Spared jail: Yob who pushed woman down stairs, causing injuries which made her ‘feel like a freak’

Steven Mcgill, 34, was pushing and pulling Rebecca Cullerton outside his address as part of horseplay when he went too far and she fell back down the stairs.

Miss Cullerton was left with a number of injuries, including a large laceration between her lip and her nose, a broken nose, a large friction burn to her forehead, soft tissue damage to her shoulder and burns and bruises to both legs.

Julie Clemitson, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court how Mcgill had been drinking before he pushed her down the staircase on September 8.

She said: “There was pushing and pulling. She refers to a joke going too far.

“This clearly resulted in the immediate aftermath in a significant change in her appearance. What she described is the incident has made her feel deformed.

“She doesn’t want to go out in public as people will look at her and think she is a freak. She certainly doesn’t want to see this defendant again. She is scared to go anywhere near the defendant again.”

Mcgill pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm at a previous hearing.

The stairs were described in court as ‘stairs usually found in council flats, a concrete construction’.

Paul Currer, defending, said: “In the immediate aftermath of this offending he was completely filled with horror at the extent of the injuries.”

Mr Recorder David Dobbin sentenced Mcgill, of Bankhead Terrace, Fencehouses, Houghton-le-Spring, to six months in prison, suspended for two years.

He also ordered Mcgill to pay £1,000 in compensation to his victim, who estimated she had around 35 stitches after suffering the injuries.