Mum of two nearly killed when woman plunged stiletto heel into her eye in a row over a bag of chips
Sarah Horsman was left with facial paralysis after the thug smashed the heel into her eye on a night out
GETTING ready to hit the town with her mates, Sarah Horsman was feeling excited.
Since she became a mum, nights out with her pals had become scarce.
So as she got dressed up, she was really looking forward to dancing the night away.
But her dream turned into a nightmare when a woman used her stiletto to almost kill Sarah — smashing the heel into her eye.
Sarah’s story is a shocking reminder of how an evening of fun can so quickly go horrifyingly wrong.
Sarah, from York, says: “I just couldn’t believe what had happened to me on what was supposed to have been a fun girls’ night out.
“I’d done nothing to the stranger but, in her drunken state, she had turned so violent she nearly killed me.
“Now I’ll never feel safe on a night out again.”
Sarah’s story is becoming increasingly common in the UK.
A OnePulse poll found more than one in five women admit to being aggressive when drunk.
Sarah, a full-time mother, and partner Paul, 31, who is a cleaner, have sons Riley, three, and two-year-old Jaiden.
She says: “My friend and I have birthdays quite close to each other so we organised a girls’ night out in July 2015.
“I couldn’t wait to get dolled up.”
All I wanted was a much-needed night out with my friends — and now my life has changed forever
“We had enjoyed a great time, laughing and dancing, and when the club closed we went to grab a burger and chips before joining the queue at the taxi rank.
“I was tucking into my chips when a really drunk woman barged into me, sending them flying.
“As I looked at my food on the pavement, I said: ‘Thanks very much, I was enjoying them.’
“She then began screaming and shouting at me.
“At one point she even told me to eat the chips off the ground.
“She was threatening to floor me, as her friends tried to calm her down.
“I just rolled my eyes, I was irritated more than anything, but the next minute something hard suddenly hit my face.
“I then stumbled away from the taxi rank to get away from the woman.
“I thought I’d been punched.
“But everything went black, as I collapsed.
“I could hear people screaming my name as I drifted in and out of consciousness.”
Sarah was then taken to hospital by ambulance.
She says: “My friend told me the woman had swung her stiletto at me and into my right eye.”
A scan showed the extent of the injuries.
Doctors said if the heel had been a millimetre to the left, Sarah would have lost her right eye.
Two millimetres deeper and she could have been dead.
Sarah says: “I couldn’t believe it, all this over a bag of chips.
“The next day I had a metal plate inserted into the base of my eye-socket bone.
“Afterwards, doctors put a patch over my eye to spare me from looking at the black, swollen mess underneath.
My confidence has plummeted and it upsets me when my sons kiss Mummy’s ‘pirate eye’ goodnight
“I didn’t want to scare the kids so I explained I was a pirate now and everything would be OK.”
Sarah was allowed out of hospital after ten days, with the news that her sight was intact.
But she says: “The attack has left me terrified to go out.”
In August of last year Sarah’s attacker, single mother Tammy Craig, 29, pleaded guilty to wounding and she was given an 18-month prison term, which was suspended for two years.
Sentencing Craig at York Crown Court, Recorder Alistair Mac-Donald QC said: “It is clear that you had far too much alcohol to drink that night.
“But the consequences of jailing you would be absolutely catastrophic, as indeed the consequences were for the complainant of this case.”
Sarah says of the suspended sentence: “I was outraged.
“The judge was lenient because this woman is a single mum to two young children.
“But what about my two young children and the effect on them?
“I have a right and a duty to be healthy for my kids.”
And for Sarah, the recovery continues.
She faces further surgery, to maintain a replaced tear duct, and is being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder as she struggles to process her ordeal.
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She says: “I still suffer with watery eyes and get terrible headaches.
“The attack also severed a nerve, which has left me with facial paralysis under my eye.
"My confidence has plummeted and it upsets me when my sons kiss Mummy’s ‘pirate eye’ goodnight.
“Even leaving the house has become an issue.
“I make myself go out but am always really wary of strangers and feel anxious.
“The false tear duct lasts only around five years so I face a lifetime of operations to maintain it.
“But I’m lucky to still have my sight and am grateful to the doctors who saved my eye.
“All I wanted was a much-needed night out with my friends — and now my life has changed forever.”