Woman Jailed For Biting Her Cousin's Nose Off

A violent woman has been jailed for biting her cousin's nose off during an ugly brawl at a wake. Jodie Marie Rutley 'latched onto' Sherie Watson's face with her teeth in a brutal attack at Guisborough's Quoit Club in North Yorkshire. The 21-year-old - who was high on cocaine and had been drinking heavily - then tore off a chunk of her victim's nose as she was pulled away her by mourners. Rutley wept in the dock of Teesside Crown Court today as she jailed for 12 years for grievous bodily harm with intent, wounding with intent and two counts of having an offensive weapon. The two women clashed after Rutley took exception to Ms Watson brushing past her in the club on February 25, the court heard. They were at the wake of Jordan Dowson - who died aged 19 in a car accident - when they grabbed each other's hair. They then went outside where Rutley launched the savage attack. 'I could feel her chewing on my nose,' said Ms Watson, 23 at the time, in a statement. 'I tried to put my fingers in her eyes for her to release her grip, but it made no difference.' The victim said she saw blood everywhere after they were pulled apart and people told her Rutley had bitten off her nose. After initially running off, Rutley changed her clothes and came back armed with two kitchen knives, said prosecutor Sarah Mallett. As the injured victim sat on a wall being cleaned up and waiting for an ambulance, Rutley ran up with her arms in the air and tried to stab her. She thrust a knife towards Ms Watson's face, narrowly missing someone else's head. As Ms Watson fended off the blows with her hands, she suffered a nasty cut to her thumb before running into the club for safety. Ms Watson said the assaults had ruined her life and left her with a hole in her nose and scarring. In a victim impact statement made shortly after the attack, she said: 'I can't believe she's done it to me. My nose is going to take months of surgery to put right. 'I will be left with scars and will need skin grafts from my forehead to rebuild my nose. This will leave me with even more scars. I don't want to leave the house because people stare at me.' She added: 'I've still got a large plaster covering my face. I can't sleep and I'm feeling very depressed about what's happened. 'My four-year-old brother won't even look at me due to my injury and that has really upset me. Jodie was chewing on my nose and every time I think about it, I feel sick. 'This was made even worse because Jodie came back a second time and tried to stab me in the face. 'I still can't use my right hand due to the injuries I received to my hand during this time. I'm right-handed and I now can't do anything for myself. 'The other day I watched my mam cut some carrots with a knife. I instantly felt sick when I saw the knife as all I could think of was Jodie attacking me. As a woman I've been deeply scared by what happened to me. I'm struggling to cope with it all.' Rutley, of Saltburn, North Yorkshire, had previous convictions for assaulting PCs and a reprimand for violence. She was in breach of a suspended sentence imposed for taking a man's car while he stayed at her home following a party, leaving the car badly damaged and partly burned. Judge Howard Crowson told Rutley: 'By the time you both went outside for a cigarette, you were each quick to take hold of each other and a struggle ensued. 'It seems to me it was so swift that you both came together with such intention that you were both willing at that point to have that struggle. 'Each blames the other. It doesn't matter to me how it began. You had not attacked someone in a wholly unprovoked manner.' He said Rutle went on to inflict 'a dreadful injury' which would affect the victim for the rest of her life. He jailed her for six-and-a-half years for the nose bite attack and added another five-and-a-half years for assault with the two knives. He said: 'It's frankly unforgivable that you attacked her in the way that you did.' Sean Grainger, defending, said the women were biting each other outside the club and the nose bite was not premeditated. He said Ms Watson started a 'consensual fight' and tried to pull Rutley over a barrier after a verbal argument on a night when emotions ran high. He said: 'The defendant went far too far in what she did. But I submit that she was not the one who landed the first blow or tried to attack. 'Initially she was trying to defend herself but caused a much more serious injury. They were both using teeth. It was the way that the fight had developed. 'They were both on top of each other, close together, both trying to bite each other. There has been some history between the two of them.'