Student breaches sentence
A PSYCHOLOGY PhD student who went on a wild driving rampage around Dunedin while quaffing wine has breached her sentence by drinking again.
Katherine Ann McWilliams (34) was sentenced to four months’ home detention for the incident which left a trail of destruction costing her nearly $12,000.
One of the special conditions imposed by the court was: ‘‘not to possess or consume alcohol’’.
However, with only days left until completion of her sentence, police were called to McWilliams’ address over a domestic incident on March 3.
She was found to be ‘‘under the influence of alcohol’’ and admitted the breach in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
The facts that led to her appearing in court originally in November astonished Judge Michael Turner.
‘‘It’s difficult to comprehend a more serious example of dangerous driving,’’ he said at the time.
The mayhem began when McWilliams was seen drinking from a bottle of wine as she drove along Elgin Rd. When she veered on to the wrong side of the road and narrowly missed an oncoming vehicle, a concerned member of the public called police.
A 4.3km joyride ensued that saw McWilliams crash her Mercedes into a retaining wall, a Ford Falcon parked near the Mornington shopping centre and another vehicle waiting to leave the area. She drove over a traffic island at speed and slammed into a third car before finally ploughing into a bank.
The court heard how the defendant had since been seeing a psychologist every week and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Defence counsel Sasha Dolby said her client was also seeing a doctor over an anxiety disorder.
‘‘She acknowledges without question she has an alcohol problem and has been constantly trying to address that,’’ she said.
‘‘There are occasions when people slip up on the road to recovery and this is one of those.’’
Ms Dolby said McWilliams was about to restart her PhD studies and had a ‘‘bright future ahead of her’’.
Judge Kevin Phillips accepted alcoholism was horrible disease but warned the woman about another breach of sentence.
‘‘One more slipup and you go to prison,’’ he said. ‘‘I can’t make it any clearer than that.’’
McWilliams was given a sixmonth suspended sentence.