Jailed: Mum downed prosecco then ploughed into car
A mum has been jailed after downing a bottle of prosecco and ploughing her car into a pedestrian with a four-year-old boy in the back seat.
Trainee teacher Sophie Burton, 25, left an innocent bystander with permanent brain damage after getting behind the wheel while three times the limit.
She crashed her Ford Focus into chef Ahmed Rezgui, who was stood by his car outside a takeaway on the A6 in Hazel Grove, Stockport, Greater Manchester.
The 55-year-old victim was thrown up into the air and suffered serious brain injuries which will affect him for the rest of his life.
Witnesses described how Burton, who was training to be a specialist teacher at a primary school, had undertaken a car at ‘excessive’ speed and in an ‘aggressive’ manner.
Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard how the mum, of Lochmaddy Close, Hazel Grove, had set off ‘angry and upset’ to confront a boyfriend at his home nearby at 10.30pm on January 15. Burton pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and drink-driving and sobbed in the dock at as she was jailed for two years and four months.
The court heard she had been training at a Hazel Grove primary school to teach children with special needs and those on the autistic spectrum.
Her career now lies in tatters after the conviction and her foundation degree was said to be ‘in a hiatus’.
The court heard her exact speed on the 30mph duel carriageway could not be estimated because police were unable to carry out a reconstruction.
Burton, who was taking prescription drugs and hadn’t eaten all day, did not appear to slow down, the court heard, and hit Mr Rezgui in a location near the Anchor Inn pub before ploughing into his car. Michael Morley, prosecuting, said she should have had a clear view. He said: “A police constable attended. He could see that she was drunk. She smelled of alcohol and was unsteady on her feet.”
The court heard she told officers ‘I only had a drink of prosecco and that was an hour ago’, but later confessed to drinking a bottle.
She registered 97 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.
Mr Rezgui, who is married, had been stood behind the boot of his car, which had its hazard lights on. He was rushed to hospital and was currently at home recovering from ‘significant’ brain injuries.
The court heard his speech has now gradually improved and he is regaining the ability to recognise sentences. Mr Morley said:
The four-year-old boy who was on a booster seat in Burton’s car was fortunately unhurt. Judge Mark Savill slammed her ‘wholly irrational’ decision to drive, saying her ‘selfish conduct’ had ruined lives.
He said:
The judge added that doctors said Mr Rezgui was likely to be ‘severely neurologically impaired’ for the rest of his life.
Nicholas Flanagan, defending Burton, said didn’t plan to drive but received a phone call which caused her ‘great angst and concern’. She has now taken steps to stop drinking and had shown ‘extreme remorse’, he said.
Burton, who was suspended but later resigned from the unnamed school after the crash, was also banned from driving for four years.
After the case, Ahmed, 56, from Offerton, said the crash had flung him almost 30ft in the air.
He was left in a coma for two months, suffering a heart attack. And faced another four months of hospital treatment.
His family, including wife Janet, 57, and four children, have rallied around him – but he still faces life-changing health problems including epilepsy and diabetes as a result of the accident.
Despite intensive physio and speech therapy, his speech is still affected and he can only walk short distances with the aid of a stick.
But amazingly Ahmed, who remembers nothing of the crash, said he forgave Burton for her reckless actions:
His wife Janet described the terrible moment she heard about the crash.
She said: