A WOMAN repeatedly stamped on a stranger's head in a 'vicious, unprovoked' onslaught, a court heard.

Thug Rachel Mason, of Bullingdon Road, Oxford, carried out the violent attack on a woman at Cowley Road on April 12.

Oxford Crown Court heard at her sentencing hearing yesterday how the incident started at about 10.30pm.

Mason, 34, approached her victim who was talking with her partner on her mobile phone.

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The woman 'looked in her direction' the court heard, and Mason then repeatedly demanded to know why she had looked at her.

Moments later Mason exploded into a rage and dragged her victim by her neck across the road.

She then kicked the woman in the head and as she lay on the ground stamped on her head repeatedly.

The court heard that the victim 'was utterly terrified and thought she was going to die.'

Police arrived and Mason was later arrested for the violence, admitting one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one separate count of theft.

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In mitigation at the hearing her defence barrister Jane Brady said that her client - who struggled with alcoholism - was remorseful at what she had done.

Explaining what she termed 'despicable' behaviour she said her client had been beaten up 10 minutes earlier and had then taken her aggression out on her victim.

Sentencing, Judge Maria Lamb called the attack 'a violent, vicious and unprovoked assault on somebody not able to defend themselves.'

Mason was jailed for a total of 14 months.

**An earlier version of this article stated that Mason had been jailed for a total of 16 months. Her two sentences of 14 and two months will run concurrently, rather than consecutively, meaning she was sentenced to a total of 14 months. We have amended the article online.**