Beauty feud led to 'bottle attack'

Sophie Cahill won the Miss Wales title in 2000

A row between a former Miss Wales and a stripper over who was the prettiest caused the beauty queen to lash out with a broken bottle, a south Wales court has heard.

Sophie Cahill, 19, is accused of wounding with intent and wounding after an attack was launched on a friend of lap-dancer Amanda Wright, 21.

Nichola Hutchings needed 16 stitches to a slash wound on the side of her body after Ms Cahill allegedly attacked her at the Jimmy Dean nightclub in Chepstow.

I walked out but turned around to see her lunging at Nichola because she couldn't get to me

Amanda Wright

Ms Cahill, of Beachly, Chepstow, who appeared under her married named of Williams, has pleaded not guilty to the charges at Newport Crown Court.

The jury heard Miss Wright and Ms Cahill had an ongoing feud over which of the pair was more beautiful, and that Miss Wright had taunted her rival about being "flat-chested".

Miss Wright told the court: "A while before the stabbing we were in a club when the bouncer turned to Sophie to say I was prettier than her.

"She did not like it and slapped him twice. There has been a running argument since then."

A confrontation arose between the two women in the ladies' toilets at the Jimmy Dean nightclub when Miss Wright and Miss Hutchings went in to find Ms Cahill waiting, the court heard.

Miss Wright said: "Sophie had a bottle in her hand. She smashed it against the cubicle door.

"I said to Nichola: 'Let's get out of here.' But Sophie said to me: 'You're scared of me, aren't you?'

"I said: 'I'm not scared but I'm not getting my face marked by you.' I told Sophie I would see her outside later when she didn't have any weapons.

Sophie Cahill denies the charges

"I walked out but turned around to see her lunging at Nichola because she couldn't get to me."

Miss Hutchings told the court that Ms Cahill had grabbed hold of her hair with one hand while holding the bottle in the other.

"There was a scuffle and she pushed the bottle into my side twice, moving if from left to right," he said.

"At first I didn't realise I had been stabbed. I though she had scratched me with her fingernails.

"It was only when I realised how much blood I was losing that I started to feel light-headed and began slipping in and out of consciousness."

Defence barrister Jennet Treharne told the court Miss Wright had started the argument by telling Ms Cahill she was having an affair with her husband and calling her flat-chested.

However, Miss Hutchings denied that had happened.

Wound

The court heard that Miss Hutchins, 28, suffered a gash six centimetres long and four centimetres deep.

She was taken by ambulance to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, where she was given 16 stitches to the wound.

Ms Cahill was arrested walking home from the club.

The mother-of-one denied being in Jimmy Dean's, but police found a stamp from the club on her hand.

The trial continues.