A WOMAN who was hoping to make friends in a Farnworth pub lost her eye after she was kicked in the face with a stiletto shoe, a court heard.

Katrina Coucill’s eye was so badly damaged that surgeons at the Royal Bolton Hospital could not save it following a dance floor fight at Ye Olde Three Crowns on August 24 2014.

But a jury at Bolton Crown Court heard how Miss Coucill was so drunk that night that she can remember nothing about the assault.

“Dancing on the dance floor is the last thing I can remember,” she said, in a statement read out in court. “The next thing I can remember is waking up in hospital in pain.

Hayley Rand, aged 29, of James Street, Kearsley, denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Michael Blakey, prosecuting, told the jury that, following her arrest, Rand claimed she had “brushed against” Miss Coucill with her foot, but said she had not been wearing shoes at the time.

Mr Blakey told how Miss Coucill and her mother had spent that Sunday afternoon sharing a bottle of wine at Daisy Hill Cricket Club before heading to the Higher Market Street, Farnworth, pub.

At 9pm Miss Coucill’s mother left, but her daughter stayed behind on her own, dancing and drinking several vodka and cokes.

“I had only recently moved back to Farnworth to live and so I was looking to find some new friends,” she later told police.

“I was in a good mood. I was drunk but I was still in control of my actions.”

She added that she could think of no reason why someone would want to assault her.

Outlining the case, Mr Blakey said a bare footed Miss Coucill was seen in the toilets at 10.45pm by bar worker Kirsty Cross, who saw that there was blood on her feet and assumed she had trodden on broken glass.

Miss Cross went to get a mop to clean the floor, but when she returned she saw Miss Coucill involved in a fight with Rand’s sister.

Mr Blakey said another member of the bar staff, Kieran Torkington, took hold of Rand, who was wearing stiletto shoes, to try and stop her kicking Miss Coucill, who was on the floor.

But his efforts were unsuccessful.

“She extended her foot and struck her in the eye,” said Mr Blakey.

The following day at the Royal Bolton Hospital consultant eye surgeon Simon Willis established that 27-year-old Miss Coucill’s left eye was so badly damaged that it could not be saved and a dozen stitches also needed to be inserted into her cut eye lid.

The court heard that although the injuries have now healed, Miss Coucill still needs cosmetic surgery to her eye area.

The trial continues.