Admitted failing to give breath sample to police and failing to stop at crash

A teaching assistant whose life was left in tatters after a fling with a pupil has dodged prison for a second time after she ran down a motorist and damaged two cars while drunk.

Helen Turnbull, 36, lost her career, her marriage and her two children after becoming infatuated with a schoolboy at the school in County Durham where she worked.

She sent pictures of herself in lingerie to the 16-year-old, asked him what colour knickers she should wear to a meeting and told him he would be a legend if he had sex with her on her school desk.

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'Drunk driving': Shamed teaching assistant Helen Turnbull, 36, was in court again after crashing her car into two other vehicles while apparently drunk

Smashed: The footage shows the left wing mirror of Turnbull's car dangling from its side after the collision

She escaped jail in November 2014 after she admitted kissing the boy - but was back before Teesside Crown Court for breaching the suspended sentence by smashing into two vehicles and running down a woman in Haswell village.

Mobile phone video footage shot of the incident was played to the court and showed Turnbull in the driver's seat of her Toyota Aygo car, allegedly intoxicated and slurring her words.

A male witness who was confronting Turnbull was heard calling her 'a mess'.

He shouted: 'What are you doing drinking and driving when you have two bairns?'

Turnbull replied: 'I want to go home, why are you calling the police?'

'How could you?': The man who confronted Turnbull in the video, who can be seen reflected (left) in the bodywork of her Toyota Aygo, asked how she could bring herself to drive drunk when she has children

Prosecutor Emma Atkinson told Teesside Crown Court that on the evening of July 15, Jacqueline Tobin noticed her Vauxhall Astra had a flat tyre and was pumping it up when she saw Turnbull's car approaching about from hardly one foot away.

Miss Atkinson said: 'Miss Tobin was knocked to the floor, lying on the road and saw that her car had been hit.

'She suffered cuts on her finger and bruising to her shoulder, wrist and thigh.'

The car was written off but Miss Tobin eventually bought it back for £350 and paid a further £1,000 for insurance costs.

The court heard Turnbull then continued to a neighbouring street without stopping and ploughed into a Nissan Nevara owned by William Ward, who saw the defendant getting back into her car when he noticed the damage outside.

Miss Atkinson said: 'Her car was parked on a grassed area and the defendant said to Mr Ward 'I will pay for the damage, don't tell the police.'

Mr Ward's daughter's partner took the video which showed Turnbull appearing intoxicated and abusing the witnesses while he called the police.

She was arrested by police and refused to provide a breathalyser sample.

During the trial, Judge Tony Briggs said she was obviously drunk. He told her: 'On July 15 this year you quite clearly had drunk far too much.

'Looking at the video, it is clear you were under the influence of drink and you were in a state which did not enable you to appreciate the reality of what you did'.

Defending Turnbull, Anne Richardson said that her client's fall from grace had been worsened by coverage of the trial, during which she was acquitted of having sex with the boy in the back of her Mini convertible.

Guilty: Turnbull admitted failing to provide a breath sample to police and two counts of failing to stop after a road accident. She is pictured left trying to obscure her face outside Teesside Crown Court Friday, and to the right in an older photograph

She said: 'It surely was a moment of madness. The defendant has had a job since the trial and then lost it because of the press coverage.

'Her private life was exposed both on television and social media.

'In relation to the video footage, she appeared subdued rather than aggressive.

'Because of intrusive pictures by the press in the trial any camera shoved in her [face] causes her distress.

'She has been going to the job centre where she sees former pupils from where she worked, I don't need to spell out the comments and jibes she receives.

'She turned to alcohol, she lost her job that she loved and now has to make a living any way she can. She now has another job who are aware of her conviction.'

Turnbull, of Church View, Haswell, admitted failing to provide a specimen of breath and two counts of failing to stop following a road accident.

Judge Briggs ordered that the four month suspended sentence she received for kissing the pupil be extended for a further four months.

She was also required to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and to attend an offender rehabilitation programme.

She was also disqualified from driving for three years.

He told Turnbull: 'I am satisfied that there is ample protection to the public.