Sacha Olivia Butlin was sentenced to 240 hours of community service, banned from licensed premises for one year and ordered to pay her victims a total of £3,100 in compensation. The court also imposed a restraining order preventing her from approaching the three victims for five years.
The defendant was in Vittoria nightclub on 8 March last year when she slapped one woman as well as punching and slapping another.
She appeared in the Royal Court yesterday charged with grave and criminal assault and three counts of common assault.
Her offending spree began at 12.33am on the night in question when one of the victims – a woman known to the defendant – was walking towards the exit of the nightclub. The defendant approached her from behind and kicked towards her before slapping her in the face.
The victim claimed that the defendant was verbally abusive and raised her middle finger to her. A man who saw the assault stepped between Butlin and the woman but was also then slapped by her.
Around ten minutes later, after all those involved had moved inside the nightclub, a third woman saw the defendant squaring up to her friends and attempted to intervene but was then punched in the face, causing her nose to bleed.
At this time, the man who had earlier tried to intervene stepped in to separate the injured woman from Butlin. However, the defendant then struck him in the face with a glass with enough force to cause it to smash.
Crown Advocate Julian Gollop, prosecuting, said the man was bleeding, described his vision going blurry and was taken to a nearby booth where he was given first aid.
Shortly before 2am, Butlin tried to leave the nightclub but was stopped by door staff. As police were arresting her, she told them: ‘I didn’t do anything.’ She had blood on both of her hands.
After leaving hospital, the injured man was examined by a police doctor who noted that he had three ‘deep incised wounds above and through his left eyebrow’.
Advocate Gollop described Butlin as launching an ‘unprovoked’ attack and being ‘the aggressor’ before moving for a sentence of 18 months. He added that she admitted to drinking ‘half a bottle of vodka’ that night.
But Advocate David Steenson, defending, pointing to Butlin’s young age and how she had not previously committed a violent offence, called on the court to impose a non-custodial sentence. He added that his client had not realised she had been holding a glass when she had ‘flailed’ her arms. He also pointed to a statement provided by an independent witness who claims that he saw the victim of the glassing heading towards Butlin prior to the incident and was so concerned that an attack was about to happen that he grabbed him and put him in a choke hold.
‘Not only did Miss Butlin not know she had a glass in her hand at the relevant time but she was frightened that [the glassing victim] was approaching her,’ he said.
‘This was not just a coincidental excuse. It was something that was corroborated. Despite this, Miss Butlin accepts she should not have flailed her arms out.’
The Deputy Bailiff, Robert MacRae, was sitting with Jurats Collette Crill and David Hughes.
