Woman drink-driver caught mother in bed with her husband

A GRANNY was caught in bed with her son-in-law when her daughter walked in on the lovers, Limerick District Court has been told.

Devastated mother-of-three Fiona Porter, aged 24, was stopped for drink-driving some hours later.

Even though she was off the road for a previous drink-driving offence, she avoided jail due to what Judge Aeneas McCarthy described as “mitigating circumstances”.

Defence solicitor John Devane said the circumstances of the case were sad and Porter’s life was shattered after she found her mother and husband in bed. She later found out they had been having an affair for years.

He said Porter now lives alone with her children, aged five, three and six months, in Moyross.

Mr Devane said he had never come into court to stand up and give such a reason for a drink-driving offence.

Porter, he said, foolishly drove with drink after she found the two persons she trusted most in bed together. Mr Devane asked that the court be as lenient as possible due to the unusual circumstances.

“This is a woman who has been betrayed by loved ones,” he said. Sgt Peter Kelly of the Garda Traffic Corps told the court that he stopped a car being driven by Porter at 2.40am on June 29 last at Sexton Street North, Thomondgate. He arrested her after getting a strong smell of drink.

A breath test at Henry Street Garda station gave a reading of 73 over 100. Sgt Kelly said that at the time Porter was off the road, having been convicted of another drink-driving offence on April 22.

Mr Devane said Porter was just getting to grips with the earlier disqualification when she made the bedroom discovery after getting a bus home.

Foolishly, he said she drove off in her husband’s car and decided to go drinking before being stopped.

Judge McCarthy said as she drove with drink while disqualified he would impose a four-month sentence. Due to what he said were mitigating circumstances, he suspended the sentence on condition she is of good behaviour for two years.

He fined her €100 and disqualified her from driving for six years.

Summonses alleging she had no insurance and no licence were struck out.