Expectant mum pleads for chance to care for baby

SHE WAS CAUGHT WITH KNIFE IN STREET

STUART ABEL

A MUM-to-be caught with a knife in the street is to be released from prison after pleading with a judge to give her a chance for the sake of her new baby.

Notorious offender Gemma Pinkerton, aged 30, was handed a jail sentence – but has already served so much time on remand that she should be released.

She told Plymouth Crown Court over a video link from prison: “I just want to put my words into action, I cannot do it stuck in my prison cell.

“It is not easy in prison. I do not want my kid to be in the (care) system”.

The chronic drinker and druguser, with more than 80 crimes since her youth, was at risk of a longer prison sentence because it is her second weapons offence.

But a judge ruled that it would be unjust to impose a six-month term because it was a decade since the first offence and a knife was not involved on that occasion.

Judge William Mousley, who read a psychiatric report, jailed her for nine weeks.