A YOUNG mother was like a pitbull terrier when she viciously clamped her teeth on to the breast of a female doorwoman from a Swansea nightclub, a court heard.
The horrendous bite attack left the victim so shaken, she subsequently gave up her job.
Sophie Godsall lost her temper outside Odyssey in Little Wind Street after drinking 11 pints of lager.
The violent early-hours incident was described when 22-year-old Godsall, of Calland Street, Plasmarl, narrowly avoided losing her liberty at Swansea Crown Court.
She pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm and was given a nine-month prison sentence which was suspended for 12 months.
Judge Paul Thomas QC also ordered her to pay �500 compensation to her victim and carry out 150 hours of unpaid work for the community.
Kathryn Jones, prosecuting, said trouble flared when doorwoman Sophie Jones was on duty at Odyssey at 2am on November 21.
After a fight broke out, two male colleagues of Miss Jones's were escorting a man out of the premises when Godsall began remonstrating with them.
When Miss Jones asked Godsall to leave the scene, the defendant lunged at her and outside the club the two women fell to the ground in a struggle.
After trying to butt Miss Jones, Godsall bit her hard on the right breast and refused to let go. She also pulled out some of the doorwoman's hair.
Nearby police officers who intervened heard Miss Jones yelling: "Let go! Let me go!"
Interviewed after her arrest, Godsall said she had drunk 11 pints of lager that night.
She told officers she was disgusted by her behaviour, adding: "I have never bitten anyone before. This was a complete act of madness — totally out of character."
The court heard that Miss Jones needed a tetanus injection for the bite wound around her nipple.
Tom Scapens in mitigation, conceded that his client had committed a "wholly unattractive offence".
But before she lost her temper, he claimed, Godsall had been acting as a peacemaker, "trying to defuse matters and trying to prevent matters from escalating".
Godsall, said the barrister, was the mother — and sole carer — of a three-year-old boy and the prospect of losing her liberty had been hanging over her head "like a very dark cloud".
Passing sentence after watching CCTV footage of the incident, Judge Thomas said Godsall had attacked Miss Jones after losing "all self-control and all sense of dignity".
He told her: "You bit her viciously on the breast, clamping on to her in a manner more akin to that of a pitbull than the mother of a three- year-old."
There had to be a custodial sentence, but the court was prepared to suspend it to take account of Godsall's genuine remorse and the fact that the assault was out of character.
Another factor, said the judge, was that a sentence of immediate custody would have a "disproportionately adverse effect" on the defendant's young son.
He directed that Godsall should discharge the compensation at the rate of �5 a week.
"If you can afford 11 pints of lager on a night out, you can afford to pay compensation," he told her.
postnews@swwmedia.co.uk
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