THE friend of a former topless model last night said she was attacked by her because she had a breast enlargement operation.

Durham Crown Court heard how Kerry McCormack, 22, launched a vicious attack in a nightclub that left Hayley Marsden, 22, scarred for life.

Last night, Ms Marsden said the incident took place as she showed off her new curves.

In 2001, McCormack, of County Durham, became The Sun newspaper's Miss Cleavage.

But after she won, her modelling career failed to take off and she and Ms Marsden developed a bitter rivalry.

Last night, Ms Marsden said: "I think she is jealous of my looks. I had just had a boob job and was looking better than I had for quite a while."

McCormack admitted grievous bodily harm and will be electronically tagged.

The court heard how she punched her childhood best friend's cheek and eye-socket in the attack. She hit Ms Marsden so hard she broke a knuckle.

McCormack was also given a 9pm to 8am curfew and was ordered to pay £4,000 compensation.

After she left Ms Marsden seriously injured on the floor of Trades nightclub, in Consett, McCormack, who had been drinking vodka, went to another pub.

The pair were no longer friendly with each other, but were best friends when they attended Blackfyne Comprehensive School, in Consett, and went on holiday to Ibiza together.

McCormack had helped comfort Ms Marsden as she battled rheumatoid arthritis.

And it was Ms Marsden who encouraged her in her topless modelling career.

Sentencing McCormack, of Watling Street, Leadgate, near Consett, to a six-month curfew John Milford told her: "I have thought long and hard about whether I should send you straight to prison, but it seems to me there is an alternative to custody."

Speaking from her home in Blackhill, Consett, Ms Marsden said: "We had begun to drift apart about two years ago due to a few things that were happening, but I did not think there was any animosity between us. We never fell out, we just didn't speak. It was just the odd hello and a smile.

"I do not feel the same about myself; it knocks your confidence, you see something different when you look in the mirror.

"I never want to see her again, but the chances are we will bump into each other.

"There is no chance we will ever mend the friendship."

McCormack has gone into business running a tanning salon. As a teenager, she beat off competition from Page Three star Michelle Marsh to the title of The Sun's Miss Cleavage 2001, after a reader's vote.

Penny Moreland, in mitigation, said: "Miss McCormack accepts she clearly overreacted and struck her with one blow and, because of the ring she was wearing, it had these consequences.

"She acknowledges she must cease her behaviour of this sort."