WARNING: This article includes a graphic image of the victim’s injuries before she had major facial reconstruction surgery
00:01, 11 Apr 2026
Jessica Cloke was sentenced to 14 months in prison following an assault inside the Sovereign Base Area in Cyprus(Image: Unknown)
A woman who left a former friend with 50 stitches to the face after a drunken assault exclaimed “I just saw red and threw my glass at her”. Twenty-one-year-old Jessica Cloke, 21, made the admission in a fleeting video in the wake of the wine glass attack on her one-time close friend Madison Bagley in Cyprus last year.
Cloke, the daughter of RAF Group Captain Simon Cloke, who was serving commander of RAF Akrotiri at the time, left Wirral-born Ms Bagley with a gaping wound to her face needing dozens of stitches. The sickening assault happened at a pub called The Hamlet, which, although not on a military base, was inside the Sovereign Base Area (SBA), which has been treated as British soil since Cyprus gained independence in 1960.
But despite the fact the attack was captured on pub CCTV and Cloke made the admissions of “seeing red”, she originally denied the charge of causing grievous bodily harm and her case went to trial. Cloke changed her plea to guilty on the first day of proceedings after some of the footage of the assault was played to the closed court in Episkopi.
She returned to court this week to be sentenced by Judge Brian Cummings KC, who usually sits in Liverpool. The ECHO revealed on Friday how Cloke had been sentenced to an immediate prison term and was being held at Cyprus’s HMP Dhekelia.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence told the ECHO: “Unacceptable and criminal behaviour has no place in our armed forces community. We can confirm that 21-year old Jessica Cloke has this week been sentenced to 14 months’ imprisonment following her conviction for an offence of causing grievous bodily harm under Sovereign Base Area law.”
The short video showing Cloke, appearing to wear a hoodie and sobbing in the aftermath of the attack, was sent to the ECHO by Ms Bagley’s family. The traumatised victim’s brother, MacKenzie, of Prenton, said she had become “a shell of herself” since the assault on August 22, 2025.
Ms Bagley, who is a military dependent, the child of someone serving at the base, had a “gaping vertical gash” on her right cheek which was “perilously close to her eye”. She continues to have treatment for her injuries.
Asked about the impact the attack has had on his sister, Mr Bagley said: “She’s been really brave during the whole thing, but you can see how much of a detriment it’s had on her. Before the attack she was really outgoing and you could have a laugh with her.
“During the whole trial process she was a shell of herself. She would sleep all day for days at a time. You could barely get a conversation out of her whilst she was in Cyprus. She came home for two weeks after Jessica pleaded guilty and she seemed like a massive weight had been lifted.
“During sentencing Jessica’s barrister was trying to play down the effects that it has had on Madi and obviously having to listen to that has had another negative effect. Madi has had facial reconstruction surgery in which she has had 50 stitches inside and out. She now has to wait for a second surgery on her face because it cannot be done because her face still isn’t healed correctly.”
Madison Bagley’s injuries after being attacked by Jessica Cloke at the Sovereign Base Area in Cyprus (Image: Bagley family)
The court heard the two women had once been close friends but had fallen out. Judge Cummings said CCTV showed Cloke chase after Ms Bagley before standing face-to-face and swilling her with her wine glass. Ms Bagley tipped water over Cloke’s head, but the aggressor responded by making three attempts to strike her with the glass.
Judge Cummings said: “In my judgement, the CCTV footage tells the story. It was you who pursued and accosted the victim in the public house, you then assaulted her by throwing your wine in her face and, when she then retaliated by pouring water over you, you then smashed a glass in her face.
“In my judgement none of that was self-defence. Focusing on your use of the glass, if anything that was grossly excessive and unwarranted retaliation by you for her pouring water over you, something which you had yourself provoked by throwing wine in her face.
“Retaliation is not the same as self-defence. You were not acting out of fear or any need to protect yourself. This was drunken anger. You started it. You were the aggressor.”