A WOMAN is facing jail after she was found guilty of assaulting two schoolgirls with a candlestick and a hammer.

Aneliese Buchanan, 38, from Newport was convicted by a jury of using violence in the city against two victims who are under 18.

They cannot be named because of their ages.

The defendant was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) and assault against one victim and assault against the second.

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The GBH attack on the first girl left her in hospital with a gash on the top of her head after Buchanan hit her with a candlestick.

The second complainant was assaulted after being strangled with clingfilm, struck with a hammer and stabbed with a screwdriver.

Buchanan, of Margaret Avenue, was also convicted of perverting the course of justice after she contacted the GBH victim and tried to persuade her to drop the charges.

She was cleared of one count of GBH with intent and assault.

The defendant, jurors at Cardiff Crown Court were told during the trial, has a previous conviction for perverting the course of justice.

Buchanan was jailed in 2007 after she lied to the police that she had been sexually assaulted in a Newport nightclub.

This false allegation led to an innocent man being arrested and spending 14 hours in police custody.

After the jury found her guilty of the assaults, Judge Shomon Khan told Buchanan: “Because of the nature of the convictions it's going to be an immediate sentence of imprisonment.

“There can be little question about that.”

The court heard that the defendant has been remanded in custody since June 2023.

Sentence was adjourned to next month for the preparation of a pre-sentence report and psychiatric report.

Buchanan was remanded in custody.

Opening the case earlier this month, Heath Edwards, prosecuting, said of the GBH victim: “The complainant attended the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran with a wound to the top of her head.

“It was a wound that she blamed the defendant for causing after hitting her on the head with a candlestick.”

Buchanan later claimed that the girl’s injury had been self-inflicted and caused with a knitting implement.

Referring to the second victim, the prosecutor said: “She said the defendant strangled her with a roll of cling film, hit her with a hammer, stabbed her with a screwdriver and jumped on her head when she was on the floor.”