threw a glass at her, Victorian woman Nikki Tupou, 28, appears set to avoid a jail term after a magistrate on Thursday ordered she be assessed to determine whether she is suitable to serve a 15-month sentence in home detention as part of an intensive corrections order (ICO). Tupou's solicitor, John Anthony, had told Magistrate Stephen Olischlager that while the glassing was "extremely serious", Tupou was remorseful, unlikely to re-offend and could move to NSW to serve an ICO and home detention.
Ms Davison and Tupou knew each other through Ms Davison's best friend and there had been no prior incidents before the weekend of the glassing in August.
Tupou was in Newcastle for a funeral and the wake continued into the early hours of the next morning before the group headed to the Royal Hotel at Waratah at 8am on August 31.
It was 9.15am when the pair began arguing and Tupou struck out at Ms Davison, who tried to swing back but missed. Then Tupou threw a beer glass at Ms Davison, striking her in the left side of the face. The glass smashed, causing a large and gruesome gash to her face and Tupou jumped into a waiting taxi. "Every time I brush my hair I am reminded of what the offender did to me," Ms Davison said as part of her victim impact statement. "Every time I look in the mirror I am reminded of what she has done. This level of violence is unacceptable and I feel angry and embarrassed that I have to live with these injuries and scarring for the rest of my life."
Tupou will return to court on January 30 to see if she is suitable for home detention.