A SINGLE mother was spared prison after a court heard that she acted out of character by attacking another woman with a shoe.

Andrea Largue struck the victim on the head and face with the shoe heel, in the dance floor attack at a Consett pub, last July.

Durham Crown Court heard the incident took place shortly after door staff separated the pair, following an earlier altercation.

The injured woman was taken to hospital with various injuries, including a deep cut which required stitches.

Mark Styles, prosecuting, said Largue told police she "didn't know what came over her".

Eric Elliott, mitigating, said: "She did not intend serious harm and bitterly regrets what, in a drunken moment, took place."

He said that Largue, a single mother-of-two, also played an important role in helping to look after a relative's five-year-old girl.

Largue, of Broomhill, Stanley, County Durham, admitted unlawful wounding, and was given a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Judge Denis Orde told her she was clearly seeking revenge after the earlier incident, and deliberately armed herself with the shoe.

He said that it merited imprisonment, but he was able to take the exceptional course of suspending sentence, because of her circumstances.