British beauty therapist Natalie Simpson has been jailed for two years for slashing another woman’s face with a champagne glass.

Simpson, 25, pleaded guilty earlier this year to wounding the victim, 31-year-old Alexandra Wheatley, during a fight at a New Year’s Eve party.

Director of Public Prosecutions Rory Field described the incident as a vicious, unprovoked attack with a potentially lethal weapon, but defence lawyer Marc Daniels countered that Simpson was a genuinely good person who made a horrible mistake.

The court heard that at around 12.30am on January 1, 2014, both Simpson and Ms Wheatley were attending the Champagne Party at the lower floor of Pier 6 on Front Street. While at the bar, Ms Wheatley met and began to talk James Henderson, Simpson’s boyfriend.

Prosecutors said Simpson confronted Ms Wheatley and threw the contents of her glass of champagne at the victim. Ms Wheatley told police the next thing she could remember was Simpson striking her below the nose with her glass, which shattered after impact slashing her face.

The court heard the attack left Ms Wheatley with a deep laceration on her upper and lower lip which required multiple sutures to treat and left a facial scar.

A bystander told police he then heard Simpson say: “I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t mean to do it. I’m going to go to prison.”

Simpson then left the party, and later that morning both she and her boyfriend flew to New York for a planned vacation. Simpson was arrested in her home on January 8, a day after she returned to Bermuda.

Simpson admitted injuring Ms Wheatley when questioned, telling officers: “I just threw the glass around James and it hit her. I immediately knew it was wrong and just left the place.”

She also told police that she had been drinking heavily on the night of the attack, having around ten glasses of champagne and five shots.

Mr Field said her actions after the attack — leaving the party and then going on vacation — showed a lack of empathy for the victim, calling for a sentence of between two and four years behind bars.

However Mr Daniels said Simpson only learned the full extent of what she had done after she had already left the Island, and had contacted police as soon as she returned to Bermuda.

And while he said Simpson fully admitted her wrongdoing, he argued that there had been an element of “quasi-provocation” — that after Simpson threw her drink at Ms Wheatley, the victim had attempted to punch her, grazing her chin.

Noting the statements of three character witnesses, Mr Daniels described his client as a genuinely good person who made an error of judgement due to alcohol and emotion, adding that she was very remorseful and willing to make reparations to cover Ms Wheatley’s medical expenses.

Mr Daniels also said that Simpson has stopped drinking in the aftermath of the incident, saying: “This night has changed her.”

Simpson herself told the court: “I never, ever meant to hurt her like that. I’m not a danger to society. This was a big mistake, the biggest mistake of my life. I love Bermuda and I love my job. I’m just genuinely sorry.”

Delivering her sentence, Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons challenged Simpson’s version of events, saying she would need to have the strength of a professional baseball player to cause the injuries to Ms Wheatley by throwing the glass.

And, based what Simpson was heard to say immediately after the attack, Mrs Justice Simmons argued that the defendant must have known the injuries she caused were serious.

“You ran away from the scene,” Mrs Justice Simmons said. “You them took off from the Island for a pleasure trip well knowing that you committed a serious crime.”

She also said that similar attacks are becoming more common in Bermuda, and the message must be sent that such attacks will not be tolerated by the courts.

Noting Simpson’s clean record and early guilty plea, Mrs Justice Simmons sentenced the defendant to two years behind bars, with any time already served taken into account.