Aspiring pilot, 20, who threw glass in ex-soldier’s face leaving him covered in blood is spared jail

AN ASPIRING pilot who threw a glass in an ex-soldiers face, leaving him covered in blood, has been spared jail.

Leyla Binns, 20, left Harrison Savage, with a three centimeter-long gash under his left eye outside a nightclub in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, on New Year’s Eve.

Binns, who was a pupil at the UK’s first air and space training centre in Newark, Nottinghamshire, got into an altercation with Savage after a row with a pal, Lincoln Crown Court heard.

Thomas Welshman, prosecuting, told the jury that Binns became involved after Savage reduced her pal, and his ex-partner, Emily Barker to tears.

The fuming aviator then punched and slapped the former soldier before throwing a glass at him, according to his friends.

Meanwhile, he said his first memory of the event was waking up covered in blood and surrounded by paramedics.

The witness reported that Binns, from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire,had apologised, though a policeman on the scene said that she had remarked that it had been “deserved”.

However, the prosecution accepted that she had only meant to throw what was in the glass at Savage, with it then slipping out of her hand.

The victim was hospitalised and required 11 stitches in his wound.

Binns admitted unlawfully wounding him, though the conviction did not prevent her getting a job at East Midlands Airport.

In mitigation, her lawyer argued that her actions were “out of character” and pointed to her stellar academic record.

Sentencing her, Judge Simon Hirst said: “If the glass had been in a different position Mr Savage may well have lost his eye.

“The way you behaved that night is much of the reason why decent people don’t want to go out in this city at night.”

He added that if she had thrown the glass deliberately she would have been handed a custodial sentence.

Instead, Binns was slapped with a ten month term, suspended for one year, as well as 100 hours of unpaid work and 15 rehabilitation days.

She was also ordered to pay Savage £1,500 compensation and £535 in costs.

Judge Hirst warned her not to return to the court for another offence or she would find herself behind bars.