A WOMAN was knocked unconscious and left with a broken nose and a black eye during a dispute over a taxi booking.

The victim, Samantha Wilkinson, and her friend believed the taxi was the one she had booked but a row developed as Zach Gibson and his girlfriend thought it was theirs, a court heard today.

“During the course of the argument Samantha was struck once to the face by the defendant, Gibson, and it caused her to fall to the floor and she fell unconscious,” said Sarah Griffin, prosecuting.

She told Liverpool Crown Court that the incident happened outside the Beach Bar in Birkenhead about 3am on February 17 last year after the victim and her friend were trying to make their way home after a night out.

As they left a bar they found there was “trouble on the streets” involving people damaging windows and fighting and so they decided to get a taxi home and Ms Wilkinson ordered one.

She did not remember being assaulted but recalled leaning into the taxi speaking to the driver and an argument developing with Gibson, said Miss Griffin.

Gibson and his partner got into the vehicle but seeing the victim on the floor Gibson got out again to assist her “telling her to wake up but when she couldn’t he got back into the taxi and left the scene.”

She was taken to hospital where it was she had a broken nose and a black left eye. Gibson, who rang police from the scene but did not admit being involved in the incident, voluntarily later attended a police station and claimed he had acted in self-defence.

In her impact statement Ms Wilkinson said that the trauma had left her struggling to sleep and she was prescribed medication for depression and anxiety.

She had been left afraid to go out alone and had lost some sensation to the left side of her face and some teeth but it was hoped this would return.

The court heard that 27-year-old Gibson, from Liscard, has previous convictions for assault and a public order offence. He pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm.

Louise McCloskey, defending, said that Gibson had pleaded guilty on the day his trial was due to start.

There was a melee going on in the area and the combination of alcohol and the situation going on “made him react in a split second in a wholly inappropriate way.”

Gibson was described as a hard working young man who had got out of the taxi to try to help the victim and had rung the police about the incident.

Judge Norman Wright sentenced him to 35 weeks imprisonment suspended for 18 months and ordered him to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and to pay £1,000 compensation to his victim.