A mum has been ordered to pay compensation to the woman whose hair was yanked out as a Fife baby shower descended into chaos.
The attacker, 45-year-old Sarah Wilson, appeared for sentencing on Thursday for her part in the carnage at the party for her daughter.
During a trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, Wilson, of Kirkcaldy, submitted a guilty plea to one of the charges she faced.
She admitted that on May 18 last year at Lochore Miners’ Welfare Institute, she assaulted a woman by seizing her by the hair.
Her daughter Chardonnay, 20, was found guilty of assaulting the 61-year-old gran of the other family.
She was given an absolute discharge at an earlier hearing.
‘Regrets’
The trial heard there was growing hostility between the relatives of the couple throughout what should have been a fun family get-together in the village venue.
Light-hearted games such as ‘”baby bingo” were ruined by offensive comments fired back and forward across the hall and the bad feeling escalated to violence outside.
Sarah Wilson’s solicitor Stephen Morrison said: “This was a baby shower celebration that turned sour for one reason or another.
“She absolutely regrets the incident and she hadn’t been drinking that day.
“She continues to have a relationship with her daughter’s partner but not with the rest of his family.
“There’s no reason to believe there will be a repetition of this behaviour as she’s not likely to put herself into another family situation like this.”
The solicitor said his client suffers from physical and mental health issues, receives more than £2000 a month in benefits and is unfit to do unpaid work.
He conceded Wilson has two previous convictions for analogous offences and one of these was “not insignificant”.
Unimpressed sheriff
Sheriff Susan Duff recalled Wilson only submitted her guilty plea after the other mother, the victim, had given evidence.
She said: “Her evidence was that she was left with a bald section on her head as a chunk of hair had been pulled out.”
She told Wilson: “I do not accept your account to the social worker as to what happened.”
The sheriff ordered £500 compensation to be paid to the victim.
She told Mr Morrison Wilson would have to return to court to make sure the money had been paid, adding: “Your client’s face said an awful lot about what she thought of the sentence.”
Wilson will be back in court on November 5.
Family games turned sour
The court previously heard from Chardonnay Wilson, who said the event was a baby shower for her sister.
She said the two families were sitting at different tables and “at first it was fine”.
However, bad feeling began to escalate after a game called “would mummy rather” in which the question was asked “would mummy rather put a bottle on for the baby or open a bottle of wine?”
When someone from the father-to-be’s family answered the latter, “Chantelle got upset and everything started to escalate from there”.
She said: “My mum told her they could speak any other day but not to spoil the occasion.”
The court was told there was more arguing during a game of “baby bingo and allegations about various sexual comments being heard.
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