A trainee teacher has avoided jail for glassing a man during a Christmas Eve row in a pub about a scarf.

Megan Bradley, 19, left her victim scarred for life in what a judge described as a 'reckless act'.

But she was allowed to walk free as her act of violence was 'completely out of character'.

Bradley used the glass 'as a weapon', picking it up and throwing it at his face when he tried to retrieve his scarf from her friend who was refusing to hand it back, a court heard.

The attack happened just before closing time at Platform 5 bar in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, on Christmas Eve last year.

Prosecutor Tom Sherrington told Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court that it followed a dispute between Ms Bradley's friend and another man, the victim of her attack.

Her friend had picked up the scarf, put it on and the victim asked for it back, according to the prosecution.

It prompted a 'coming together' of the two men.

"At that point she threw the glass," said Mr Sherrington.

The court heard some details from a victim personal statement from the victim, who said he was now 'very nervous in groups and social situations'.

Patrick Harris, defending, agreed the offence was so serious the judge was 'entitled to impose a custodial sentence' although he argued it should be a suspended prison sentence for his client, who had no previous convictions.

He told the court Bradley had left her university teacher training course because of the conviction and that her ambition of being a primary school teacher now lay in tatters.

He pointed out that a pre-sentence report prepared by the probation service had 'reflected that this woman was of previous good character'.

The barrister described his client as 'industrious with a very good work ethic'.

Judge Bernadette Baxter said the argument was 'something and nothing over a scarf' that her friend had refused to return to its owner.

She told Bradley: "You had a glass in your hand and you threw it at (the victim). I accept that was a reckless act. You threw it towards him but not as an act to defend your friend but in the aggression of the moment."

The judge accepted that the defendant had not intended to cause her victim serious injury but it caused cuts to his face 'which have left him with permanent scars'.

The scars would fade over time but they were 'scars non-the-less', said the judge.

"You must know as an intelligent girl this is a serious matter. You used that glass as a weapon. You threw that glass. It is a weapon and you caused wounding as a consequence," said Judge Baxter.

The judge accepted the defendant was 'not completely drunk' but was under the influence of alcohol at the time although she added that the fact she pleaded guilty 'at the first opportunity' and that she was 'a respectable girl from a respectable family' was 'powerful mitigation'.

Judge Baxter accepted the attack was 'completely out of character'.

"Nevertheless there must be consequence," she said.

She handed Bradley a suspended 12-month jail sentence and ordered her to pay £350 compensation to her victim.

Bradley, of Merewood Avenue in Cheadle, admitted a single charge of wounding.