Woman hit with bottle in Dunedin still has glass shards in face

Alice Raffills was sentenced to seven months' home detention and 150 hours' community work over a serious attack. Photo / Rob Kidd

A woman who was bottled in Hawksbury Village last year still has shards of glass from the attack embedded in her face, a court has heard.

Alice Jessica Raffills, 33, pleaded guilty to disfiguring with intent to injure and the Dunedin District Court heard this week she had since met the victim and stressed her desire to repair the ructions that existed in the small community.

Police confirmed there had been no further documented disquiet in the village, 35km north of Dunedin, but Judge Peter Rollo said the pain for the victim was ongoing.

Over the weeks since the October 25 incident, tiny pieces of glass continued to come out of the victim's face and a scan showed there were more around her nose, cheek and eye.

Similarly painful, the judge said, was the concussion which had plagued the woman.

She had suffered dizzy spells, could not use a computer to study and was unable to drive to town because of her depleted concentration.

The victim, who was renovating a property just 100m from Raffills' home at the time, was known to her attacker because she had dated the defendant's partner a decade earlier.

They clashed when attending a gathering at another neighbour's home.

Raffills was using the prescription painkiller Tramadol at the time, along with alcohol — "a disastrous combination", the judge said.

In her intoxicated state she repeatedly invited the victim to slap her, and she obliged at least once.

Sensing the situation deteriorating, the victim then left.

But for Raffills, it was not over.

"The defendant was drunk and angry. Her associates were encouraging her to assault the victim," a police summary said.

At 1.50am, she followed the victim, a bottle held behind her back.

While Judge Rollo said that constituted clear premeditation, he also noted that Raffills fell over on the way, such was her intoxication.

It was the victim's partner who helped her up.

Raffills said she was going to "smash your girlfriend" — and she did.

She struck her across the face with the bottle, causing it to shatter against the woman's temple.

As the victim fell to her knees, trying to stem the bleeding from her face, her partner dragged Raffills away.

She remained aggressive.

"You deserve worse," she yelled. "I'm going to f...ing kill you."

Judge Rollo said there was a plethora of information before the court indicating Raffills had unresolved grief issues at the time.

References on her behalf spoke glowingly of her as a mother and friend.

Raffills had stopped drinking since the episode and was taking steps to address her opioid addiction, the court heard.

She was sentenced to seven months' home detention and 150 hours' community work.

The judge ordered her to pay the victim $2000, a figure which could have been more had Raffills been able to afford it.