A pregnant mother-of-four has been jailed for a year for attacking a man with a stiletto heel.

Emma White took a run up before striking Dean Roche in the face with her shoe outside Yates’s bar in Poole High Street on April 26 last year, leaving him with a fractured cheek bone, which required surgery.

Prosecutor Simon Jones said White, 29, had been out drinking when she joined in a large group of people “scrapping” outside the bar at around 2am and began lashing out with one of the high-heeled shoes she was carrying.

After striking several people she attacked Mr Roche.

“He said he was talking to someone when the next minute he felt a massive pain through his whole body,” said Mr Jones.

“His face was in absolute agony.”

Jailing White at Bournemouth Crown Court, Judge John Harrow said: “You charged a group of young men; it doesn’t seem as if they had done anything to you.

“Dean Roche was certainly an innocent bystander.

“Armed with a shoe you hit him in the face, which caused him a very serious injury.”

He added: “This is hardly responsible behaviour for the mother of four young children.”

The court heard that White, of Worrell Drive, Poole, had no previous convictions, but had been cautioned in the past for offences of assault and battery.

In mitigation, Kevin Hill said his client, who pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm, was not a regular drinker and had little recollection of the incident, but accepted she had carried out the assault.

“She is someone who has had a difficult background,” he said. “She has had difficulties in her own past relationships.

“She has suffered from depression.”

Mr Hill said White had four children aged five to 11 and a fifth child on the way.

“Clearly it will be a massive wrench for them if she is given a term of immediate imprisonment,” he said.

Two separate counts were dropped by the Crown.