A blonde whose savage beating of a young Bury mum left her looking like a ‘Hammer Horror movie victim’ has walked free from court – after claiming she was so drunk she beat up the WRONG woman.
Shameless Tina Mullen, 33, subjected innocent 24-year old Amy Ferris to a vicious kicking in a ladies toilet leaving the mother of two bleeding heavily.
But she escaped jail after blaming her thuggery on a drinking binge saying she was so heavily intoxicated she did not recognise Amy – even though the pair had been friends for ten years.
Mullen – also a mother of two – claimed she only beat up the victim in a ‘case of mistaken identity’ after wrongly thinking she was a woman who had been having an affair with her ex-partner.
Yesterday a row broke out after Mullen – who is claiming state benefits – was given a 12-month community order with unpaid work of 150 hours. She was also ordered to pay Ms Ferris £200 compensation along with £35 costs.
Miss Ferris, also a mother of two from Bury, Greater Manchester who was a friend of Mullen’s sister said: ”She will be laughing her head off. Giving anyone a battering like the one she gave me warrants a jail sentence.
”But to give the excuse she was so drunk she got the wrong person shows bare-faced cheek. The reality is she left me looking like a Hammer Horror movie victim and yet she’s walked free.
”I thought she was supposed to be my friend yet she’s left me devastated and unable to sleep at night. Unpaid work will just be a day out for her. What is she going to do? Hang a few clothes up? If she carried on battering me I might not be alive right now.
“She has shown no remorse at all. My guess is that she will do this again.”
Bury magistrates court was told the incident occurred on December 14 after Amy had been enjoying ‘a girlie night in’ with friends.
She decided to go out and get some food with one pal at around 2.30am – but popped into Pics bar in Bury to have a Sambuca and coke while they waited for their food.
She went the toilet and came out of a cubicle to be confronted by Mullen who was drunk and on a boozy Christmas party with friends.
Miss Linda Bainbridge, prosecuting, said Mullen suddenly punched Miss Ferris in the face, knocking her over on her back. As she lay on the ground Mullen continued to punch her as she laid there.
“She recalls this defendant kicking her to the head,” said Miss Bainbridge. ”She was not letting up. A member of staff assisted and she was taken to hospital.”
The bloodied and bruised victim, who has a son aged six and a daughter aged four, suffered cuts on the inside of her lip and initially feared her nose was broken. She also suffered a seizure in hospital.
An onlooker stopped to help Miss Ferris and took a picture of her injuries.
Mullen of Woodhill Road, Bury, who is the sole carer of her two young children, arranged to attend a police station the following morning after the ‘true identity’ of the woman she attacked was discovered.
She pleaded guilty to assault by beating. In mitigation her lawyer Andrew Cowan said: “Miss Mullen was out with up to one hundred people on a work’s party.
“A friend told her that a lady, who was said to be having an affair with Miss Mullen’s ex partner, had gone into the toilet of the bar. Miss Mullen said she had so much to drink and she is not a person who often drinks much at all.
“She says she lost her head and she does not know what came over her. When she realised what she had done she was mortified.
“Miss Mullen handed herself in to police and made full admissions without a solicitor present. It was a case of mistaken identity and that is her excuse for doing this.”
Passing sentence chairman of the bench Andrew Nowell said: “This was a very vicious and unprovoked attack on an innocent person.”
After the case Miss Ferris added: ”I feel lucky to be alive as there must have been up to 40 blows to my head. “She didn’t say a word during the attack – she just kept hitting me.
”I was left on the floor in a pool of blood. I managed to crawl out although I’m not sure if I had been knocked out for a few minutes.
”All I keep thinking about is how glad I am that I had hardly anything to drink. If I was drunk I could have been left brain damaged or killed. I have also had to explain to my children why mummy had those injuries.”
“I can’t sleep at night until 5am then I am up with the children at 7am. I am absolutely disgusted with the sentencing.”
Image courtesy of GoogleMaps, with thanks
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