Drunk jailed for stealing and crashing family's car - with their baby strapped inside it

An alcoholic who stole and crashed a family car with a baby strapped inside it  has been jailed for four months.

John Taylor, 35, was three-and-half times over the legal drink-driving limit  when he spotted Kevin Young's Citroen parked with the driver's door open and engine running as he staggered along the street.

Not realising that Mr Young's 19-month-old baby son was strapped in the rear seat, Taylor got in and drove off as the panic-stricken father emerged from his  house to see the car moving off down the rear lane in Ariel Street, Ashington,  Northumberland.  

Taylor who had been drinking heavily from early in the morning on June 22   managed to drive about 400 yards before losing control of the car and crashing into a bush.

He tried to flee the scene but was detained by local resident Scott O'Donnell,  who heard the crash and assumed Taylor was the father of the crying baby in the rear seat.

But he managed to get away from the scene and was later found lying in the garden of a house about 200 yards away.

Mr Young's baby son was removed from the badly damaged car  by passers-by but was unhurt.

Taylor, of Fontburn Crescent, Ashington, has been sentenced to 16 weeks  in prison, disqualified from driving for three years and ordered to pay £300  compensation towards the estimated £2,500 damage caused to Mr Young's car.

He pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated vehicle taking, driving with excess alcohol and having no licence or insurance.

He also admitted a charge of being  drunk and disorderly in Ashington the previous day.

Bedlington magistrates were told Taylor was an alcoholic and regularly consumed  between 10 and 12 litres of cider a day.

After his arrest, he was taken to a police station where a breath test at 5pm showed he was still three-and-a-half  times the legal driving limit.

He told police he had drunk so much he had no recollection of the day's events but said he would never have taken the car if he had known there was a baby inside.

Graham Crouth, defending, urged the court to impose a suspended prison sentence, saying Taylor had already served three weeks in custody since the offences, and was receivign help to tackle his alcohol addiction.

He said: 'I cannot even begin to imagine what that child's father must have  thought when he came out and saw that car disappearing down the street.  

'However, John Taylor did not realise the child was in the car. Fortunately,  there was no physical damage to the child.'