{"id":223580,"date":"2025-12-09T11:29:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/223580\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T11:29:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:29:17","slug":"gran-disgusted-pregnant-stranger-not-jailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/223580\/","title":{"rendered":"Gran ‘disgusted’ pregnant stranger not jailed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WalesWales News Service<\/p>\n

Belinda Stickland says she will never be the same again after a pregnant stranger attacked her at a funeral<\/p>\n

A grandmother who suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung in an assault by a pregnant stranger at a funeral wake said she was “disgusted” her attacker avoided a jail term. <\/p>\n

Belinda Stickland, 65, was attending a friend’s funeral when 39-year-old mother-of-three Danielle Oliver threw herself at her without warning. <\/p>\n

Ms Stickland was also left with breathing difficulties and said her life will never be the same following the attack at the Conservative Club in Splott, Cardiff.<\/p>\n

Oliver, who was 22 weeks pregnant at the time of the attack on 9 June 2024, was given a 66-week sentence, suspended for two years, at Cardiff Crown Court in July.<\/p>\n

“I am disgusted at the sentence,” said the grandmother-of-14. “She has walked free while I continue to live with the consequences.”<\/p>\n

Ms Stickland, who is retired, said she was attending the funeral of her best friend’s partner when “all hell broke loose”.<\/p>\n

“I felt a hard punch to the side of my head,” she recalled. “Pain tore through my face and the next thing I knew I was on the floor, dazed and completely disorientated.”<\/p>\n

Ms Stickland said she believed she was “going to die” in the attack that began just as mourners were about to raise a toast to the deceased.<\/p>\n

\"WalesWales News Service<\/p>\n

Danielle Oliver has never explained the attack, which left Ms Stickland in intensive care<\/p>\n

Ms Stickland said she “staggered” to her feet with help from her partner, Rob. <\/p>\n

“People were gathering around me, there was a real commotion,” she said. “I looked up and I saw a woman screaming hysterically at me. <\/p>\n

“Staff had to virtually drag her out of the exit.<\/p>\n

“I’d never seen her before, she was a complete stranger to me and I had no idea why she had punched me.”<\/p>\n

Ms Stickland said she lost consciousness while being taken by a bartender to Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales, waking up in intensive care a few days later.<\/p>\n

She had five broken ribs on her right side and a fractured rib on the left and one of the ribs had punctured her lung.<\/p>\n

“Doctors told me I was very lucky to be alive,” she said.<\/p>\n

‘Fighting for my life’<\/p>\n

Her four daughters were at the hospital waited by her bedside, and Ms Strickland added: “They didn’t know if I was going to die.”<\/p>\n

Ms Stickland said she was already registered disabled with arthritis and a heart complaint and had undergone two hip replacements before the attack.<\/p>\n

“I spent 12 days in hospital recovering after fighting for my life,” she said. <\/p>\n

“This woman was a complete stranger to me. I had absolutely no idea why she would want to hurt me.”<\/p>\n

Her attacker was now “woven into my everyday life”, Ms Strickland said.<\/p>\n

“I will never be the same again because of what she did. <\/p>\n

“I won’t even go to the supermarket alone anymore.<\/p>\n

“Danielle Oliver has never apologised to me for what she did or shown any remorse. I could have died that day.<\/p>\n

“I am still in a lot of pain because of the attack and life will never be the same again for me.”<\/p>\n

\"WalesWales News Service<\/p>\n

Ms Stickland with daughter Jinaise Joseph<\/p>\n

Police used CCTV footage from the club to identify Oliver, who was caught two days after the attack.<\/p>\n

During sentencing, Judge Simon Mills said: “Even brief incidents of violence can have catastrophic consequences.<\/p>\n

“Any idea that a single blow to the face doesn’t do any harm is completely wide of the mark. <\/p>\n

“You could today have been facing prosecution for manslaughter.<\/p>\n

“I have heard you are surprised by the seriousness of your victim’s injuries. <\/p>\n

“Well, I’m afraid in the job that I do I see all of the time how momentary acts of violence have very serious consequences and sometimes fatal consequences.<\/p>\n

“Once you lay your hands on someone else in such a way then the consequences can be truly catastrophic and they arguably have been in this case.”<\/p>\n

He added: “I am not going into the background of why you made the decision you did. <\/p>\n

“You were pregnant at the time and I’m aware your medication had to be adjusted.<\/p>\n

“An issue was brought to your attention which caused you to make completely the wrong decision.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales News Service Belinda Stickland says she will never be the same again after a pregnant stranger attacked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-223580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115689381708411684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}