Woman tracks down attacker on Facebook

LONDON - A woman who was brutally attacked at a British nightclub successfully tracked down her attacker on Facebook after police said they had no leads.

The Telegraph reports that in March, Jennifer Wilson, 20, was nearly blinded when Ashleigh Holliman, 22, rammed a pint glass in her face less than an inch under her left eye. Following the unprovoked attack, police said that the video camera in the club wasn't clear and that nightclub staff had cleaned up the crime scene.

But Wilson recognized one of Holliman's friends and went on his Facebook page to see if she could find out who the woman was who hurt her.

After going through 200 of the man's friends, she found a photo of Holliman and even found her home and workplace addresses.

Holliman was arrested, charged and sentenced to 120 hours of community service. But Wilson is left wondering why police weren't able to track Holliman down.

''In the end I had to do the police's job for them and track this girl down on Facebook," Wilson said. ''This girl had just been glaring at me all night long and then all of a sudden I was dancing with friends and she slammed the glass into my face .... She managed to escape but I recognized one of her friends and decided to try and track her down because I didn't deserve what she did to me.''

Social networking sites are being used by more law enforcement officials as a way of tracking down criminals. In Medina, Ohio, police launched a Facebook group featuring photos and information about fugitives in hopes that the public can help find them. But Facebook, Twitter and other sites can also make people open targets of crime. Many people's homes have been burglarized after they posted messages or real-time photos on social networking sites that say they're on vacation.