- When Felicity Calveley, 24, bumped into her ex partner at the races, she never expected to end up in the emergency room needing stitches hours later.
- Introducing Felicity to his new flame, Mia Troake, an altercation at the bar saw Mia attack her with a glass.
- In September 2024, Mia was given an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
Here Felicity tells her story in her own words.
Clinking glasses with my mates Fern and Liv, both 24, I took a sip of wine.
‘Happy birthday!’ I grinned at Fern.
It was September 2022, and we were out at a bar celebrating her special day.
Drinks in hand, we decided to walk upstairs to the second floor of the bar.
As we reached the top, I spotted my ex on the other side of the room.
We’d broken up two years before and I hadn’t seen or spoken to him since.
‘This is my girlfriend, Mia.’
I wasn’t planning on talking to him.
But a little later in the evening, Fern, Liv and I went to sit down to rest our feet and I realised my ex and his group were at the table next to us.
When we looked at each other, I decided to go and say hi.
There were no hard feelings between us.
‘How have you been?’ he smiled.
‘Good, thanks. How about you?’ I replied.
We exchanged small talk and he told me he’d been at the races.
‘This is my girlfriend, Mia,’ he said, putting his arm around the girl standing next to him.
‘Nice to meet you. I love your dress!’ I grinned, referring to the green satin number she was wearing.
‘Thanks so much,’ she smiled back.
After a few more minutes of chatter, I said goodbye and went back over to Fern and Liv.
The three of us continued the celebrations and around half an hour later, I popped to the outside bar to get us another round.
When I reached the bar, I saw that my ex was standing to my left and Mia was on the right.
He cracked a joke as I ordered my drinks.
After a few minutes, the bartender brought the glasses of wine I’d ordered and I turned slightly to the right, accidentally nudging Mia in the process.
‘Why are you still talking to him? Do you still fancy him?’
‘Oh I’m so sorry,’ I said.
‘Why are you still talking to him? Do you still fancy him?’ she snarled.
‘No, I was just ordering my drinks,’ I explained.
‘Do you think I’m a downgrade to you?’ she snapped.
She continued to berate me with ridiculous questions, asking, ‘Do you think he still loves you?’ and, ‘Do you think he’s cheating on me?’
‘Why are you asking me these questions? I’m just out with my mates,’ I said, trying to defuse the unpleasant situation.
I glanced over at my ex, hoping he’d step in, but he just looked on, not saying a word.
‘Do you want to sleep with him?’ she asked.
‘Yeah,’ I sarcastically replied, rolling my eyes.
Turning to the front of the bar, I went to pick up my drinks, when Mia suddenly grasped onto my right shoulder and pulled me around.
I saw her pick up a glass of gin and fling it at me.
Feeling cold liquid on my face, I assumed she’d splashed me.
But as I wiped it off, flicking my hair back, I saw that people had dispersed around me.
And when I looked down at my hands, I realised they were covered in blood.
Mia hadn’t just thrown the drink, she’d glassed me!
‘I think you’ll need stitches.’
Light-headed and in shock, I was helped by two bouncers who took me upstairs to the bar’s pantry.
A girl I’d met in the toilets had seen the incident and brought Fern and Liv over to me.
‘Oh my god,’ they gasped.
As blood continued to gush from my face, I felt delirious trying to comprehend what had happened.
The girls started picking fragments of broken glass from my hair, and Fern even found the stem of the glass wedged in the front of my dress.
It was scratching my skin, but the worst pain was on my face.
My whole face hurt and I couldn’t stop crying.
‘I think you’ll need stitches,’ Fern said.
‘It can’t be that bad,’ I said, not realising how severe the injuries were.
The police arrived and took photos of my injuries, while I told them what had happened.
Then, paramedics arrived and rushed me to hospital where I met my mum, Joanna, 53.
Fern came with me, and she’d phoned Mum, explaining what had happened.
‘Oh love,’ Mum cried, seeing me and pulling me in for a hug. The look on her face was pure terror.
Nurses cleaned up my face, removing the fragments of glass that were stuck in my skin.
Horrifyingly, I’d narrowly avoided being blinded, as shards were even embedded in the skin under my right eye.
‘Come back tomorrow and we’ll get you sorted.’
As the plastic surgeon had gone home for the day, a nurse covered up my face with temporary butterfly stitches.
‘Come back tomorrow and we’ll get you sorted,’ the doctor said.
Back at home, the events of the evening whirled through my mind, and I struggled to sleep.
Looking in the mirror the next morning, I gasped at seeing my bruised and battered face.
I had a three-centimetre gash on my upper lip, and the bottom of my nose had been badly injured.
My face was covered in cuts and grazes.
Returning to the hospital in the morning, I had an X-ray to check for any remaining glass – luckily, there weren’t any big pieces left in my face.
I was also given five stitches from the top of my cupid’s bow on my upper lip up to my nostril, which was an incredibly painful experience.
My friend Alex came with me, and I gripped his hand as I had the stitches put in.
Afterwards, I was given pain relief and sent home.
I felt so ugly – I couldn’t believe that I’d have to live the rest of my life with scars because of someone being jealous.
It also hurt to smile, so I kept my mouth as still as I could.
I tried to throw myself back into work as a real estate agent hoping to distract myself.
But the trauma of the incident was haunting me and after a few months, I got made redundant because of low-performance.
Diagnosed with PTSD from the accident, I had therapy to help me deal with the attack.
I was also surprised that my ex didn’t reach out to me to see how I was.
In September 2024, two years on from the attack, Mia Troake, 22, appeared in Chester Crown Court in the UK, and pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding.
Attending the sentencing, I was nervous when I saw my attacker standing in the glass box, but I pushed myself to be strong.
Reading out my victim impact statement, I said, ‘The scar on my face is a constant reminder of the attack. I have suffered from extreme anxiety, especially in social settings.’
Mia had her head bowed, refusing to look at me.
Mia Troake was given an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
She was also ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work and pay $2000 to me in compensation.
‘Not only has [Felicity] suffered medically, she has also suffered a lot of substantial effects, the impact on her social life, her work was affected for months, it had a direct consequence on her finances,’ Judge Eric Lamb said.
‘All of that is directly as a result of you drinking too much in the course of one day and choosing to confront someone you plainly saw as your rival,’ he added.
I was disappointed with the sentence, I’d spent two years suffering both mentally and physically, but all she got was a slap on the wrist.
Despite this challenging chapter of life, I won’t let it break me.
It’s made me a stronger person and reminded me I can endure the hard times.
I’ve always wanted to go travelling, so, keen for a fresh start, in December 2024 I travelled around Asia.
And this January I moved to Australia.
I’m now living in Airlie Beach, Queensland, where I work on yachts sailing the beautiful Whitsundays.
The attack has given me a new perspective of life and I’m determined to make the most of every day.
