Violent woman jailed after dog walk disagreement

Friday 12 April 2019

A woman with a previous conviction for assault has been given four months at Les Nicolles for attacking another woman at her home in February.

Zoe Haines, 31, was sentenced by the Magistrates Court yesterday, after being found guilty of another assault having last appeared on similar charges in 2017.

An argument occurred between the two women when the defendant came to the victim's home expecting to go for a dog walk that afternoon. The court heard that when the victim said she was too tired to go on the walk Haines 'did not take the news well'. 

The victim, whose children were in the next room at the time, stood up. She was wearing a coat at the time and Haines grabbed her by the shoulders and head butted her, she then pulled the coat hood over the victim's face and over her chin. 

Haines offered to buy the woman a new coat.

When Guernsey Police arrived, Haines told the victim not to tell officers what had happened, but the court heard she later found a quiet place to speak to them about the incident and Haines was arrested.

She admitted head butting the woman and holding a knife to her own wrists and threatened to jump out of the window shortly after the incident. 

Pictured: Guernsey's court building. 

Judge Graeme McKerrell said the defendant had clearly not been motivated to attend a programme to address her behaviour following her last charge for assault. 

"What really concerns me is the complete lack of understanding about how that affected [the children], no child should ever have to see that. You have no idea, you only think of yourself.

"You were assessed as posing a risk to children [in 2017], how has that changed, the answer appear to be not a lot," he said.

The Judge further criticised the defendant for not attending her programme in his summary speech:

"I'm struggling to believe that you will fully engage, I'm not sure you ever will"