A Miss England finalist needed five stitches after being slashed in the face during an incident in a pub, a court has heard.

China Gold, 27, of London Road in Ditton, has pleaded not guilty to unlawful wounding after the altercation in the Farmhouse Pub in West Malling.

Gold had an argument at the pub in the high street with Olivia Cooke, 21, who was taken to hospital for treatment shortly after.

A weeping Ms Cooke a professional golfer, said: "Out of nowhere she grabbed me by the throat. I got her off my neck. She had a glass in her hand.

"I pushed her hand off and she did it a second time to me. Out of nowhere she glassed me twice to the head," she alleged.

Prosecutor Emin Kandola told Maidstone Crown Court that Gold would later claim that a glass had been thrown at her and she had retaliated.

"Even if that happened it is not justifiable to do that in revenge attack, " she said.

"Out of nowhere she grabbed me by the throat. I got her off my neck. She had a glass in her hand..."

The court heard the two women knew of each other and had been drinking with their friends in October 2018. Ms Cooke said that China was drunk and "back chatting" as she sat with her drunken friends.

"She was sat down with six or seven others and we were all drinking in the courtyard and at 11 pm we went inside for last orders.

"I walked inside with my friend Sophie and then it all started. I walked towards her and China came out with a very crude comment which took me back.

"She said to me, referring to a man standing next to her and made a comment. At the beginning I tried to laugh it off."

Ms Cooke wept as she recalled Gold then called her a "slag".

"That's something I definitely am not," she said.

Ms Cooke went back out to the courtyard and claimed Gold accused her of trying to start a a fight.

After the alleged glassing Ms Cooke ran after Gold but was stopped by security staff who pointed out she was bleeding.

The prosecutor told the jury that after the incident Ms Cooke's mother, Julie arrived and ran towards Gold shouting at her "What have you done to my daughter?" before punching her once in the face.

Under cross-examination, she admitted she had finished one relationship and was then in another one with one of her ex-lover's friends.

She added: "I was so taken aback by what she had said because there had been no animosity between her and me in the past. She initiated the argument and I walked away."

Defence barrister Robin Griffiths claimed Ms Cooke had followed Gold and thrown a glass of alcohol at her.

"That's not true I didn't have a glass. I only had two drinks that night and I had finished mine before we had gone inside.I had nothing with which I could have thrown at her."

She also denied "shouting and screaming" at Gold.

Ms Cooke claimed Gold pushed a glass at her face which broke and then pushed the broken glass into her face.

The case continues.

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