Tuesday, September 02, 2008

YouTube fight girl given 'nights out ban'

A single mum whose brutal street fight with another woman was posted on YouTube has received a ‘nights out ban’.

Lisa Marie Smithies, 21, whose part in a horrifying late-night Burnley brawl was filmed on a mobile phone, has been stopped from going out every weekend evening for three months by magistrates.

Unemployed Smithies was handed a night-time weekend curfew by Burnley magistrates after they were shown shocking footage of the fight, which left the mum-of-one unconscious and with black eyes and bruising. She also needed seven stitches to her lip.

Warning: Contains extreme violence and NSFW language.


Magistrates told her they were imposing the sentence so that she was not ‘let loose’ in the town centre when other people were trying to enjoy themselves After the case, the town’s council leader and a ward councillor said Smithies had been lucky to escape jail.

Magistrates were shown the “appalling” video clip but were told Smithies was trying to help a friend who had been attacked, although her intervention had gone “horribly, horribly wrong”. Smithies, of Dalton Street, Burnley, had admitted using threatening and abusive language and behaviour. She was also ordered to pay £350 costs.

Andrew Robinson, prosecuting, said: “We see both women grabbing one another and rolling around on the floor, with no one getting the upper hand. Then we see Lisa Smithies getting the upper hand and [then the other girl] does.” He said the other girl had then rained down punches on Smithies and eventually knocked her unconscious.

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