A MOTHER ordered to live at a bail hostel after walking free from court, despite admitting killing her baby, ended up spending the night on a park bench after a drunken binge.

And yesterday, the judge who sentenced 22-year-old Danielle Wails after hearing she had been suffering from postnatal depression, questioned the chain of events which led to her being left to her own devices 100 miles from home and fearing for her life.

At Newcastle Crown Court on Monday, Wails received a three-year community order, which included residence at a bail hostel, after pleading guilty to the infanticide of her four-month-old son, Alexander Gallon, during a fire at her home in Cowgate, Newcastle, in August last year.

The court was told that the balance of her mind was disturbed.

At the same court yesterday, Wails admitted breaking the terms of the order by failing to return to the bail hostel in Leeds by her 11pm curfew on Wednesday.

Tony Davis, representing Wails, said that after she was sentenced on Monday, she was "abandoned" at Durham railway station with a travel warrant and £5.20 by Northumbria Police and told to make her own way to an address in Leeds. The police force denies this, saying it did everything "reasonably practicable" to assist her.

Mr Davis told the court that Wails described the journey, which she had to make after spending 16 months in custody, as "the most paranoid trip" of her life because of the publicity her case had received.

He said it was in that "petrified" state that she "had to get a crowded railway carriage to the centre of a city she had never visited before with just an address of a bail hostel".

After two days, the court heard Wails went drinking with another resident, who left her when she became aware she was unfit to return. Wails spent the night on a park bench, where she read a newspaper containing reports of her case. She was later arrested.

Euan Duff, representing the probation service, said Wails was at the hostel on Monday and Tuesday, but failed to return by her 11pm curfew hour on Wednesday, and did not return until 3.15pm on Thursday.

Recorder of Newcastle Judge David Hodson told Wails he thought it was "something of an achievement" that she had managed to find her way to Leeds.

''It's not for me at the moment to comment as to the current system in place to get you to the hostel where you were to stay initially," he said. ''But you did get there and that's something of an achievement to me, given the circumstances.''

He told Wails the probation service wanted to work with her, but needed two weeks to prepare a new management plan and remanded her in custody.

Speaking after the case, Detective Sergeant Ian Colling, of Gateshead public protection unit, countered suggestions Northumbria Police had dealt with Wails less than professionally.

"Wails was not abandoned," he insisted. "We did everything that was reasonably practicable in this instance following sentence.

"Wails was given a list of train times and a travel warrant from Durham to Leeds. She was also given a small amount of cash to get from the station to the hostel and the address of the hostel.

"The train was due to leave at 3.55pm, and officers took her to the station to ensure she got there in good time. We offered to wait with her, but she was happy to wait for the train by herself.