Two years after the father of her children tried to blow himself up in their house, a single mother who was discovered drug-driving the night following a significant “blowout” was given a three-year driving penalty.
Police stopped Kirsty Wheldon, 34, in her Ford Kuga at about two in the morning on June 6 after seeing she was “driving at speed and making abrupt curves,” Sefton magistrates court heard on Monday.
Her irregular speech gave the officers reason to believe she was intoxicated, and a saliva test revealed she had cocaine in her system. She had double the permitted amount while claiming “accidental exposure.”
Wheldon admitted guilt to the crime and received a three-year driving prohibition.
The court heard that Wheldon had endured a trying few years after her ex and the father of her three children, Tony Gath, threatened to blow himself up in a gas explosion, barricaded himself inside the family home, and threatened to stab police. Her attorney Heather Toohey described the punishment as “extremely long.”
In May 2020, Gath, aged 41, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for breaking into Wheldon’s mid-terraced home, turning on the gas stove, and threatening to light it on fire if she abandoned him.
In Wallasey, Merseyside, police and firemen had to undertake a significant security operation while also evacuating surrounding houses and a school.
Gath, who was still inside the house, said, “I have lost my kids, I have nothing to lose, keep back or I’ll knife you,” threatening to hurt himself and the rescue personnel.
When a three-hour siege, he ultimately handed himself up after Wheldon begged him to.
The three kids now reside with their grandmother 40 miles away after Wheldon lost custody of them two years after the event, the court was informed.
The children were taken from their mother’s house four months ago, according to defence attorney Ms. Toohey, because of a domestic partnership with another man.
She later discontinued the connection because she “tried to put her children first,” the court heard.
As you may guess, she’s had a really challenging year. Due of safety concerns, they are not permitted to reside with her, according to Ms. Toohey.
“She doesn’t believe she was drugged up,” a friend said. She had a wild night out the night before. She acknowledges having a major blowout. In the previous four months, there had been a lot of tension.
Her guilty plea “reflects her remorse.”
Before she was brought into prison to provide a blood sample, according to prosecutor Clare Oliver, a roadside saliva test was completed at the moment she was pulled over.
The cocaine breakdown product benzoylecgonine, which is measured in micrograms per litre, was found in her blood at a level of 120 micrograms, the woman said. There is a 50mg cap. Additionally, she displayed 19 milligrammes of cocaine per litre. The cap is 10 milligrammes.
Wheldon has taken cocaine recreationally in the past, Ms. Toohey confessed, and she now knows how long cocaine may stay in a user’s system following usage.
Drug usage, according to her, “is not a problem” for Wheldon, who previously had her licence suspended for a year in 2019 due to a separate drug-related driving offence.
The court also heard how Wheldon, who depends on her automobile to see her children every week, will be affected by the three-year licence ban.
Because of the road closure, she won’t be able to see the children in the trailer on a weekly basis. They reside in a region that can only be reached by car on the other side of Preston. It will have a significant effect. She lives and cares for them alone, and three years is a very long period,’ she said.
Wheldon was also hit with a victim surcharge, a £120 fine, and a £154 cost obligation.
Gath and Wheldon first split up in July 2018 before getting back together in the early months of 2020, but that romance barely lasted a week.
At Liverpool Crown Court in 2020, the judge sentenced him to prison despite acknowledging his depression about the breakup of his relationship and calling his actions “totally self-centred” and a “immature outpouring of self pity.”