Geraldton pair plead guilty to car pursuit and assault

Two women have been sentenced over a violent attack on a Geraldton street last year in which they pursued another woman in a car before bashing her in a vacant block. Kiarni Samantha Kirryn Wally, 26, and Shayedene Deidre Merry, 27, appeared in Geraldton Magistrate’s Court yesterday, pleading guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm. Prosecutor Sgt Paul Burkinshaw said the two women “chased” their victim down on July 31 last year after an altercation outside Red Rooster in Spalding. The woman was taken to hospital where she received two staples for a laceration to her head. The court was told both women had different motivations for the attack, with Wally angry the woman had thrown a glass bottle at the car and Merry angry the woman had been seeing her former partner. Merry’s lawyer, Kate Fry, said she was in an angry and emotional state during the incident which occurred during a break-up. “She has no history of violence,” she said. “This incident is completely out of character for her.” Wally’s lawyer argued she only participated in the assault because she was angry the glass bottle could have hit her six-year-old daughter who was in the car. “She accepts the way she reacted was wrong,” he said. “But it was Ms Merry who was driving, she was the one who pursued the complainant.” The women were put on an eight-month community-based order by Magistrate Chris Miocevich. “On the CCTV footage it’s clear they chased her to assault her,” he said.