London Zoo love triangle: Zookeeper guilty of glassing love rival at Christmas party

Guilty: Former London Zoo zoologist Caroline Westlake leaves Westminster Magistrates' Court today
Lauren Hurley/PA Wire
Ramzy Alwakeel25 September 2015
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A former London Zoo worker has been convicted of glassing her llama-keeper boyfriend’s ex during a row at a Christmas party.

Meerkat-keeper Caroline Westlake, 30, told jurors she did not remember hitting monkey-keeper Kate Sanders with the glass while the pair were arguing in the toilets. But she accepted she may have reacted with it in her hand due to her dyspraxia and ADHD.

Westlake had been dating Adam Davies for a year at the time of the incident last year. Ms Sanders had previously been in a five-year relationship with Mr Davies.

During the Christmas party on the night of December 8 last year, Westlake heard Ms Sanders saying to friends in the toilets: “Have you seen the state of her?”

But the feud came to a head at the end of the night when Westlake went to the cloakroom and Ms Sanders approached her.

Westlake said: “When I got to the cloakroom I remember looking up and seeing her standing there.”

She added she felt uncomfortable after hearing the comments earlier in the night, but did not want to give the impression she was scared of Ms Sanders by leaving.

Westlake continued: “She (Ms Sanders) said: ‘Caroline, I want to apologise for what you heard me saying earlier in the bathrooms,’ and then I remember saying: ‘Why did you say it? I am trying to be nice, trying to be civil, I don’t understand what I have done wrong to you.’

“And then I remember her saying: ‘You’re dating my ex-boyfriend.’”

The argument escalated, Westlake said.

Boyfriend: Adam Davies arrives at court
Lauren Hurley/PA Wire

“It got really, really heated,” she told jurors, “and she was saying: ‘Everyone hates you, everyone says you’re mad, no one likes you.’

“She just kept screaming in my face. So then I said: ‘They say the same about you.’

“She punched me in the side of my face. It kind of knocked me, knocked me back. And then it was like a split second struggle and I was standing apart from her and I remember seeing her face was cut, and I remember thinking: ‘How has this happened?’.”

The bench at Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard Ms Sanders had a history of hitting people, including Mr Davies himself.

Giving evidence, Mr Davies described how she had slapped him after a football World Cup match between England and the USA in 2010.

He said Ms Sanders had commented that England were rubbish and had started to sing the Australian national anthem.

“And then she slapped me across the face,” said Mr Davies.

He added that it was “not playful”.

Mr Davies said he had not seen the fight between Westlake and Ms Sanders, but said his ex-girlfriend Sanders had been “spending a lot more time around me than she had previously”.

He added: “I would say she was being more flirtatious than normal. She was just dancing around, pretty close. She was just chatting to me more than normal.

“And there was an incident. […] She was, like, stroking my tie.”

Westlake, of Salisbury Road, Banstead, Surrey, denied one count of assault. She is due to be sentenced on October 14.

Speaking outside court, her lawyer Suzanne Kelly said: “The bench found the charges proven. They said it was not intentional but it was reckless by virtue of having a glass in her hand and by being in close proximity to someone.

“It is my view that the bench were wrong in their interpretation of the law and recklessness and, for that reason, we will be appealing.”

Westlake and her group of supporters tussled with photographers as they left the court building.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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