A CHILDREN’S support worker who blinded his partner in one eye by hurling a handbag at her in a drunken rage has been jailed.
Two operations were unable to save the sight in Katie Gregson’s left eye, and she has been left permanently blinded.
Her former boyfriend, Christopher Bickerstaffe, 24, yesterday struggled to hold back tears as Liverpool Crown Court heard she was drenched in blood after the clasp of the bag hit her in the eye.
One witness said: “There was so much blood, her eye was like a golf ball.” Bickerstaffe, of Brookside Avenue, St Helens, nodded and closed his eyes as he was jailed for 12 months after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Judge Ian Trigger said: “You hurled that handbag in your drunken state with force at her. She was in a vulnerable position and immediately she sustained a devastating injury.”
“You caused a retinal tear to her left eye. She now has a total loss of vision in that eye, despite two operations that have been carried out by skilled experts.”
