Elizabeth Christine Saov: 20-year-old bit elderly good Samaritan three times during unprovoked Orelia attack

A 20-year-old woman from Orelia who bit an elderly good Samaritan three times to the face during a brutal attack has been granted a spent conviction. Elizabeth Christine Saov admitted to biting, punching and choking the 69-year-old victim outside his Orelia home after her work Christmas party on December 10 last year. But a childhood history of abuse and genuine remorse meant Rockingham Magistrate Linda Keane spared her from prison. Saov pleaded guilty to unlawful assault and bodily harm in circumstances of aggravation on Monday at Rockingham Magistrates Court. Police prosecutor Brian Sutherland told the court it was between 1.40am and 2am when Saov knocked on the elderly victim’s door. The victim left his bed, answered his door and found Saov there asking if she could use his phone. When the victim went and got his phone and handed it over, Saov, unprovoked, launched into the attack. “She grabbed the victim by the throat and he had trouble breathing,” Mr Sutherland said. “She bit the victim three times on his nose, his face and his forehead.” Saov also punched the victim multiple times before fleeing but left her handbag at the scene. The handbag connected Saov to the crime and they found her at her Orelia home. But when they took her to the police station, Saov was so intoxicated she could not be interviewed. Saov’s lawyer painted a picture of a hardworking young woman with a violent childhood that triggered her offending. He said Saov moved to Australia when she was 18 with her mother after she left her violent father. On the night of the attack, Saov’s Uber dropped her streets away from her home. He said she thought someone was following her, was scared and was “a young woman in the middle of the night somewhere she doesn’t know”. “She works full-time at the British Sausage Company,” he said. “She’s attended a work Christmas ball, but rarely goes out and didn’t count her drinks. “The last thing she remembered was dancing. She barely remembers being at the victim’s residence. “She remembers crying on her bed at home. It was bewildering to her how this had occurred. Her memory just goes blank.” Magistrate Linda Keane described Saov as a “vicious crazed woman” on the night of offending but said sentencing her was a “difficult exercise”. Ms Keane believed that Saov’s offending was caused by the trauma she experienced as a child. “You should be looking at a term of imprisonment because that’s how serious the offending is,” Ms Keane said. “But it’s not who you are, it’s what you did. “I have confidence you are not going to offend again.” Ms Keane fined Saov $7500, which would be paid directly to the victim and granted her a spent conviction. “This conviction need not mark you for everything you want to do in life and this conviction won’t hold you back,” Ms Keane said.