Ex-Geordie Shore cast member Chantelle Connelly guilty of punching woman

A former cast member of the reality show Geordie Shore has been convicted of punching a woman on a night out after getting jealous over an ex-boyfriend.

Chantelle Connelly, 27, had denied GBH on the 22-year-old she had been talking to in a Newcastle bar in October.

Sarah O'Neill, prosecuting, told Newcastle Magistrates' Court Connelly was introduced to the woman by a mutual friend in the VIP area of a bar called Bijoux.

She recognised her from the TV show, which she had watched from the start.

They were part of a larger group who had been chatting and dancing together who then moved on to another bar in Stowell Street.

It was in this venue that Connelly changed and "got jealous" about an ex-boyfriend called Tommy Sayers, the court was told.

Connelly repeatedly asked the woman "if she had gone with Tommy", Ms O'Neill said.

The woman told the court she used to know Mr Sayers when she was 17, but had not seen him since she was 18.

Bouncers saw the disagreement and the woman and two friends left.

Before they could get in to Powerhouse nightclub, Connelly turned up outside and grabbed the woman's phone, the court heard.

The complainant told the court: "Chantelle was back in my face shouting 'have you been with Tommy?'"

The victim said Connelly checked her Facebook for evidence of contact with Mr Sayers, but found none.

As the woman and a friend walked off to get a taxi, she said Connelly hit her in the face, knocking her backwards a couple of metres, causing her to fall.

She suffered a split lip, which required three stitches, and a broken wrist.

Connelly said she was in Bijoux bar, having earlier been out in her local, the Heaton Hotel.

She claimed she then went to a bar called the Cosmic Ballroom where she danced, then took a taxi home and denied going anywhere near the Powerhouse and flatly denied assaulting the woman.

But chairman of the bench Edward Wardrobe said they accepted the account of the victim.

A victim personal statement read out in court said the assault had "affected her greatly" and she now struggled to sleep.

Connelly was told she would be sentenced on July 5.