A MOTHER who got so drunk that her young son had to call her an ambulance has pleaded guilty to child neglect.

The 35-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court where she admitted one charge of causing neglect to a child.

John Garside, prosecuting, said a concerned neighbour called the police after hearing the boy “screaming in a distressed state” and saying “Mammy don’t leave me”.

Mr Garside said officers attended the Darlington home and found the youngster “in the act of calling an ambulance for his mother who was upstairs”.

Officers had to wake the “extremely drunk” woman and when questioned about why her son was in the house, she said he was supposed to be at two different friends’ houses and was then arrested for neglect when neither of them checked out.

The boy was interviewed and said his mother was drunk and when officers asked her to take a breath test; she was found to have 141 micrograms of alcohol in her breath, which is more than four times the drink drive limit.

When interviewed, the woman changed her story again and said she thought her son was staying with his friend and his grandmother even though she did not know the grandmother’s name or the friend’s surname.

“She cannot remember what happened next after she got drunk and admits she had no idea her son had returned,” Mr Garside added.

The woman also told police that her son “tells lies all the time” and has behavioural problems while claiming what the neighbour heard was from a previous conversation she had had with her son that the pair were simply “revisiting”.

Mr Garside said the defendant had no answer when police asked her about her son screaming but did admit it was “out of order” and said she was drunk.

He added: “She was challenged by the two accounts she gave the police about where her son was staying and gave two different addresses but she said because she was drunk she thought he was missing.

“She was irresponsible in her actions and got irate that this is the third time she has been arrested for child neglect.

“She admits her house is a bit scruffy and there were seven years’ worth of empty alcohol bottles and cans in her kitchen but does not think this is would be detrimental to her son.”

Mr Garside also said the woman has had two previous cases of child neglect in 2011 and she admitted it again in 2015 but went on a training course to avoid prosecution.

Elizabeth Aisbitt, mitigating, asked for the case to be stood down for reports.

The woman was given conditional bail and will next appear at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, March 1.