A girls' night out ended with Sophie Robinson in agony and blind in one eye after a savage attack – by her best friend.
Drink-crazed Melissa Causer stamped on 20-year-old Sophie’s face three times with her stiletto heel, puncturing her right eyeball.
The horrific violence erupted last New Year’s Eve in a row that began over a can of hairspray. It led to Causer, 21, being jailed for seven years.
Now Sophie has a stark booze warning to festive revellers.
She told the Sunday People: “I’d never seen Melissa act violently before. But in a split second she changed from my best friend to the person who ruined my life.
“I’m convinced she wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t drunk so much.
“I just get merry when I’m drinking but some people get violent – and Melissa was clearly one of those.”
The girls had started out drinking glasses of cider together as they dressed up in their party frocks at Melissa’s home before hitting the town.
Over the next few hours they went around the pubs and then on to a club, downing numerous vodkas and cokes, shots and cocktails.
Sophie recalled: “I had a couple of Sex on the Beach cocktails on top of the other drinks, while Melissa had even more vodkas and cokes. We must have had at least ten drinks each.”
She went on: “Melissa had been in a really happy mood that night. We were having a giggle as we got dolled up at her home before we went out. I did her hair for her as usual, putting in her extensions and curling it.
“I was wearing a tight black and white floral dress and Melissa had on a little black dress with flashy silver stilettos.
“She often worked nights in a care home, so we made the most of it when she had a night off and we were able to go out together. We headed out at 10pm and were drinking until the early hours.”
Then Sophie recalled how their fun night out began to descend into bad-tempered squabbling and, finally, a nightmare of savagery.
She said: “Melissa didn’t have room for her hairspray in her handbag, so asked me to put it in mine. My bag was really small and she also wanted me to look after her contact lens case so I squeezed that into my bag,
“There was so little room left I had to put my mobile phone in my bra.
“I said I was sorry but I couldn’t look after her hairspray as well. She forced it inside her bag and later, in the loo at the club when she was worse for wear, she dropped the hairspray out.
“When she realised she hadn’t got it she was angry and accused me of nicking it. I told her she must have dropped it and suggested we went back to look for it but she said to forget it.
“Outside the club, Melissa was clearly drunk and even approached a policeman to tell him someone had nicked her hairspray. Then she started chatting to two lads.”
The delay meant the driver of the taxi Sophie had ordered to take them to Melissa’s house refused to wait.
Sophie urged Melissa to get in but finally had no choice to but to go alone, leaving her pal to get another cab.
When they were reunited outside Melissa’s house, the furious girl insisted that Sophie should give her £20 for her fare. Sophie said: “I gave her £16 but she demanded I pay the rest because I had left her.
“I could tell she was fuming. She got out of the taxi and shoved me.
“I got up and walked to the front door but Melissa marched over and dragged me to the ground. She kicked my legs to make them give way. I was in complete shock.
“She pinned me down by sitting on top of me. She clearly knew how to fight. It was the first time I had seen her dark side. I was helpless because her entire weight was on me.
“Her dad arrived back home from the pub and tried to lift her off – but it was then she started stamping on me. The pain was terrible. The last thing I saw with that eye was Melissa bringing down her foot on my face.”
One stamp landed on Sophie’s forehead, another hit the side of her head and the third penetrated her right eye, splitting the eyeball in two.
She said: “I felt this excruciating pain. Every time I opened my eye, blood poured out of it. The doctors warned me I could lose my eye and I needed surgery.”
Sophie of Brompton-on-Swale, North Yorkshire, was left with a scarred face and will be blind for life in her right eye.
Eight months later, on September 3, Melissa Causer was found guilty at Teesside Crown Court of causing grievous bodily harm.
Sophie said: “I have never spoken to Melissa since the attack and I never want to. I’ve replayed that scene a million times in my head since and I still can’t believe she did it to me.
“She showed no remorse in court and has never tried to say sorry to me. If she had wanted to I’m sure she could have told the police to let me know how sorry she was, but she didn’t. I hate her now for what she did to me.”
“I’ll never be able to see out of my right eye again and it has changed my life forever. I can’t believe my friend did this to me. Looking back, there were times when Melissa had boasted about being violent to other people but I thought she was just bigging herself up and I’d never seen her like that.
“We had known each other for three years after meeting at Darlington College, where we were both doing a health and social care course.
“After college she started work as a health care assistant in a home for elderly people with dementia. I did a degree in early childhood studies but our friendship continued.
“It staggers me to think that someone as violent and unstable as Melissa was still allowed to work as a carer after the attack and yet her employers let her carry on until she was convicted, even though my mum rang to warn them about her.
"But there was nothing about her which made alarm bells ring. There were certainly no signs of her being violent.
“Melissa had told me she suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder and had to always have her hairsprays lined up in her bedroom in exactly the right way. She also had to go round unplugging everything from the sockets, things like that.
“My mum said it was a bit odd – but then lots of people suffer from OCD, so we weren’t alarmed about it.
“Even now, we still don’t really know what made her snap and do this dreadful thing.”
Sophie and her mother, Sophie Walker, are also shocked that Causer spun a web of lies while at the hospital with her injured friend.
Her mum, a 40-year-old community matron, said: “Melissa rang me at 6.50am to say not to worry but my daughter was in hospital. She said that Sophie had got caught up in a fight between two boys and had been stabbed in the eye with a stiletto heel.
“As I raced to the hospital I kept thinking that her story didn’t ring true. Why would these boys have stilettos?
“The doctors confirmed that Sophie had had a heel in her eye. It was so bad they couldn’t even see the eye. So much of the fluid had leaked out.
“Just before I rang the police, Melissa owned up that it was her.
“But she still lied and said she had hit Sophie with her hand, not a stiletto. Even in court Melissa continued to lie. She claimed Sophie stole from her and that what happened was an accident.”
She added: “Sophie has understandably become very down and withdrawn since the attack. But she has been very brave about it and I’m proud of her.”
Sophie had a prosthetic eye fitted on December 10. She said: “I have to take it out each day. At the moment it’s a bit painful when I put it back in.
“The surgeons managed to save a bit of my eye. The prosthetic eye fills the remainder of the hole. It is made from wax and has a plastic coating.
“They hand painted it to match the blue colour of my other eye.
“It’s difficult to focus my vision on anything in the distance now.
“It has hugely affected my confidence. Because I can’t see properly, I’m worried that if I go out and accidentally bump into someone I could end up being attacked again.”
Despite what she had done, Sophie’s attacker Causer was pictured while awaiting her trial – putting two fingers up during a night on the town with two other girl pals.
Sophie added: “I want to warn people about the dangers of drinking excessively this New Year – or at any other time for that matter.
“My story is a warning of how excessive alcohol can make people turn and lose control. People need to be warned not to get really drunk because this can be the end result.
“It has had a massive impact on me. I used to be buoyant and bubbly and now I’m scared of my own shadow.
"I’m frightened to go out at night. I certainly won’t be going out this New Year.”
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