Men are not the only perpetrators of antisocial behaviour and as the summer surge begins November saw news of three incidents of violence by women in Australian pubs.
Just past midnight into 5 November, a 24-year-old woman is alleged to have struck a 25-year-old in the face with a glass bottle in a Perth pub.
The victim was taken to Armadale Hospital where she received stitches to her face. The younger woman was arrested and charged with unlawful wounding, to appear in Armadale Magistrate’s Court.
Police were called to fight outside a pub in Ipswich. Attempting to arrest a man, a senior constable was allegedly attacked by a 22-year-old woman, who punched him in the back of the head, before kicking and striking a female constable as she was being arrested, damaging a police radio in the process.
Attempting to move another woman, aged 35, away from the area, she is said to have pushed a female sergeant backwards, causing her to fall and hit her head. The sergeant was taken to hospital with apparently minor injuries.
Both women have been charged with two counts of seriously assaulting police and obstructing police, the younger also with damaging police property. A 28-year-old man was also arrested, charged with public nuisance and obstructing police.
On Monday (28 November) a 23-year-old woman appeared in Rockingham Magistrates Court over assault charges stemming from an incident at a Kwinana pub in July.
A loud argument with her boyfriend prompted a female staff member to ask the woman to leave. She responded by throwing glasses around, smashing a glass door with a full bottle.
“Do you want to have a go bitch?” she asked the barmaid, before punching her repeatedly in the head and shoulder, and ripping out clumps of hair.
In Court her lawyer offered that she had experienced a lot of death and grief in recent years, and learned of her inability to have children, leading to problems with alcohol.
Magistrate Leanne Atkins was not swayed, dismissing appeals for a spent conviction, citing the woman’s previous spent conviction for throwing a full can in a nightclub that struck someone in the head.
“Being drunk was not an excuse. Ripping hair out from the roots is an excessive use of force.”
The woman was ordered to pay $400 restitution for the damage, and put on a Community Based Order involving supervision and program requirements for 12 months.