A shoe was used as a weapon during a drunken mass brawl in the centre of Norwich that saw two women grappling on the ground, a court heard.

One man suffered a broken jaw and a woman a fractured eye socket in the fight in Tombland in the early hours of August 29 last year, Norwich Crown Court was told.

In the disturbance Carl Hewitt, 25, broke the jaw of another man, while Nadia Butcher, 25, fought a woman in the road, hitting her repeatedly with her shoe and injuring her eye socket.

Neil Brewster, 34, then broke up the fight between the two women as they were grappling on the ground by hitting the female victim in the face with a single blow using Butcher's shoe, the court was told.

Hewitt, of Brick Kiln Road, North Walsham, was jailed 10 months after he admitted causing grievous bodily harm and Brewster, of no fixed address, was jailed eight months after admitting causing grievous bodily harm for the shoe attack.

Butcher of Sarah Williman Close, Norwich, was jailed for four months, after admitting actual bodily harm.

Sentencing them, Judge Katharine Moore said the disturbance was in a public place at a time when revellers were waiting for taxis home.

She said Hewitt started the incident by throwing the first blow and Butcher had used her shoe as a weapon: 'You were using that as a weapon against her.'

She accepted Brewster did not get involved until the end of the incident and only struck one blow.

John Morgans, for Brewster, said he hit the victim with the shoe in an attempt to break up the fight and had been aiming for her hand not her face: 'He was looking out for his friend, He accepts he got it wrong and he certainly was not intending to harm anyone.'

Andrew Oliver, for Hewitt said the attack was out of character, and he had too much to drink that day.

'He is devastated that he committed this offence. He is appalled by his actions.'

Mr Oliver, for Butcher, said she was horrified at her behaviour: 'She has not tried to excuse it.'

He said she faced a number of difficulties and suffered from anxiety.