A distraught mother has shared pictures of her 21-year-old daughter’s battered face after a thug attacked her when she turned him down in a nightclub.
Lacey Knight, 21, from Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, was left with fractured cheekbones and internal bleeding on her face after the man punched her then smashed her head against the bar.
Her mother Chel Orchard, 42, claims he battered her daughter after she told him she wasn’t interested when he tried to chat her up.
Photos of the devastating injuries show Ms Knight with two black eyes and cuts to her brow.
She also says she is left paranoid and suffering from panic attacks after the incident.
Lacey Knight, 21, from Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, was left with fractured cheekbones and internal bleeding on her face after the man punched her then smashed her head against the bar
The mother-of-one was attacked in the early hours of Saturday morning while having Christmas drinks with friends in Elements nightclub, in Clacton-on-Sea.
Ms Knight said: ‘He tried talking to us and we weren’t interested, then he put my fingers up in my face and I said “why are you doing that?”
‘I looked at him and he walked around a few people and smacked me in the face and after that it was just a blur.’
Ms Orchard said: ‘I got a call at about 12.30am from her friend to say she was on her way to hospital and she has been assaulted.
‘She went to Colchester Hospital and we have since found out she had two fractured cheeks and internal bleeding on her face.
‘My daughter doesn’t remember a lot because she was in and out of consciousness on the club floor.
‘But what she does remember, and from people who have come forward, is a guy tried to chat her up and because she refused his advances, he punched her in the face.’
Ms Orchard’s Facebook appeal to track witness has been shared more than 1,000 times and she claims to have been told the attacker is a known heroin dealer.
She added: ‘They say this guy is a regular and he sells heroin.
‘She remembers all of it, him punching her, her head being bashed on the bar, but then she passed out on the floor.
Ms Orchard’s Facebook appeal to track witness has been shared more than 1,000 times and she claims to have been told the attacker is a known heroin dealer
‘On Wednesday she’s got to see a consultant and surgeon.
‘We had to take her back to hospital last night because she started spitting up blood.
‘The doctor said the reason was because she had internal bleeding on her face and that was its way of coming out.’
She also claimed witnesses said nobody stopped the attack and the suspect was then allowed to leave the club unchallenged.
Ms Orchard added: ‘He smashed her head up and down repeatedly on the bar but nobody did anything.
‘One of the door staff who came at the end of it all let the guy walk out of the club with his friends.’
Ms Knight has since been spitting up blood because of the injuries, which also include a fractured nose, her mum said.
She added: ‘We had to take her back to hospital last night because she started spitting up blood.
‘The doctor said the reason was because she had internal bleeding on her face and that was its way of coming out.
‘She has a five-year-old son who has not seen her since Friday because of how bad her face is.’
Ms Knight added: ‘I’ve not seen my son because I don’t know what his reaction will be.
‘I don’t know how I’m feeling, I don’t want to go out, it’s made me paranoid.
‘I went to Asda with my nan yesterday and started having panic attacks, I’m normally quite a bubbly person.’