A two-year-old boy ‘will never walk again’ after his mum knowingly trusted her drug dealer to drive her children home.
The child was left paralysed from the waist down after sustaining a spinal cord injury following a car crash, which also seriously injured his siblings.
Shayna Bowman, 29, allowed her two sons and daughter to sit in the back of the Audi A3 that her drug dealer, Rhys Farry, 30, was driving, knowing he had consumed alcohol and taken cocaine before taking the wheel.
Rhys was more than seven times over the drug driving limit when he drove the family home after tests revealed he had 357mg of cocaine in his blood.
The limit is 50mg.
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The incident happened in Henbury, Macclesfield, on April 20 when Rhys overtook traffic before colliding with a vehicle and ploughing into a tree.
The mother was airlifted to the hospital and two of her children received treatment at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
Doctors revealed her youngest child will never walk again after being left paralysed from a severe spinal cord injury, a court heard.
Her daughter, five, suffered a broken arm and a fractured neck, while her eldest son, six, broke his collarbone and suffered multiple internal injuries.
Rhys was not licensed to drive the car and ignored the children’s pleas to slow down the vehicle, the court heard.
He tried to flee the area but was caught by other motorists who urged him to return to the scene.
Bowman had taken her children to a football tournament where her fourth child was participating before Rhys offered to drive the family back home.
The court was told the trip ‘should have been a happy family event’.
Prosecutor Peter Hussey said: ‘It is evident the defendant Bowman was aware of the condition of the driver of the car, who had been seen drinking and he is clearly a man who takes cocaine.’
‘She made admissions in a police interview that she saw Farry drinking alcohol and said one of the children was concerned about the speed.’
He added that Bowman was likely intoxicated at the time of the incident.
She has avoided jail but was prosecuted for child neglect after the court heard the children were not seated in booster seats.
The judge said living with the consequences of her children’s injuries will likely outweigh the prison sentence she could have received.
Judge Natalie Cuddy told her there was ‘very little’ the court could do which would ‘equate to the punishment you have already suffered, having seen what your children have experienced and the injuries they have suffered.’
Bowman told police at the time: ‘It was a massive mistake and I have to live with it for the rest of my life. My kids mean everything to me.’
Rhys was jailed for three years at an earlier hearing after admitting to causing serious injuries by dangerous driving, drug driving and without a licence or insurance.
Shayna was sentenced at Chester Crown Court after admitting to three counts of child neglect. She will need to complete 20 days of rehabilitation and abstain from alcohol.
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