Student glassed in face near nightspot
PICTURED on this page are the injuries sustained by a 20-year-old student after she was “glassed” outside a nightclub.
Katie Macdonald was knocked unconscious for at least a minute following the alleged attack outside the Alpine bar, in Ormskirk, in the early hours of Friday.
It is claimed that the geography student, from Southport, had walked over to a gathering of young men to try and calm down an argument – but, instead of getting thanks, she was “attacked” with a bottle.
Katie, who is studying at Edge Hill University, fell into a seizure – something she has started suffering from since she was recently kneed in the head while playing rugby.
She was rushed to Southport hospital, where her shocked mum Jane took photos of her daughter and circulated them on Facebook in an appeal for information over the incident.
Jane said: “One of her male friends was getting abuse, and she went to try and calm things down.
“Suddenly, a bottle was thrust in her face.
“The staff at Alpine were amazing, it’s important to say. The doormen did a great job.
“She’s not very good at the moment – she was in A&E all night on Friday morning, after it happened.”
Jane said Katie suffered three deep lacerations which needed glueing, as well as badly swollen cheeks and two black eyes.
She was “very lucky her sight has not been damaged.”
Mum-of-two Jane, 41, added: “You don’t realise what people are capable of. I’m disgusted.
“I got a phone call from her friend in the ambulance and I had to get my nine-year-old daughter out of bed and head straight for the hospital. Initially, I didn’t know what we were dealing with. I was devastated when I saw what had happened.
“I never expected to be faced with people throwing bottles. I’m angry about it.
“I’m shocked a bottle has been used. It could have been a lot worse.”
In a later Facebook post, Jane said: “Katie is very sore, but will be ok. There is CCTV and police are looking into it. Katie wanted this post sharing, not just for more information, but for awareness for people to always be careful when out.
“[W]hen [you] see a dispute, [it’s] always best to walk away as you just don’t know what people are capable of doing.
“Could of been a lot worse, we’re just glad that Katie is ok.”
If you have details that may help, contact Lancashire Police on 101.
POLICE are investigating after a body was found in water off Banks, near Southport.
Merseyside Police confirmed on Tuesday that a body was recovered from the Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve, near the border with West Lancashire.
A horrified dog walker reported the find at around 2.35pm on Friday, January 19. Search teams were then sent to the scene when the discovery was made and the area was cordoned off while a forensic recovery was carried out.
The body is yet to be formally identified and police say they are treating the death as ‘unexplained’.
After being contacted by the Visiter, a spokesman for Merseyside Police said: “A post-mortem examination will take place to establish the cause of death and enquiries will be ongoing to establish the identity of person and to ensure the next of kin are informed.”
No further details have been released by Merseyside Police at the time of publication but formal identification is not expected to be confirmed until the end of the week at the earliest.
The tragic find comes just one month after the body of missing man Carl Lake was found nearby .
Mr Lake, 62, had not been seen heard from after leaving a town centre pub on May 15.
Emergency services were called to Banks Road on Monday, December 10 after reports a body was seen in the water.
One week later, Merseyside Police confirmed they believed it to be Mr Lake, who had gone missing from Southport town centre seven months earlier. Before his disappearance, the former joiner had been at a family meal on Monday, May 14, at Hickory’s Smokehouse, where relatives gathered for a reunion.
During that dinner, Mr Lake appeared distracted and vacant, worrying his family to the extent that they took him to Southport Hospital where he underwent tests.
He was later given the all clear and he stayed the night in the Scarisbrick Hotel, Lord Street. During the day of Tuesday, May 15, Mr Lake was in regular phone contact with his daughter, Louise Gilbert, 39, with a plan made for him to go back to her High Park home for some dinner.
He told her he was finishing off a drink in the Wetherspoons, on Lord Street, but after that, nothing further was heard.