Woman fined for glassing love rival
The saga of the “London Zoo love triangle” ended when a meerkat keeper was ordered to pay for “glassing” a colleague.
|||She looked after the meerkats, her colleague minded the monkeys, and when they became rivals for the love of the llama keeper, it seems that animal passions could not be contained.
The saga of the “London Zoo love triangle” ended on Wednesday when the meerkat keeper, Caroline Westlake, was ordered to pay £800 compensation and complete 80 hours of unpaid work for “glassing” Kate Sanders, who worked with the monkeys and tigers.
The women had fallen out over the llama expert, Adam Davies.
While Westlake, 30, wept in the dock as she was sentenced for assault, Ms Sanders told Westminster magistrates' court in her impact statement that she still suffers nightmares and has been left with an ugly scar on her cheek “which will be with me for the rest of my life”.
Ms Sanders, 30, had been the first to date Mr Davies, going out with him for five years. The court heard that after they split, the llama keeper turned his attentions to Westlake, who initially rebuffed him because she did not want to be his “rebound”.
Mr Davies, 30, dated a woman in the gift shop for four months, but split with her and eventually began a relationship with Westlake.
Tensions finally spilled over at last December's staff Christmas party, held in the zoo's Prince Albert Suite.
The court heard that Westlake, who by this stage had been going out with Mr Davies for a year, smashed Ms Sanders in the face with a wine glass after allegedly overhearing an insult. The meerkat keeper, the court was told, had heard Ms Sanders telling friends in the toilets: “Have you seen the state of her?”
Westlake, of Banstead, Surrey, had denied assault and claimed that Ms Sanders had punched her in the face first.
She said she did not remember hitting the monkey keeper with the glass, but accepted that she may have reacted while it was in her hand, due to her dyspraxia and ADHD.
Ms Sanders, who needed stitches, told the court she was now afraid to leave her home “for fear of running into Caroline or her friends”.
District Judge Jeremy Coleman told Westlake she had inflicted “an unpleasant injury”, and was lucky not to have been convicted of a more serious charge. Westlake, who is appealing against her conviction, was also told to pay a £60 victim surcharge and £200 court costs on top of the £800 compensation.
The Independent