Times caption: Jade Binch admitted assaulting Kiesha Schofield, one of her daughter’s friends (KENNEDY NEWS AND MEDIA)
A piece by Kaye Burgess in yesterday’s Times:
A female amateur boxer nicknamed “the secret assassin” was given only a £120 fine despite assaulting her daughter’s 11-year-old friend in an incident that is said to have left her victim too scared to walk to school.
Jade Binch, 28, admitted assault by beating in September last year over an attack on Kiesha Schofield, who was 11 at the time. She was given a fine, a community order, made to attend ten days of rehabilitation activities and told to pay court costs.
The incident took place after a row between Kiesha and Binch’s daughter, who were schoolfriends.
Kiesha’s mother, Tiffany Schofield, has released photographs that she says were taken after the assault, showing her daughter covered in blood. Ms Schofield said that her daughter had encountered Binch a number of times since the incident and is too frightened to walk to her school after several angry confrontations.
Ms Schofield, from Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, said that her daughter had suffered a fractured nose and bruising in the assault and also a bloodshot eye.
Binch said that she had lost her job as a result of her assault conviction, but has said that the injuries described by Ms Schofield were not caused by her. She said: “The information she is stating is not true. I was convicted of assault by beating which can mean as much as a finger being put on somebody else. I haven’t beat her daughter, the information is incorrect. People can think what they like. I know what’s what. She can make whatever allegations that she likes.” Ms Schofield said she had reassured her daughter that Binch would face a jail term and had been angered by the sentence, which she saw as too lenient.
She said: “When she was given the fine and no jail sentence, I couldn’t believe it. The judge who saw the CCTV footage gave her a fine; how is that justice for attacking a minor?”
She added: “Kiesha doesn’t go out anymore. There’s a shop at the top of the road and she won’t go without her brother. She’s too scared to walk to school because there have been several times when Jade has shouted out of the car window at her.
“Kiesha does nothing and has got a very negative outlook on life. A year and half later, my daughter is still seeing a counsellor, still has flashbacks of that awful night.”
Binch declined to comment on the alleged continuing hostility. Ms Schofield said that Kiesha had been playing with Binch’s daughter in March 2017 but had fallen out and that Binch’s daughter had gone to tell her mother.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed that the photographs produced by Ms Schofield were provided to it as exhibits by Nottinghamshire police. It is not clear if they were used in evidence.
A CPS spokesman said: “Jade Kayleigh Binch pleaded guilty to one charge of assault by beating and was sentenced on 28 September [2017] at Mansfield magistrates’ court to a community order for six months and to participate in rehabilitation activities for ten days. She was also ordered to pay a fine of £120, costs to the CPS of £250 and a surcharge of £100.”
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