AN attacker who left her victim needing 200 stitches after she thrust a glass into her eye has been found not guilty of acting with intent.

Bridie Snowdon had admitted wounding Terri Gallagher, 21, during the incident at Idols in Sunderland city centre on August 15 last year, but denied the more serious charge of wounding with intent.

During her trial at Newcastle Crown Court, the 19-year-old said she lashed out instinctively in the mistaken belief she was about to be attacked first.

At the close of the prosecution case yesterday, the teenager's barrister, Glen Gatland, submitted to the judge there had not been enough evidence for her to be convicted of wounding with intent.

And after prosecutors did not oppose the suggestion, Mrs Recorder Buckingham ordered the jury to deliver a not guilty verdict.

Mr Gatland had told the court how Snowdon had been the subject of a vicious attack in Sunderland city centre a few months earlier, when a gang of about ten had tried to bite off her eyebrow.

As a result Snowdon, of Abbercorn Road, Farringdon, had lashed out at Ms Gallagher in the belief she needed to defend herself.

Snowdon, who has no previous convictions, will be sentenced for the lesser charge of wounding in about three weeks.

She was granted conditional bail.