A pool player who was taking too long over his game in a St Albans pub has been found not guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to a woman who wanted to play.

Tracey Hewson, 47, was struck on the neck with a pint glass in the Great North Inn in London Road after she had complained that Mark Flanagan and a friend were taking too long to finish.

He told the jury at St Albans crown court that he had hit her accidentally when she had confronted him and pushed the balls into the pool table pockets to end his game.

Mr Flanagan, 28, of Dellfield, pleaded not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent and not guilty to an alternative, lesser charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm. He was found not guilty of both charges.

Giving evidence behind a screen, Ms Hewson said she kicked out at him and then thought he was going to slap her.

"I turned away and then I felt blood running down my neck. I thought it was a slap. I just saw a hand come across.

"I looked down and there was blood dripping on the pool table," she said.

Ms Hewson said she shouted for her boyfriend Phil Rush to call an ambulance. She was taken to Watford General hospital where she had two shards of glass removed from her neck and received 17 stitches.

Asked by prosecutor Philip Levy about the long term effects of the injury, she said: "I have got a big scar on my neck.

"I get tingling - sometimes it feels like I have had ice cubes put on it. Psychologically, I am not the same person."

Ms Hewson said she had gone to the pub with her boyfriend on 9 November 2013 to watch football on the TV, before deciding to play pool.

She said she had put a pound on the table to indicate they wanted to play the next game.

She told the jury that a game usually take 5 or 10 minutes, but Mark Flanagan and his friend were not playing and she had waited for 45 minutes.

Under cross examination by Andel Singh, for Mr Flanagan, said she and her boyfriend had drunk 4 or 5 pints of Carlsberg in two other pubs before going to the Great North Inn, where they had 2 or 3 more.

She said she was annoyed that Mark Flanagan and his friend were time-wasting. She said: "I had already asked 20 or 30 minutes before and they said they would be 'done in a minute.'"

Asked why she had not asked the barmaid to tell them to finish, she replied: "She was busy serving people."

Ms Hewson denied she was "hell bent" on removing the balls from the table. She said she was not "angry and agitated."

Prosecutor Mr Levy said Mark Flanagan admitted flicking beer over Ms Hewson. When questioned, he told the police that when she kicked him in the stomach he raised his hand, which had a pint glass in it, in self defence.

In the witness box today/Friday, Mr Flanagan said the glassing had been an accident and he was acting in self defence.

He said he had drunk four or five pints in the pub, having been there since 1pm. He said that during his pool match the man he had been playing with had gone out for a smoke.

When Ms Hewson started putting balls down the pockets, he said: "She seemed like a crazy woman. I didn't want to go over to her."

Asked what he did when she went to kick him, he said: "I didn't have time to think about the glass in my hand. I was being attacked."