A PREGNANT young mum who smashed a vodka bottle in the face of a friend, leaving her permanently scarred, has been sent to youth custody.

At Exeter Crown Court, 'zero tolerance' Judge Graham Cottle told 18-year-old Kylie Finch: "Drinking to excess and using violence has long since ceased to be a male preserve.

"Drunken violence by young women is increasingly frequent and it would be wrong to give you anything other than a custodial sentence.

"This is very serious and if it was a young man pleading guilty to this he would go to custody.

"I see no basis for drawing a distinction between young men and women of a similar age," said the judge.

Finch, who left her friend Amber McCarthy with an upturned V-shaped cut requiring 14 stitches on her left cheek, was sent to youth custody for 12 months.

Finch, who was living in Mincent Hill, Torquay, at the time, pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and common assault.

Judge Cottle told the defendant: "You assaulted the victim with a vodka bottle causing an extremely nasty wound just under her left eye.

"She has been left with a visible scar and it is quite clear from her statement that she has suffered considerably as a result of your drunken violence and it might well have been the case she would have lost the sight in her eye if the wound had been slightly higher.

"This is not the first time you have been in court for drunken violence.

"On the last occasion you threatened a young woman with violence and kicked out at her in Torwood Street in Torquay and that was similar in nature to this offence."

Prosecutor Dave Bowen had told the court that Finch and her friend Amber McCarthy had been out drinking in Torquay and they had become involved in a scuffle when the defendant punched the victim in the mouth.

She apologised for that but when the other girl wanted to go home late into the night Finch 'went mental' and struck Ms McCarthy across the face with the vodka bottle.

She was comforted and attended to by members of the public who administered first aid until the ambulance arrived and she was taken to hospital.

In her victim impact statement, Ms McCarthy said she was not a confident person and felt self conscious when people looked at her face.

She said it was a 'big deal' to have the scar and she felt everyone was looking at it.

She had not been out much since the incident in Watcombe last November and was shocked that a friend could do that to her.

Mitigating, David Charles said since the attack Finch, who was already a young mother and had another child on the way, had curbed her drinking and had moved from the area to start afresh.