A WOMAN who kicked and punched her stricken victim during a drunken nightclub attack has had her pleas for a lighter sentence rejected by top judges.

Samantha Ann Stokes, aged 28, of Baxters Walk, Malvern, was jailed for three years at Hereford Crown Court in November last year after she was convicted of wounding Donna Speight with intent.

Despite hearing Stokes had put her binge drinking days behind her, three senior judges refused to cut that jail term at London’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

Judge Peter Thornton QC, sitting with Lord Justice Davis and Mr Justice Treacy, said Stokes had originally acted as peacemaker between her friend and Miss Speight, during a night out at The Vaults, in Malvern, in February 2010.

But when Miss Speight was attacked by Stokes’ friend later in the night, Stokes piled in, kicking and punching her as she lay on the floor, the court was told.

Miss Speight suffered a fractured eye socket, a lump to the head and bruising to the face, neck and arms during the vicious assault. This left her with blurred vision and afraid to go out, the judge said.

Stokes’ lawyers claimed that, considering she played a lesser role in the attack, and has since sought help for alcohol and cannabis abuse, she should have got a shorter sentence. But, rejecting their arguments, Judge Thornton said: “There is nothing there to change our minds that this was a serious offence of drunken violence which merited a substantial prison sentence.”