Morgan Morris-Eyles sentenced to home detention for glassing family friend at engagement party

A drunk woman smashed a pint glass into the neck of a family friend at the start of an attack sparked by a reaction to a remark about her own child, a court has heard.

Morgan Morris-Eyles. Picture: Supplied.

A drunk woman glassed a family friend in the neck in a “vicious and unprovoked” attack on her first evening out without her children in two years, a court has heard.

Morgan Mary Morris-Eyles, 27, glassed the victim – smashing a pint glass on her neck, then striking her again with the broken glass – after the victim confronted Morris-Eyles for making a remark about her own Autistic child.

Morris-Eyles pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated causing harm with intent to cause harm over the April 8, 2022, incident which unfolded at an engagement party held at the Wellington Hotel, in Wellington, about 100km south east of Adelaide.

In sentencing, District Court Judge Joana Fuller said Morris-Eyles had been “very drunk” at the time and had “little memory” of the attack, but identified herself when police showed her CCTV of the incident.

“You made a comment about your three-year-old child being retarded and the victim confronted you about what you said,” Judge Fuller said.

“Your offending was vicious and unprovoked. You struck your victim, not once, but a second time after the first blow broke the pint glass you used as a weapon.

“The victim had done nothing to warrant a violent reaction from you, let alone one so unexpected and vicious.”

Morgan Morris-Eyles

Morgan Morris-Eyles

The victim suffered multiple wounds, three of which required stitches. She now has visible scars.

“Her physical injuries were compounded by the pain of sleeping with stitches in her neck and jaw and the memory of having injections in her face and pieces of glass removed from the wounds,” Judge Fuller said.

Morris-Eyles had also required surgery to repair a tendon and nerve in her right hand.

Judge Fuller said the incident had caused a rift between Morris-Eyles and other family members.

She said since the incident Morris-Eyles, who is the sole carer of her three children, had engaged in counselling and kicked her alcohol addiction.

Judge Fuller said one of her children had Autism requiring “very substantial support” and that jailing Morris-Eyles would “seriously disadvantage” the child, making her case “exceptional and extreme”.

She said her offending was too serious to impose anything other than a jail term but ordered it be served on home detention given the likely impact on the child and other factors including her “impressive efforts” toward rehabilitation.

Judge Fuller set a head sentence of three years, with a non-parole period of 18 months.