Fiona Tarlton was in Auckland Hospital till the early hours of Sunday morning following the incident. Photo / Supplied
Fiona Tarlton was in Auckland Hospital till the early hours of Sunday morning following the incident. Photo / Supplied
An Auckland woman is horrified after having a glass thrown at her face at an event hosted by a Ponsonby bar.
Fiona Tarlton, 50, was in Auckland Hospital until the early hours of Sunday morning following the incident, which left her needing stitches to close a gash above her eyebrow.
Tarlton, the daughter of diving and underwater enthusiast the late Kelly Tarlton, said it was her first time at the bar, Vodka Room, on Saturday night for a Taste of Auckland after-party.
While she hadn't been to the event itself she headed along to the after-party around 11.30pm to join her host.
"I'd only had about two drinks and we were about to leave, but then a couple of people said to us, 'You've got to go and see upstairs, there's such a beautiful room up there'."
There were two security men at the bottom of the stairs, she said, though there weren't any velvet ropes or anything else to suggest they couldn't go upstairs.
The pair walked up the stairs to find the door was open. Tarlton described a big dance floor in the middle of a large room, empty but for a few people floating around by the bar.
"Seeing the big empty dance floor I did a couple of twirls, you know, a bit of a dance."
Tarlton said it was midway through this dance that a male "came out of nowhere" and shoved her out of the room.
"He grabbed me and shoved me right out of the door," she said.
"He came up and shouted, 'Get the f**k out'."
A few moments later Tarlton was struck by a glass she said the man flung at her head.
"He hurled it straight at me and it hit me just above the eyebrow. There's a hole where it struck me, I think the nurses called it a burst laceration."
Tarlton said there was a lot of blood streaming down her face and on to her dress.
Tarlton was told by doctors the gash would likely leave a scar. Photo / Supplied
Aucklander Fiona Tarlton needed stitches above her eyebrow after a glass thrown at her head caused a deep gash. Photo / Supplied
Wanting to escape the situation and the man who had hurled the glass at her, she ran down the stairs where a man told her he would call the police. Tarlton said a female bar worker objected to this, not wanting to cause a fuss.
Her friend called a car and the pair headed off to hospital. They ended up U-turning midway there when they received a call from the bar saying the police were there wanting a statement.
A statement from Vodka Room said bar staff acted quickly after the incident occurred.
"A manager contacted the police immediately after the incident occurred. Two private security staff stepped in to de-escalate the situation."
A spokesperson for the bar said bar staff also administered first aid.
Staff had given a full statement to police and Vodka Room wished Tarlton a "speedy recovery".
Tarlton said she was horrified by the incident and intended to press charges should police track down the offender.
"I told them I did nothing to provoke the man, nothing at all."
In hindsight, she said, it seemed likely the man was a patron at a private event held in the bar's function room.
Police confirmed they had received a call shortly after 1.30am from someone at Vodka Room, who said a woman had been shoved and had a glass thrown at her head.
"The woman was reported to be have had some minor bleeding but she declined an ambulance," police said in a statement.
Taste of Auckland said the injury did not occur at the event's after party, but at a separate events upstairs from the bar.
"Upon arrival organisers found that there had been an incident in an upstairs function room. The altercation occurred between someone who had been at the bar for a separate and unrelated private function and a lady who was unknown to Taste of Auckland organisers."
Some Taste of Auckland crew assisted the injured woman and event organisers wished Tarlton all the best.
