A SHOP worker accused of a broken bottle attack which left a teenager with a gaping wound across her face told police: "I don't know how she's in that state."

Clair Sowerby, 21, accepts being in a street fight with the nursery assistant, but denies using a weapon and insists that she was acting in self-defence.

In an interview after her arrest, she said she had no idea how the 18-year-old was left scarred for life after they clashed in Shildon, County Durham.

She told detectives in September 2013: "All I did was raggy her by the hair. I grabbed hold of each side of her hair with both hands and pulled her down."

Asked how the horrific cut could have been caused, Miss Sowerby said: "The only reason I can think of is when we were on the floor or summat."

She said she smashed on the ground the alcopop bottle she is accused of using to inflict the wound, and said: "All I know is I didn't bottle anybody."

She added: "I really, really do not know what happened . . . I wish I did because it might explain stuff. I wish I knew, I really wish I knew."

She said she had earlier got angry and called the teenager "a slut" when she was going upstairs at a house party with Miss Sowerby's boyfriend.

The row continued outside, she maintained, but she thought it was only going to be verbal until the complainant "looked angry" and grabbed at her.

Giving evidence yesterday, she told Teesside Crown Court how she had finished work at Poundland that day and went into Shildon to meet friends.

She said there had even no problems throughout the night - at odds with the accuser's account - and the spat began when they got back to a friend's home.

She told the jury that the complainant initially had a fight with another woman after a row about her going upstairs with a different man.

Answering questions from her barrister, Shaun Dryden, she said she was sure her bottle had smashed when she "threw it against the floor in anger" after an upsetting remark.

Miss Sowerby, of East View Terrace, Shildon, has pleaded not guilty to wounding with intent, and an alternative of unlawful wounding.