Broken-hearted drink-driver smashed bus shelter at speed
A WOMAN who got drunk in Town ‘to cure a broken heart’ later got into her car and while driving at speed along Les Banques she lost control, crossed onto the wrong side of the road, mounted the pavement and wiped out a bus shelter.
When the emergency services arrived, Katie Le Huray, 21, was initially unconscious in her blue Mini, with the shelter obliterated nearby.
Officers smelled alcohol and at the hospital Le Huray gave a blood sample which showed she was nearly double the legal drink-drive limit.
Appearing in the Magistrate’s Court for sentencing, Le Huray admitted drink-driving.
Judge Graeme McKerrell gave Le Huray credit for her early guilty pleas, her previous good character, and glowing letters of reference.
However, her drink-driving had been at high speed, and if she had hit someone they would have been killed.
In total Le Huray was sentenced to 140 hours of community service and banned from driving for two years and six months.
The judge said he was giving her ‘one chance – and one chance only’.
She also admitted assault and criminal damage offences which occurred five weeks after the car crash, while she was out on bail.
The assault and damage offences happened in June.
Le Huray had been in Koi Koi, the Randy Paddle and the Golden Lion and had drunk about 15-20 shots and five gins.
While she was in the Ship & Crown, she got into an argument with a man she knew by sight.
He responded with an insult that Le Huray later described as the ‘tipping point’. There was a short struggle, beer was spilt, Le Huray punched the man once, kicked him in the leg, and glasses were thrown towards him.
Pub staff tried to restrain Le Huray, but she got away and swiped a tray of dirty glasses from the bar onto the floor.
Another woman tried to calm Le Huray down, but she was pulled onto the floor by her hair and kicked.
The court heard that there was ‘extensive shouting’ and prosecuting advocate Rory Calderwood said the scene was ‘one of chaos’. On the way out of the pub, Le Huray punched a fire alarm.
In defence, Advocate Samuel Steel said that his client made an unreserved apology to the court and community, and that she felt ashamed and awful about what she had done.
On the night of the drink-driving offence, her partner had broken up with her and she was ‘consumed with emotional pain’.
Regarding the offences in the Ship & Crown, there was a specific insult that the man had said to her which she took to heart.
The court was asked to consider that the man who had been assaulted had only very minor injuries and the woman who had tried to help did not provide a statement.
Le Huray was said to have been struggling with her relationship breakdown and was on prescribed medication.
Alcohol had become an ‘emotional crutch’, but she had since sought therapy and wanted to stop drinking and turn her life around.
Work references were read to the court and her employer vouched that she was a very hard-working person and a hugely important asset in her office.
A probation report assessed Le Huray as being at a very low risk of reoffending.
