A would-be lawyer who bludgeoned a clubber with a champagne bottle because she thought he was trying it on with her has been spared jail.

Sarah McKenzie-Ayres, 19, wielded the champagne bottle ‘like a club’, striking the victim twice to the head in the dancefloor attack at Venus nightclub.

The 19-year-old victim was left streaming with blood as his forehead was cut ‘to the bone’, Manchester Crown Court heard, causing permanent scarring which has dashed his hopes of becoming a male model.

McKenzie-Ayres, of Perry Avenue, Hyde, was arrested after the dazed victim identified his attacker as a girl ‘in a red dress’, prompting club staff to stop her as she tried to leave and take her picture, allowing him to identify her.

But Mckenzie-Ayres, who is studying law in Leeds, was spared jail after admitting GBH after telling court she believed the victim was ‘making unwelcome advances’.

Neil Beckwith, prosecuting, said the victim was out with pals at 12.30am on September 14 and was standing next to the dancefloor, by a table with his group’s champagne on it.

McKenzie-Ayres appeared to be ranting and pushing at a pal behind him, and then turned on him, accusing him of bumping into the back of her friend, as he reached for the champagne bucket.

When he denied bumping into her she ordered him to move before pushing him backwards and launching a vicious attack.

“He had a glimpse of her with the bottle of champagne in her right hand, raised overhead, and she then struck him to the forehead. He noticed immediately blood was pouring down his face, raised his hand, felt what he believed to be bone”, Mr Beckwith said.

In a statement the victim’s father said: “He was looking to pursue a modelling career, but he’s now lost any confidence in pursuing that and he’s very self-conscious of facial scars. The incident has traumatised him greatly.”

Virginia Hayton, defending McKenzie-Ayres, who has no previous convictions, said she was remorseful.

“It’s clear that this is very much out of character for this young woman,” the defence barrister said.

“She’s an extremely intelligent young woman - her behaviour on this night has meant she may not be able to pursue her dreams and carry out a career in law.”

Sentencing, Judge David Stockdale QC told her the violence she used was ‘extraordinarily extreme’, adding: “These courts all too often deal with cases in which violence breaks out at night, usually when the participants have had too much to drink and a glass or bottle is used as a weapon - a weapon to the head or face of the victim, and in most of these cases the injuries can be truly appalling.

"It’s a matter of pure chance, nothing more, that the victim did not sustain extremely serious facial injuries.”

The judge ordered her to serve 16 months, suspended for two years, with 150 hours unpaid work.