Emily Williams (left) was sentenced to five years in prison for a broken glass attack that left Natalie Arthurs (right) permanently scarred (Pictures: Wales News Service)
An Army reservist quit her role because she feared being mistaken for a war hero if people saw her scars sustained in a glass attack.
Mum-of-one Natalie Arthurs saw flesh hanging off her face ‘like a scene from a horror movie’ after a stranger attacked her with broken glass.
The 36-year-old had been out with friends at Peppermint bar in Swansea when 25-year-old Emily Williams slashed her as she applied lipstick in a bathroom mirror.
Permanently scarred, Arthurs told WalesOnline: ‘I heard a voice with an angry tone shouting something like: ‘Who do you think you are?’
Natalie Arthurs suffered wounds to her face, neck, chest and shoulder (Picture: Wales News Service)
‘I heard a glass smashing and I turned around and saw a woman with blonde hair and a glass in her hand.
‘I saw the glass coming towards my face. It was all so quick. I felt something cold cutting into my face. I knew it was bad.’
Williams slashed Arthurs again, grazing her shoulder and chest, as Arthurs grappled with her attacker.
The attack ended when her friend fetched help and the venue’s bouncers removed Williams.
Police attended the scene and arrested Williams, who a witness described as looking ‘possessed’ and like she was ‘cutting meat’.
Arthurs said: ‘I felt like someone was trying to kill me. There was such a sense of rage and anger in the person who did this.
‘I can remember looking in the mirror on the wall as we struggled and seeing flesh hanging off my face and nose.
‘There was blood everywhere like a scene from a horror movie.’
Arthurs was previously an outgoing person before the glass attack left her with permanent scars. Now she ‘cries most days’ and struggles to sleep. (Picture: Wales News Service)
Arthurs sat feeling ‘completely alone’ on the ‘cold and wet floor’ until a woman came in and helped stop the blood flowing from her facial wound.
She spent three days at Morriston Hospital where she was treated for wounds she says have changed her life ‘forever’.
A ‘deep, jagged wound’ to the left side of her face severed the saliva gland in her cheek and damaged a nerve.
The skin at the tip of her nose had been cut off, and she suffered wounds across her chest, shoulder and neck.
She remains under the care of Morriston’s burns and plastics department and faces years of further treatments and procedures.
Arthurs had been training to be a driver with the Royal Logistic Corps before the attack on Thursday November 17, 2022.
More Trending
But she reluctantly gave up her role with the Army Reserves because she feared people would mistake her for a war veteran who’d sustained her scars on duty if she was seen wearing her uniform.
She ‘despises’ seeing or touching her scar, despite having to touch it several times a day during rehabilitation, according to a victim impact statement read to the court by prosecution barrister Alycia Carpanini when the case finally went to court 15 months after the attack.
Arthurs worried people would think she sustained her scars as a hero on duty if she wore her Army Reserves uniform following the attack (Picture: Wales News Service)
Arthurs said: ‘For those 15 months I think I was in shock – like autopilot. It is only now I am coming to terms with everything.
‘I am going to have this scar for the rest of my life – I know that. In the past I always avoided conflicts and I felt like I was in control.
‘This has just knocked me and shown me you are not in control of what happens. It was a random, unprovoked attack done for no reason.
‘This has changed my outlook on life.’
Previously an outgoing person, Arthurs now ‘cries most days’ and struggles to sleep as she’s overwhelmed by anxiety and panic attacks.
Judge Huw Rees described the attack on ‘brave and resolute’ Arthurs as ‘wicked beyond belief’ during a sentencing hearing.
Williams denied slashing her victim and claimed not to know how the injuries were caused.
But the judge dismissed her version of events as ‘complete fiction’.
The judge said: ‘What you did to someone who was a complete stranger and someone you had no prior argument with was wicked. Wicked beyond belief.
‘The effect of what you have done is plain for all to see.’
He sentenced 25-year-old Emily Monica Williams, of Lady Street, Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire to five years in prison for inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent after a trial at Swansea Crown Court.
He also handed Williams a restraining order banning her from contacting her victim or posting about her on social media for the next 10 years.
Williams has no prior convictions, but she has a youth caution for possession of the drug speed in 2013.
Jon Tarrant, defending, said Williams was the sole carer for two young children and said references before the court show ‘a very different side’ to Williams than the one seen during the trial.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.