Vanessa Delaney, pictured arriving at court drinking a can of beer, was one of three drunk women who battered a man they thought had wolf-whistled at them

Three drunk women chased and viciously assaulted a man they wrongly believed had wolf-whistled at them.

Richard Tailby, 22, was walking past a flat in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, with friends when one of the group whistled at a woman dancing by the window.

But Vanessa Delaney, 38, Claire Edwards, 25, and Sally Pawson, 24, sprinted out of the property and chased Mr Tailby into a car park where they launched a ferocious attack on him.

Edwards grabbed the innocent victim in a headlock as the trio knocked him to the ground in a hail of punches and kicks, Grimsby Magistrates Court heard yesterday.



During the attack the three women screamed: 'All men are stupid!'

Prosecutor Teresa Rae said: 'He managed to get up and run a short distance before they caught up with him and continued by punching him to his head and face.'

Mr Tailby suffered a bruised ear and eye, a cut lip and grazing and swelling on his head during the assault on May 16.

Fish factory worker Edwards - the only one of the women with a job - told police that Mr Tailby and his friends had been verbally abusing them and calling them lesbians.

But she admitted being drunk and said vodka 'made her horrible' and that she 'became violent'.

Delaney, who arrived at court swigging a can of beer, said she was an alcoholic and Pawson admitted she had been 'ten out of ten' for drunkenness.

'Totally unnecessary': Sally Pawson (left) and Claire Edwards (right) attacked Richard Tailby in a car park after one of his friends whistled at them



Grimsby magistrate Mike Corry said: 'This was a totally unnecessary attack. You were like a pack of animals chasing its prey.

'There was some abuse in the first place but the action you took was completely over the top.'

The trio admitted assault and received three-month suspended jail terms.

Pawson and Edwards must carry out 150 hours of unpaid work each while Delaney was given a three-month night-time curfew and a one-year supervision order.

They must each pay £95 in compensation and costs.