One was glassed and other was dangled over a 30ft

Brawl: London Zoo expert Caroline Westlake, 30, pictured outside court today, has been found guilty of slashing colleague Kate Sanders' face at the Christmas party

A meerkat expert glassed a monkey handler in a row at the London Zoo Christmas party over a love triangle involving a llama keeper, a court heard today.

Caroline Westlake, 30, has been found guilty of using a wine glass to slash the face of Kate Sanders after she criticised her looks.

Magistrates in Westminster found Westlake guilty of assault by beating - a charge which she tried to deny by discrediting the victim.

The two women had both been romantically involved with zookeeper Adam Davies - who had dated Miss Sanders for five years before starting a relationship with Miss Westlake.

The court heard that Miss Westlake was in a toilet cubicle when she overheard her love rival say she looked 'much better than Caroline - have you seen the state of her?' to her friends.

Later that evening the two women met at the cloakroom and Miss Sanders tried to apologise.

The pair started arguing and Miss Sanders screamed: 'Nobody likes you - everyone thinks you're mad', while Miss Westlake responded: 'Everyone thinks the same about you.'

Miss Sanders said that as she tried to leave Miss Westlake smashed the glass into her cheek leaving her face gushing with blood.

Not long after the brawl, on December 8, Mr Davies and Miss Westlake split up.

Prosecutor Richard Doolan said: 'The argument ended with the the defendant hitting the victim in the side of the face when she had a wine glass in her hand.

'The wine glass smashed on impact and caused a wound that required stitches.'

At one point during the fight Miss Sanders punched Miss Westlake, spat at her, then bent her backwards over the balcony above a 30ft drop.

Miss Sanders who worked on the 'Mammals south' section of the zoo insisted she was 'mortified' that Miss Westlake had overheard the comment and said she was worried about it all evening until they met at the cloakroom as she picked up her coat.

Caroline Westlake was seen putting her hands together as she left Westminster Magistrates Court today

'I turned to her and said to Caroline, "I'm so sorry about what you heard. It was never meant to be heard and I am so sorry. I was completely in the wrong",' she said, giving evidence from behind a screen.

The court heard that when the pair met at the counter Miss Sanders said: 'I want to apologise for what I was saying.'

When Westlake asked what she had done wrong, Miss Sanders allegedly said: 'You are dating my ex-boyfriend.'

She sobbed as she said: 'There was some more arguing and the next thing I knew I was hit in the face with something very hard.'

She was taken to University College Hospital where she claims she received two internal and three external stitches before flying to Australia for Christmas with her family.

But the court heard that she posted pictures on her Facebook throughout December of her smiling

She said: 'I took the bandages off for my brother's wedding but the pictures I uploaded were very selective.'

Miss Sanders had previously slapped another member of zoo staff and her ex-boyfriend Adam when he told her not to the chant the Australian national anthem near England fans, the court heard.

She said: 'It was meant to be a silly slap and it was a lot me force than I intended it to be and I immediately said sorry and have him a bug hug.'

Row: Caroline Westlake, pictured left with her London Zoo meetkats, allegedly heard Kate Sanders, right with the zoo monkeys, criticising her looks in the toilets

Triangle: Llama expert Adam Davies, pictured, had dated Miss Sanders for five years and then asked out Miss Westlake after they split up. Their relationship failed after the fight

Miss Westlake, whose dyspraxia and ADHD makes her forgetful and clumsy, maintains that she was scared of her love rival who hit her first and didn't realise what had happened when she saw that Kate's face was bleeding.

She said: 'I came down the stairs and saw her as I arrived at the cloakroom window.

'She said, 'Caroline, I want to apologise for what you heard me saying earlier in the bathroom.'

'I said "why did you say it? I don't understand what I have done to you".

Past: The court heard that Westlake had been seeing Mr Davies for a year at the time, and he had previously had a five-year relationship with Ms Sanders

'Then I remember her saying "you're dating my ex-boyfriend!" I said, I didn't go out with him for a year after you had broken up.

'She said that I was trying to go out with him while they were dating and I had sent him a text message asking him to go for a drink. I said that was a lie.

'She started shouting and she kept saying "Everyone hates you, everyone says you're mad, no one likes you". She kept repeating it and repeating it.

'So I said, "Everyone says the same about you" and then she punched me on the side of my face on my jawline.

'It knocked me back. It was so strong I was staggered back and then I remember seeing her face was cut and I remember thinking "how has this happened we need to do something".

'She spoke to the cloakroom attendant and said "did you see that?" He said no, and she said "I'm pressing charges" I was silent through this.

She added that Miss Sanders tried to throttle her over a balcony with a 30ft drop onto marble floor and said in her police statement, 'I was fearful for my life.'

She said: 'I remember her very clearly with both her hands around my throat and she was spitting.

'She had a conversation with someone and then she attacked me. She was getting spit in her mouth and dropping it on me while swearing.

'She had her hands around my throat and had me bent back over the balcony.'

The court was then told that when Miss Westlake, who says she is now depressed, was dismissed after the incident and when her locker was cleared out, she received a bin bag full of soiled items that were not hers.

Couple: Miss Westlake worked at the zoo for four and a half years where she met Mr Davies, both pictured outside court, and claims she feared for her own life in the fight where was dangled over a balcony

She said: 'There were dirty jumpers, old vests, several pairs of dirty knickers and a dead cockroach.

'There were dumb bells and an old book about the zoo. None of those were mine.'

Jacob Joy was working as a cloakroom attendant at the zoo's Christmas party and Miss Sanders approached him to collect her coat and bags shortly before the alleged attack.

He said: 'She approached her from behind and they started talking. What first started as a civil conversation then escalated into insults.

He added: 'They were insults along the line of "no one likes you", "you're mad", and "everyone thinks the same about you".

'After I turned my back it was maybe 30 seconds before the smash happened.'

Westlake denied one count of assault by beating but was convicted by the magistrates this afternoon.

Her solicitor Suzanne Kelly had claimed the victim's account could not be relied upon.

'The version of events given by Kate was inconsistent and contradicted by the eye witnesses in the case,' she said.

'When considering the evidence put before the court it is my submission that the complainants version of events is simply not true.

Cost: The accused Miss Westlake, pictured feeding a Galapagos tortoise, was sacked from her job looking after the meerkats and the rainforest zone

Falling out: The court heard that Miss Sanders, pictured with the monkeys, apologised for the comments about her appearance and when Westlake asked what she had done wrong, she allegedly said: 'You are dating my ex-boyfriend'

'The defendant does not dispute that the injury came from the glass in her hand but she does dispute that it was an intentional blow.'

Almost immediately afterwards Mr Davies asked out Westlake, but she turned him down because she didn't want to be his 'rebound'.

But prosecutor Richard Doolan said: 'This case is simple really, it was unfortunate what was said on the evening but it proves that there was a back drop of bad blood between the two.

'Kate was very candid in her evidence and has given a clear and credible account of events.

'The tipping point came outside the cloakroom when she tried to apologise to the defendant and insults were traded by both of them.'

Miss Sanders, of Crouch End, north London, was given a final warning and banned from Zoological Society of London events for two years as a result of the fight.

Westlake, who has worked at the zoo for four and a half years, was sacked from her job looking after the meerkats and the rainforest zone.

The Zoo's human resources director Fiona Evans said following a tribunal: 'We felt there was a clear distinction in the seriousness of Caroline's and Kate's actions based on the undisputed evidence of Caroline glassing Kate.'