Three children lose mother after late-night bottle attack
Celebration ends in death when glass shatters and slashes 27-year-old’s neck
A young mother of three children under the age of seven was killed by a shard of glass after a beer bottle was hurled into a pub during Boxing Night celebrations.
Emma O’Kane, 27, collapsed in a pool of blood when the glass slashed her neck as she chatted with friends in the Queen Anne in Heywood, Greater Manchester.
Police said that a man who had been refused entry to the pub after an argument with bouncers a few minutes earlier had thrown a beer bottle into the crowded saloon. The bottle smashed as it hit a pillar near where Ms O’Kane was standing, and glass pierced vital arteries in her neck.
She was with her partner, Michael Shepherd, who was celebrating his 38th birthday, and four friends when she died. Ms O’Kane, who was employed as a barmaid at the pub, lived a mile away with Mr Shepherd and her three children, aged six, two, and one.
Yesterday, as the children played with their Christmas presents, the family spoke of their grief. Mr Shepherd said: “We had all gone out for a drink to celebrate my birthday and went back to the pub where Emma works as a barmaid for one last drink to end the night. I was in the snug room and Emma wandered into the main bar. Everyone knows her in the pub and she was saying goodbye to some of her friends. I heard something and then saw Emma on the floor. I just thought that she had fallen over. But then I realised that she was not moving and that her eyes were open and there was blood all over the place.
“She was staring up at the ceiling – I realised that it was really bad. One bloke went to help her and was holding her hand. People were shouting that someone had thrown something. I tried to revive her by holding her legs up in the air because someone said that would help. I ran for some tissue paper from the toilets and a girl held the tissue paper to her neck. But I think she had lost too much blood. I think she had gone there on the floor of the pub.