Woman 'rammed stiletto heel through eye into man's brain'

Staci Hargreaves, 33, was in the back of a cab in Huddersfield when she kicked out at Gavin Taylor, 28.

The mother-of-two was in high heels, one of which caused her boyfriend serious injuries, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor David McGonigal said: "The heel of one shoe went through the left eye of Mr Gavin Taylor and fractured the socket and entered his brain and caused a blood vessel to burst."

Mr Taylor began coughing up blood and slumped into unconsciousness.

He was taken to hospital where his condition initially deteriorated before he eventually made a "surprising" recovery after a month in hospital.

Hargreaves told police she had drunk about nine bottles of WKD alcopop and 18 sambuca shots and could not remember what happened.

"I wish I could remember because I'm so gutted. I don't recall how the injury has happened to him," she told police.

She accepted that while she was in a police cell she had described her boyfriend as a bully who had previously assaulted her.

Her friend, Emily Blacknett, told the jury that on the night in question she had seen Mr Taylor slap his girlfriend in the face, knocking her to the ground.

Taxi driver Mohammed Akbar told the jury that he noticed his front-seat passenger turn round after he had been arguing with Hargreaves.

He said he saw a foot coming between the two seats and the man in the front then shouting "My eye, my eye."

Hargreaves, of Stalybridge, Manchester, denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent and an alternative charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The trial continues.