A NEW mother spent just a month with her baby before being locked up for six years for a horrific attack which left her teenage victim scarred for life.

Clair Sowerby wept as she was jailed for ramming a broken bottle into the face of the nursery nurse after a row at a party at a friend's house in Shildon, County Durham.

Shop worker Sowerby was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after a trial last month - but the case was adjourned so she could give birth.

She returned to Teesside Crown Court yesterday (Friday, June 19) to learn her fate, and was told by a judge that a probation recommendation for a suspended sentence was "wholly unrealistic".

Recorder Eric Elliott, QC, described the attack in September 2013 as "horrific" and told 21-year-old Sowerby: "The consequences for your teenage victim have been catastrophic."

During the trial, Sowerby claimed she was acting in self-defence, and the wound - from the side of the 17-year-old's mouth to her neck - had been caused accidentally in a scuffle.

Her barrister told the court that she will apply for a transfer from Low Newton prison in Durham to Wakefield, which has a mother and baby unit, so she can stay with her son.

Shaun Dryden, mitigating, added: "She wishes nothing more than to be able to wind the clock back from what happened that night. It was a tragedy for her as well as the victim."

Mr Recorder Elliott told Sowerby, of East View Terrace, Shildon: "Whatever happens to you is nothing compared to what she has got to live with for the rest of her life."

In an impact statement, the victim told how she needs monthly steroid injections in her scar, has to wear camouflage make-up and take medication each night to sleep.

She said: "It is difficult even now meeting people because if they are strangers they stare at my face. I want to tell them I am not to be defined by my scar."

Mr Recorder Elliott said Sowerby was "consumed with jealousy" and followed the teenager from the house as she left because she thought she was trying to steal her boyfriend.

"You smashed the bottle you had and deliberately slashed at [the victim's] face, causing her to suffer a horrendous injury . . . you should be disgusted with yourself.

"It is perhaps proof positive of the seriousness of the injury that your barrister successfully argued that the jury should not be allowed to see the worst of the photographs.

"I have got no doubt the real Clair Sowerby, when she reflects on what happened on that night, will view it with disgust and revulsion. I accept this was completely out of character."