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Face slasher Ingemann gets three years

Off to jail: A smiling Wendy Ingemann enters a prison van on her way to prison to begin serving a three-year sentence
Glass smashing love rival Wendy Ingemann was jailed for three years yesterday.The mother-of-three, 37, will also face a two-year probation order on her release after previously being convicted of an attack which left Tanya Darrell permanently scarred in the face.Ingemann smashed a goblet on Ms Darrell's right cheek, and in a second blow fractured her skull and almost amputated her earlobe in Splash nightclub last February.

Glass smashing love rival Wendy Ingemann was jailed for three years yesterday.

The mother-of-three, 37, will also face a two-year probation order on her release after previously being convicted of an attack which left Tanya Darrell permanently scarred in the face.

Ingemann smashed a goblet on Ms Darrell's right cheek, and in a second blow fractured her skull and almost amputated her earlobe in Splash nightclub last February.

The victim, who now has a 14-centimetre gash on her face, says she is unable to forget the incident, which still makes her "sick to the stomach".

In a two-hour session yesterday afternoon, Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves rebuked both women for allowing their bitter feud over Tokia Russell to escalate over a period of many months

.Mr. Justice Greaves said he was saddened that two ladies "blessed by divine powers of such beauty and brains" had found themselves in such a situation.

He said he had been impressed by the way both had given evidence during the trial but they had let themselves fall for "the oldest trick in the world, a confrontation over a man".

"To me it's the first breach of the old granny's rule," said the judge.

"Two things you must never fight over: a bus or a man. Reason: one goes, another comes. And for two ladies as blessed as you are, I think no man on earth, including me, could be worth so much."

Addressing Ingemann, who had apologised to Ms Darrell during yesterday's hearing, Mr. JusticeGreaves said:"Hopefully, now that you have taken the first step of apologising you must understand you will not let anyone scar that face of yours.

"And to do it to another woman was the worst of the worst."Now that you apologised, Ms Darrell must realise that she too has done wrong.

I'm satisfied that she did harass you.Perhaps she too should apologise for that."The worst enemies have been able to make the most successful contribution to life when they made peace."

He said three years in prison was at the lower end of the scale for Ingemann's offence of assault causing grievous bodily harm, a decision he based on the provocation and harassment she said she suffered at the hands of Ms Darrell.Ingemann, of Wellington Slip Road, St. George's, had read a two-page statement prior to Mr. Justice Greaves' sentencing.

"A mere six-week fling had turned into three years of hell for me and my family," said Ingemann.She said at one point Ms Darrell had threatened to kill her and her children, and she believed she was about to carry out that threat on the night of the attack.Claiming to have turned the other cheek on many occasions when publicly confronted by Ms Darrell, Ingemann said of the night in question:

"I still can't believe I reacted in that way towards Tanya, even if it was instinctive."Offering a "sincere apology to Tanya", Ingemann added:

"I regret she was injured in the way she was."In a victim impact statement read out by prosecutor Robert Welling, Ms Darrell said she was constantly reminded of the attack because of her scar."Replaying that night over in my head makes me sick to my stomach," she stated.

Defence solicitor Elizabeth Christopher spoke at great length, referring to Ms Darrell's behaviour as threatening and obnoxious and saying if Ingemann was jailed it would impact heavily on her three children.