A mother has been jailed for a sustained assault which left her victim with 53 separate injuries.

Jade Karen Cooney punched the woman five times to the face and then used a water bottle as a weapon to hit her again.

‘This was an appalling piece of violence,’ said Deemster Graham Cook as he jailed her for a total of 15 months.

Cooney, 33, had admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and resisting arrest.

The Court of General Gaol Delivery heard that police attended the defendant’s home at Cronk Grianagh, Strang, in April last year following reports of an assault.

Outside they found the victim with significant facial injuries who was attempting to use her phone but couldn’t do so as both her eyes were so swollen. Police body-worn camera footage showing her obvious distress was played to the Deemster in court.

The officer stopped a taxi which was leaving the area and found Cooney inside.

As he attempted to handcuff her, she pulled away and then scratched his face and pulled his beard.

Prosecutor Roger Karne said the victim had been friends with Cooney and had called round to her house on the evening of April 13 last year to speak to her about the possibility that she was pregnant to the defendant’s ex-partner.

punched

An argument ensured and Cooney launched an attack after her top was pulled down. She punched the victim five times to her face and then grappled with her on the ground where she hit her a number of times with the cap end of a 500ml water bottle.

The woman was left with bruising, swelling and lacerations to her face, with 53 injuries in total.

In a victim impact statement, she said that after the attack her face was so unrecognisable she didn’t want to upset her children and she was still left with an obvious scar below her eye. She lost her job and she felt so unsafe she had to move address.

Defence advocate Stephen Wood described his client, who has a 15-year-old daughter and three younger children, as a ‘lady that is damaged through no fault of her own’.

He said she had been diagnosed with complex PTSD and other health conditions but added: ‘That is not an excuse for the way she behaved that night.’ Mr Wood argued it had not been a particularly sustained assault.

But Deemster Cook said that an aggravating factor was the sustained nature of the assault, albeit not a lengthy one lasting a matter of minutes.

He said he did not accept that having her top pulled down justified the violence.

The Deemster jailed Cooney for 15 months for the ABH charge and for two months concurrent for the offence of resisting arrest.