Evil bitch escapes jail
The Aulgit choked over his corn flakes this morning, as he read the story of an evil bitch who was not jailed after jamming a glass into a man’s face three times.
Jenny Riding, 24, who is one of Scotland’s top female jockey’s and came second in the National Hunt amateur ladies championship (handy name she has for the business, wonder if its her own? ). might have lost control for a moment, and deserved the benefit of the doubt if she’d been provoked in some way, and unthinkingly struck out with the glass once.
However, that option should have been deleted when she decided that once was not enough, and while outside a pub in Crawford Street, Kelso, she rammed the glass into the man’s face for a second time.
And when she continued the attack by thrusting the glass into his for a third time, leaving him bruised and with a 3 cm wound requiring six stitches, the court should have locked her up without a second thought. That sort of attack is not a mistake, but a vicious and deliberate attempt to inflict serious pain and injury to the victim.
Instead, she trots out her trainers Peter Monteith and Dick Allan who said she was keen to get her life back on track and resume her promising career in the saddle.
I’ll bet she was!
Who wouldn’t rather play “little girl lost” and sit all miserable and doe-eyed in court, trump up some references from people with a vested interest in keeping her out of jail, and get a mere 200 hours of community services instead of a year inside for an attack that could have left someone permanently disfigure and blind for the rest of their life.
No wonder there’s violence on the street if this is best we can do when actually get our hands on one of the perpetrators – worse luck it happened to be one of the “horsey set” and was able to organise a “Get out of jail free card“.
And she has a history too, convicted of assaulting the man’s sister in 2002:
Jenny Riding, 24, of Allars Crescent, Hawick, struck Stewart McEwan three times in the face with the glass after he swore and called her a “smackhead”.
She admitted a charge of assault to severe injury outside the Red Lion pub in Kelso on 7 July last year.
Jedburgh Sheriff Court was told her career as a national hunt jockey was in the balance. Sentence was deferred. David Taylor, representing Riding, told Sheriff Ian Duguid that her future in the sport was in doubt. “She is a jockey – which is not a joke given her surname,” he said. “However, her future employment is pending the outcome of this case.”
The court was told Riding had a previous conviction from 2002 when she assaulted Mr McEwan’s sister by cutting her hair.
Juliet Petrusev, prosecuting, said that since then there had always been animosity between Riding and the McEwan family. She said that on the evening of the attack Mr McEwan had gone outside the pub and Riding shouted at him and told him he was a “dead man”. He had gone back inside but when he went out for a cigarette later she had started shouting and insulting him again.
“Mr McEwan swore back at her and shouted at her she was a smackhead,” said Ms Petrusev. “The accused had a glass in her hand which was either a tall spirit glass or a pint glass and she hit Mr McEwan on the face with the glass. He recoiled back and she struck him a further two times to the left hand side of the face.” The court heard that with the last strike the glass had broken, cutting Mr McEwan, and he had fallen to the ground. He required six stitches to a wound behind his left ear.
David Taylor, defending, said Riding had tried to apologise over the incident involving Mr McEwan’s sister but “those efforts had been rebuffed”. He pointed out both parties had been out drinking for some time and a significant amount of alcohol had been taken and both had been abusive.
Riding’s not guilty plea to a second charge of recklessly throwing a glass into the Red Lion and injuring a man was accepted by the Crown.
