By James Atkinson
A woman involved in an alleged 'glassing' incident has been prohibited from visiting licensed premises for two years, despite the fact that a court acquitted her over the affair.
Following the incident in February 2011 at The Court Hotel in the Perth suburb of Northbridge, the woman was banned from licensed premises for 12 months under a barring notice requested by WA's Commissioner of Police.
She was subsequently acquitted of an unlawful wounding charge by the Magistrates Court in January this year.
But WA's Director of Liquor Licensing – which has the power to impose longer 'prohibition orders' to protect the public – nonetheless prohibited the woman from entering licensed premises for a further 12 months, making it a two-year ban in total.
She appealed the prohibition order to the Liquor Commission of WA on March 28.
The woman admitted that her actions resulted in injury to the victim however she claimed that it was accidental, a result of the glass in her hand slipping when she was in the act of throwing the contents at the victim.
She rejected the claim that she had deliberately "smashed the glass in the victim's face" as argued in the Statement of Material Facts put before the court.
But Liquor Commission chairperson Jim Freemantle said the fact remained that a violent incident had occurred and the woman was the perpetrator.
"Whether or not the glass slipped from [her] hand rather than her deliberately assaulting the victim with the glass, the outcome was that serious injury resulted to the victim," he said.
"[It was] an injury that would not have occurred if the applicant had not chosen to become involved in what, at the time of the incident, appeared to be a situation that did not involve her directly.
"In view of the spontaneous and violent nature of the incident, the Commission is not convinced the applicant may not react in a similar fashion if the same or similar set of circumstances arose," Freemantle said.
He rejected the woman's application to overturn the prohibition order.