Warning over rise in assaults using stiletto heels

High heel shoes have been used as weapons (Getty Images)

In a worrying sign that the so-called ladette culture is spiralling again, stiletto shoes have been linked to 147 violent crimes across Britain since 2013.

In the most serious cases victims have lost their sight or been hospitalised with appalling injuries.

The figures – released under freedom of information laws – were provided by 21 of Britain’s 44 police forces.

The remaining 23 claimed they did not hold the information or that it was too expensive to retrieve.

Labour MP Jack Dromey described the figures as sickening and warned they were likely to be the tip of the iceberg.

The largest number of stiletto attacks was in Merseyside, where 43 have been recorded over the past three years.

They included the case of Amy Sundve, 30, who launched an unprovoked attack outside a pub in Liverpool during a two-day birthday drinking session.

Her victim asked if she was OK, and was left with a cut artery and a 7cm scar on his forehead. She was jailed in October for 10 months

There were also seven high heel attacks in Durham and five in Cumbria.

Police could not provide official figures for the number in Scotland but anecdotal evidence suggests their prevalence is growing.

Dad-of-one Graham Roach, from Edinburgh, had to undergo hours of surgery which failed to save his left eye after Sarah Marsden plunged her heel into his face.

The attack happened in the city’s George Street, where Mr Roach was working as a doorman.

Marsden admitted assault and was jailed for 40 months.

Mr Roach said: “If her heel had been half an inch either way when it went into my face, it would have killed me.

“It was very painful and I spent five days in hospital.

“A few months later I had to go back for another operation to have my eye removed.”

He described the national figures as shocking and urged Police Scotland to reveal how many similar attacks had happened north of the border.

Reveller Jodie Hendrie, of Broxburn, West Lothian, was 18 when a stranger stabbed her in the face with a stiletto while she waited for a taxi.

She was still too traumatised to speak about the drunken attack in September 2013 – which left her with severe facial scarring – when contacted by our reporter.

In a worrying twist, women in the US are being trained to use stiletto heels as a self- defence weapon.

Former ballerina Avital Zeisler came up with the Soteria Method – which involves hitting an attacker with a heel or stamping on their foot – after she was sexually assaulted.

She argues that because of the narrow point of the heel, the average woman putting her full weight on a stiletto would apply 200 times as much pressure as a 15-stone man would be able to put on a size nine shoe.

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