PA
A mother drank so much she was three times over the legal limit before getting into a car with her two-year-old son - and crashing as she wrote a text message.
And when police arrived at the scene, Kirsty Dieng, 23, was so drunk she couldn't even spell her son's name and asked an officer: 'Does that make me a bad mum?'
The mum-of-two couldn't even remember her toddler's date of birth after she ploughed her VW Golf into a traffic island in Bristol.
Mike Hartnell, prosecuting, told Bristol Magistrates' Court: 'On August 11 the defendant was at home with a friend and her two-year-old was asleep upstairs.
'She had drunk at least two bottles of wine and a quantity of vodka. Even though she was drunk she told her friend she would drive her home and took her two-year-old with her.
'They ended up deciding just to go for a drive and she ended up in Ashley Down Road.
'She drove past the junction with Kathdene Gardens and began to compound her driving whilst drunk by using her Blackberry mobile phone to send a text message.
'It was then that she crashed into a traffic island bollard.
'Officers attended the scene where they found her holding her child. She was intoxicated and failed a breath test.
'She was found to have 98mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, The legal limit is 35mg.'
Mr Hartnell read from a statement provided by an officer who had attended the scene.
The statement read: 'I approached a female who was sitting on a kerb holding her child.
'She said 'don't take my baby away' and said she thought we would because she had been in a crash.
'She then asked where her Blackberry was.
'She was clearly intoxicated and had glazed eyes. She could not tell me how to spell her child's name or his date of birth.
'She asked 'does that made me a sh*t mum?'
'She tried to hand her child to the other female who had been in the car but she was so drunk she fell over.
'A paramedic took the child. She then became aggressive and the child was crying and clearly distressed.
'The child was taken to the Bristol Royal Infirmary where it was found not to have any injuries.
'She admitted straight away what she had done and said she may have a drink problem.
'She said she had woken him up and taken him with her because she didn't want to leave him at home with the family.
'She said she had crashed because she was trying to send a text and because she was drunk.'
Mr Hartnell said Dieng had no previous convictions.
Kate Sakof, defending, said Dieng had made full admissions to police and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
She said: 'To some extent she wants to appear to her family like she is coping and keeps her own problems to herself.
"This has been a big wake up call for her," Miss Sakof said. She added Dieng was the carer of her brother, son and grandfather who all suffer with muscular dystrophy.
'I suppose she is a typical young person who can not cope with alcohol. She has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders and she had drowned them with alcohol to some extent.'
Magistrates banned Dieng from driving for 18 months and handed her a 12-month community order. She was also ordered to pay £85 court costs.
Magistrates told Dieng: 'I think you understand this is a very serious matter. In this case it is even more serious because you were using your phone, you had an accident and you put the lives of other people in danger.'