A DRINK-driver who led police on a 70mph New Year's Eve car chase through the centre of York with a woman and her two-year-old child in the passenger seat has been jailed for 15 months.

Judge Arthur Myerson: "appalling driving"

York Crown Court heard that during the 13-minute car chase Christopher Lee Barker

* Drove on to a pavement in Nunnery Lane to avoid a police van blocking its way, colliding with a lamp-post

* Went straight through red lights at the junction of The Mount and Scarcroft Road, narrowly missing other traffic

* Reached speeds of 70mph down Tadcaster Road

* Drove at 60mph on the wrong side of traffic bollards

* Jumped from the still moving car in Chapelfields, leaving it to crash into a parked car with the woman and her child still inside.

Judge Arthur Myerson told Barker, 27, of Pentland Drive, Huntington, who had offered the woman and her child a lift before the chase began: "This was appalling driving. "It is almost impossible to understand what it was that led you to this complete contempt and disregard for the road traffic laws.

"What cannot be denied is the danger not only to yourself, but also to people on the street and the danger to which you subjected the unfortunate woman and child who had taken a lift in your car, hoping you would behave in a rational manner."

The court heard that Barker, who had recently split up from his partner and subsequently gone on a 'spree of drinking and driving-related offences', was more than twice the drink-drive limit at the time of the car chase.

He was already on bail for a number of earlier driving offences, including drink-driving and driving while disqualified.

The drama began when a pedestrian walking along Goodramgate just after 1am on New Year's Day with a group of friends was knocked down by a Vauxhall Astra.

She was not seriously hurt - but her friends passed details of the car to the police. It was spotted by police a few minutes later, who followed it into Nunnery Lane.

Barker 'panicked' when he spotted the blue lights and the chase then began, the court heard.

He was remanded in custody on New Year's Day following his arrest in a Chapelfields garden shortly after running from the car, and subsequently jailed for five months for the earlier offences.

Judge Myerson yesterday jailed him for a further 15 months for dangerous driving and four months each for driving whilst disqualified and drink-driving, all to run concurrently.

There was no separate penalty for driving without insurance.

Barker was also banned from driving for three years and told he would need to re-take his driving test before he could drive again.

York's traffic manager, Traffic Constable Martin Hemenway, today welcomed the sentence.

He said: "This sends a powerful message."The sentence given by the court highlights the dangers that can be caused through dangerous driving and drink-driving."

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