Woman punished with community service for Seven Mile Beach wedding wine glass attack

A Hobart woman who threw her wine glass at her nemesis during a heated argument at a family wedding, cutting her face open, has been sentenced in court.

• Woman who glassed sister-in-law at wedding says it was accidental
• Glassing attack by Adrian Michael Johnson left victim’s face ‘split open’

IT WAS at a wedding reception by the beach that a feud between a Hobart woman and her sister-in-law turned bloody.

Centrelink employee Emma-Kate Gray and her sister-in-law already had a volatile relationship characterised by “ongoing animosity”.

Then during October 2018, the pair was at a family member’s wedding at Seven Mile Beach when a heated argument broke out between them.

In anger, the victim threw the contents of her wine glass into Gray’s face.

Gray retaliated and threw her own wine back at her nemesis – but said she “lost her grip” and the wine glass itself slipped from her hand, gashing open her victim’s cheek.

She was taken by ambulance to the Royal Hobart Hospital, where her face was operated on under general anaesthetic.

The Supreme Court of Tasmania heard Gray didn’t intend to hit the woman with her glass, and didn’t foresee that she would be injured.

“Police were called. When they arrived they were told the complainant was in the bathroom. They located her sitting on a chair. She had a towel to her face and she told police that she was injured, and that you were responsible for those injuries,” Justice Gregory Geason said while sentencing.

“You were located in the rear courtyard of the venue and observed to be intoxicated. You made a number of abusive comments relating to the complainant.

“As a result of the injury, the complainant has a scar on her right cheek and ongoing numbness.”

The judge said he accepted Gray was remorseful and that her behaviour was out of character.

“This episode stands as a good example of excessive alcohol consumption leading to behaviour which would not ordinarily have occurred. I do not think you will repeat it,” he said.

Gray, who pleaded guilty to one count of assault, was sentenced to a two-year community correction order, during which she must perform 70 hours of unpaid community work.

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