As a pub manager for 16 years, Jean Rowe was used to dealing with customers who had had one too many. But one night when she asked a customer to leave the Rose and Crown in Rushden, Northamptonshire, he smashed his glass into her face.

“I was wearing glasses and they took the full force of the blow but I ended up on the floor with a cut hand and a swollen and bruised cheekbone,” she said. The police were called and customers lined up to give statements, Ms Rowe recalled. But the police did not take any. A few days later she was told that the offender had been given a caution and would not be prosecuted because she had not been seriously hurt.

“It seemed to be sending out the message that it’s fine to do something like that — you can just get away with it,” she said. Before the attack in February, she was proud that she had “never had a ‘sickie’ in my life”. But the incident undermined her confidence. Ms Rowe, 56, was put on antidepressants, then decided she would have to leave the business. She is now starting a job with a charity in Lincolnshire.

“I don’t really blame the police — I blame the criminal justice system,” she said. “But it has undermined good relations with the police. It is unbelievable. It made me feel as if I was worth nothing,” she said.

Ms Rowe’s case is one of many reported to National PubWatch, an association of publicans, shopkeepers and others in licensed premises. It has launched a “court not caution” campaign, and its president, Nigel Evans MP, has tabled an early day motion in the Commons which has been signed by 90 MPs.

The group said of the attack on Ms Howe: “There needs to be a change in the way that such violent incidents are viewed by the police and CPS. People in the trade feel that the criminal justice system is not supporting them in their efforts to run their businesses in a socially responsible fashion.”

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• BGC 'set aside £40m to lure Tullett brokers'
• Legal aid review to ensure value
• Fears as 21 magistrates' courts face closure