Bermuda has seen multiple reports in recent months of vicious attacks by women on other women. In June 2007 The Royal Gazette reported how rival girl gangs the Pretty Girls from Berkeley Institute and the Honey Dips from CedarBridge Academy — had been clashing for months.

Lisa Trott, president of Bermuda Union of Teachers, warned that some of the girls could be armed with weapons, and the trouble could lead to a fatality or wounding if not dealt with.

In September of that year, the concern became reality when two girls from the Honey Dips were convicted of beating a member of the Pretty Girls and leaving her with a broken nose.

Ashunti Smith and Jewel Nelson, were just 17 years old when they launched the vicious attack on S3 student Sierra Scraders in May 2007. They punched and kicked her in the head and body as she lay crying and bleeding on the ground. Ms Scraders needed 15 stitches to her nose.

In another case in December 2008, a mother-of-three was jailed for three years after smashing her love rival in the face with a glass.

Wendy Ingemann left Tanya Darrell with permanent scars, fractured her skull and almost amputated her earlobe during the attack in Splash nightclub in February 2007. Darrell was later sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment after "taking the law into her own hands" and severely damaging Ingemann's car in a subsequent incident in May 2008. She admitted wilfully and unlawfully damaging the car after the two were involved in a bitter rivalry over a man, which escalated over a period of many months.

In August 2009, a 14-year-old schoolgirl admitted to a brutal attack on another girl of the same age at Hamilton bus terminal. The episode was captured on CCTV, which showed the defendant walking up to the victim and punching her multiple times in the face, before kicking her in the mouth after she fell to the ground.

Prosecutors said the attack was sparked by a male school friend of the defendant who told her to "deal with" his ex-girlfriend as he believed she was spreading rumours about him.

Crown counsel Brett Webber told Juvenile Court that the case illustrated how youth violence in Bermuda is "out of control". The teenager was handed a two-year conditional discharge for the attack. Her victim, who attended a different school, told the court it left her with chronic neck pain and in fear for her safety. Neither can be named due to their young age.