A mother-of-two stormed into a pub and swung a hammer at another woman who her boyfriend had been ‘secretly cheating on her with’ while she was pregnant.
Kirsty Allen became so enraged when she heard about her boyfriend’s affair that she grabbed a hammer and went to the pub for revenge, Hull Crown Court heard.
Allen, 31, of Hessle, East Riding of Yorkshire admitted assaulting the woman, causing actual bodily harm, as well as offences of affray and possessing a hammer as an offensive weapon on April 5 last year.
She was jailed for 18 months.
The court heard Allen found out that her boyfriend had been cheating on her with the other woman while she was pregnant.
Emma Handley, prosecuting, said Allen first asked the other woman about it on March 13 last year but she did not make any threats on that occasion.
Then the woman went to the Fiveways Hotel on Boothferry Road in Hull with her cousin, when Allen stormed in holding a hammer.
Allen walked up to the woman, who was sitting with her back to her and swung the hammer at the side of her face, hitting her on the left side.
Allen shouted ‘I’ll do you in.. I will kill you’ as the victim screamed out in pain.
Mother-of-two Kirsty Allen, 31, pictured outside Hull Crown Court
She swung the hammer two more times as her cousin tried to restrain her.
‘Members of the public intervened to remove the defendant from the pub,’ said Miss Handley.
A family was seen fleeing from the area.
The victim went to hospital for treatment to her injuries, including swelling and a depressed fracture to her cheekbone and a 1cm cut.
Two days later, the woman was persuaded by her friend to call the police.
Allen was arrested on April 28. During police interview, she made no comment to all questions.
The victim later said that she had been severely affected by the attack, which was ‘completely out of the blue’ and ‘completely blindsided’ her.
‘I have no idea what instigated this behaviour or caused her to get so angry,’ she said.
The Fiveways Hotel in Hull where Allen attacked the woman with a hammer
She had trouble sleeping and needed sleeping tablets. She was scared to be alone at home. ‘I am worried that something like this will happen again,’ she said.
‘I am scared to be alone outside the house in general. I fear repercussions for me and my family. I am resorting back to nervous habits of mine.
‘I am normally chatty and outgoing but now I am constantly subdued. I worry about the emotional distress I am causing my family and friends. My social anxiety is back.
‘Mentally, I feel in a very low place. I never thought I would be the victim of such a vicious assault.’
Allen had convictions for 11 previous offences between 2008 and 2010, including assault when she was a youth.
The court was told that the woman who was the victim of the hammer attack was herself jailed by the same judge for 11 months in early January.
She had originally been given a 10-month suspended prison sentence on July 10 last year after she admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop for police and having no insurance and licence on May 12, 2023.
Sentence had previously been deferred in January last year for six months, again to give her a chance.
But she admitted breaching the suspended sentence by committing new offences of driving while disqualified, having no insurance and obstructing police on November 17.
Allen pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court where she was jailed for 18 months
Chaynee Hodgetts, mitigating, said that the dispute arose after Allen heard that her boyfriend cheated on her with the other woman while she was pregnant with her daughter, who was now aged 15 months. She also had a son aged 11.
‘The defendant is ashamed of what she has done,’ said Miss Hodgetts. Some injury was caused to the victim’s face but no surgery was needed.
‘She accepts that she should not have taken the hammer and it was a stupid thing to have done.
‘It was a household item rather than a weapon. She is remorseful for what she has done and does very much wish to draw a line under it.
‘She is under no illusion as to the gravity of what occurred.’
Judge Mark Bury said that Allen found out shortly before the violent incident that her boyfriend had been having sex with the woman. She claimed that the other woman had been ‘taunting’ her about it.
Allen swung a hammer at the woman’s head in a pub and CCTV pictures were ‘quite shocking’ to watch. ‘Appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody for an offence of this severity,’ said Judge Bury.
Allen, who had been on bail, was jailed for 18 months.
