An angry mother sought retribution after her daughter rang her to say she was being bullied by two women in a pub on New Year’s Day.

Lisa Heightley-Goggs took a six inch knife from a kitchen drawer and drove to the pub in Spennymoor where she believed the women were drinking.

Durham Crown Court heard they were not at those premises, but on passing another Spennymoor pub, the Grand Electric Hall, a Wetherspoon's establishment, she saw them inside.

The court was told she then went in and “circled” them, approaching one from behind, grabbing her hair and pulling her back, before stabbing her in the chest.

She then stabbed the victim’s companion in the wrist before heading back to her car with the knife still in her hand.

The Northern Echo: Lisa Heightley-Goggs, inset, jailed for knife attacks on two other women at The Grand electric Hall

Heightley Goggs, now 52, previously from Spennymoor, but living since shortly after the incident at a bail address in Ferryhill, denied two counts of wounding with intent at an early stage of court proceedings.

She did offer to plead to two counts of the slightly lesser offence of unlawful wounding, but that was not accepted by the prosecution until her recently-listed trial at Durham Crown Court.

But on the day the hearing was due to start the prosecution accepted the pleas to unlawful wounding, plus an admission, also made at an early stage, to possessing an offensive weapon.

The court heard that the defendant has no previous offences on her record other than what was described as an historic conviction going back two decades, “of no bearing”.

Philip Morley, prosecuting, said one of the defendant’s victims suffered a 3cm wound to her chest, and bruising to the chest wall muscle. She required four stitches.

The other victim suffered a 2cm wound to her left wrist and had an operation on it to address tendon damage.

She also suffered injuries to fingers on her left hand, which were scarred and she suffered pain for a few months.

Both victims spoke of the effect the sudden attack has had on them, and both are now wary being out in public.

Judge Jo Kidd said on the night of the attack, on January 1, 2022, having armed herself with a knife and failed to find the women in the first pub, “rather than going home and taking the knife back home”, the defendant then spotted them at the Wetherspoon’s pub.

“You circled them, in circumstances where you approached her with the knife, clearly intent on using it to stab her.

“There was a significant degree of pre-meditation and the first woman you attacked was clearly vulnerable, you having approached her from behind, using a highly dangerous weapon in the context of this behaviour.”

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She imposed respective sentences of 20 months and ten months to reflect the severity of the two attacks, but made them consecutive, giving a total of 30 months’ imprisonment.

The judge said in the circumstances of the attacks she could not “draw back” from imposing an immediate prison sentence.

Judge Kidd also issued restraining orders prohibiting Heightley-Goggs approaching or contacting her victims, “until further order”.