Grandmother, 37, banned from seeing grandson for being drunk in charge of him

A grandmother aged 37 who admitted being drunk in charge of her baby grandson has been banned from seeing him for 10 years. Christine Crowley, who Plymouth Crown Court heard had been present at the boy's birth and had seen him every day of his life until the incident, is no longer allowed to see him without the consent of his father and Plymouth City Council.

The court heard that Crowley was in the process of being tried for child cruelty when she offered to plead guilty to being drunk in charge of a child. Prosecutor Sally Daulton said that around 10pm on March 17 last year, two police officers saw Crowley struggling with a push-chair, rocking it violently backward and forward to try to get it up a pavement while shouting and swearing and smelling strongly of drink.



She staggered away and the officers found the six month-old boy very quiet and almost dazed. He was freezing cold, very wet and had cigarette ash on his head, and in the buggy, whose elastic restraining strap was very tight, was Crowley's glass with beer in it. They found her banging and kicking on a door and shouting for her daughter. Judge Miranda Robertshaw told Crowley, of Alcester Close, Devonport: "You were thoroughly drunk and wholly neglectful of this vulnerable baby, placing his safety at risk; you prioritised your own desire for drink."

The judge said that a short jail sentence would see Crowley spend just days inside, leaving her free to carry on her drunken behaviour, putting young children at risk. Instead, she imposed a 20-day jail sentence suspended for 12 months with 12 months' supervision by the Probation Service, also ordering her to attend an alcohol programme. Judge Robertshaw also imposed a 10-year restraining order prohibiting direct contact with the boy without consent of his father and Plymouth City Council.