The well-meaning victim was trying to offer support to the attacker, who was involved in a confrontation with a man
Aimee Newsome attacked another woman in the street(Image: Hull Live)
A heavy-drinking woman repaid the kindness and concern of another woman by viciously attacking her during a nasty confrontation in the street after midnight. The well-meaning victim was only trying to help and she went over purely to offer support if it was needed and to check that everything was all right.
But her Good Samaritan gesture badly backfired and she ended up losing some of her teeth after twice being punched in the face, Hull Crown Court heard. Drug user Aimee Newsome, 35, of Westcott Street, off Holderness Road, east Hull, denied assaulting the woman, causing actual bodily harm on September 23, 2024 but she was convicted by Beverley magistrates in her absence on December 12.
She failed to turn up for the trial on time and it went ahead without her. Michael Masson, prosecuting, said that a woman had just left The Hilderthorpe pub in Hilderthorpe Road, Bridlington, when she suddenly heard a man saying “I will make sure that your kid will be taken off you” during a confrontation with two other women in Bridge Street at 12.10am. The passer-by was sufficiently worried to go over to make sure that the women were okay. One of the women punched the passer-by and Newsome punched the victim straight in her mouth, causing her to be unsteady on her feet.
Another man intervened to help the victim, pushed her to the other side of the street and tried to shield her but Newsome crossed the road, went round the man and punched the woman again. The victim had a tooth knocked out after the second punch and some dentures were damaged. “She had gone to seek to assist in the first instance,” said Mr Masson. “After the second punch, the police arrived on the scene.”
Newsome was in breach of a 14-month suspended prison sentence imposed at the same court on September 4, 2023 for burglary and assault. She had convictions for 14 previous offences, five of them involving assaults.
Georgia Bradley, mitigating, said that other people tried to stop Newsome assaulting the other woman. “There was no planning or premeditation and no weapon was being used,” said Miss Bradley.
Newsome originally denied the assault and she claimed that she was acting in self-defence by trying to protect the four-month-old Belgian Shepherd puppy Marley that she had with her at the time. “She thought that the woman had kicked her puppy but she accepts that she may well have been mistaken,” said Miss Bradley.
“She is fiercely protective of him. She was impaired by drugs and alcohol. It’s an over-reaction on her part and she is deeply sorry for what she did.”
Newsome realised, after seeing CCTV pictures, that she should have pleaded guilty and it was her intention to do so on the day of the trial before Beverley magistrates. She was, however, late setting off for court and the trial went ahead in her absence before she could get there.
Newsome, who has children, had been living in Beverley but moved to Hull in the last few weeks. “She is completely free of drugs,” said Miss Bradley.
“She is even free of methadone. She is free of any drug-management medications. She has worked on her alcohol consumption.
“At the time of the offending, she was drinking two bottles of cider a day, equating to eight cans. She has reduced that to two cans a day.
“She has reduced her alcohol intake drastically. She hopes to be somebody who doesn’t return to the courts ever again.”
Newsome, who had been on bail, was jailed for 15 months. The prison term included a consecutive six months for breaching the suspended sentence.