Police are appealing for witnesses after a Bermondsey teenager was left potentially scarred for life following an incident outside a night club last Saturday night.
Photos showing 19-year-old Jodie Hill’s horrific injuries have gone viral online, with Jodie and her family claiming that she was pushed into railings outside The Venue nightclub in New Cross.
Jodie, who was taking care of her younger sister on her first night out, needed 28 stiches to her face after the incident.
She told the News: “I was in the club and a fight happened on the stairs behind me. The bouncers came over and told me to leave. They brought me outside but I was trying to get in because my little sister Brooke was in there and I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
Another girl at the nightclub discovered her soon after unconscious on the street outside. She spent five minutes attempting to wake her up before hailing an ambulance, which rushed her to hospital.
She has not left her house since returning from hospital on Sunday morning and has said that she is scared how people will react to her wounds.
Her mother Tracie added: “She’s not a silly girl. She wasn’t really drunk and she didn’t fall down. She works in a bar so she knows how to act. She had actually changed out of her heels and into flats about an hour before.”
The Venue released a statement that said: “In response to the recent posts concerning the young lady injured on Friday night we are taking this matter extremely seriously. The Venue would like to say her injuries were sustained outside the club as a result of her falling after she was ejected from the premises.
“They were NOT inflicted by a member of staff as has been stated and the club CCTV proves this and will be handed over to the police whom we will be cooperating with fully in their ongoing investigation.”
A police spokesperson said that detectives were keeping “an open mind” about the circumstance leading to Jodie’s injury.
He said: “They are keen to hear from anyone who was in the venue or the surrounding vicinity between 23:50hrs on Saturday, 25 July and 03:35hrs on Sunday, 26 July, who may have information as to how the woman may have sustained her injuries. Any information provided will be treated in the strictest of confidence.”
A 35-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman were interviewed under caution at a south London police station on July 27.
Call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 with any information.