A COUPLE have been jailed for a combined total of more than 10 years after a woman’s face was slashed with a knife and the lives of her young children threatened.

Karlie Tuft launched the unprovoked attack before her boyfriend John Jackson told Bianca Beaumont he would kill her family if she told the police.

Tuft, from Newport, who has a history of violence, was sentenced in her absence after going on the run and failing to attend her trial.

Laurence Jones, prosecuting, said Miss Beaumont fears she may have been left permanently disfigured after being cut to the cheek, lip and nostril.

The horrifying assault and threats were made at Tuft’s home in the St Julians area of Newport when the defendant was high on cocaine and alcohol.

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Cardiff Crown Court heard how Miss Beaumont and a friend had visited Tuft early in the morning after they had been to an all-night party.

South Wales Argus:

 

Karlie Tuft

At first they were welcomed by Tuft, who they knew, and Jackson, who was staying there.

Both visitors had never met Jackson before and violence erupted when Tuft wrongly thought some “impropriety” might have gone on between the victim and her partner.

Judge David Wynn Morgan said: “Following the attack Miss Beaumont was distraught about the state of her face and anxious to leave the flat.

South Wales Argus:

John Jackson

“Tuft and Jackson were reluctant to allow her to do so.

If you tell the police I'll slice your kids up

“Knowing that she would need hospital treatment for her injuries they demanded to know what she intended to say about how they’d been caused.

“They insisted that she not identify Tuft and to say that she had been attacked in the street.”

The judge told Jackson, who by now had hold of the knife, he had said words to Miss Beaumont to the effect of: “If you tell the police Karlie done that to you, if Karlie gets locked up or she goes to jail, I swear to God I will slice your kids worse than you are.

“You will not have any kids.”

Judge Wynn Morgan added: “Tuft and Jackson carried on their day as if nothing had happened and they visited Tuft’s mother for Sunday lunch.”

He told Jackson: “Your words were malignant, callous, vicious, cruel and intended to cause the maximum fear and anxiety in the mind of a mother of young children as in fact it did.

“And if you committed this offence on the basis that you were scared of Tuft this makes matters worse because it demonstrates beyond any issue that you’re a coward.”

Tuft, 33, of Lavery Close, Newport, was found guilty following a five-day trial of wounding with intent.

Jackson, 31, of Holm Road, Hutton, Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, was convicted by a jury at the same trial of making threats to kill.

The offences took place on February 21, 2021.

Tuft was jailed for six years and six months and Jackson jailed for four years.

Both defendants were made the subject of a restraining order for an indefinite period.