A DUNFERMLINE woman left a child in a house on his own when she went out drinking at a local night club.

Louise Fotheringham, 31, of Haig Crescent, appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

She admitted that on December 14, 2019 at Haig Crescent, she wilfully abandoned a child, leaving him without adequate care or adult supervision for a period of three hours. She consumed so much alcohol that she was heavily intoxicated and unable to safeguard the welfare of the child and left him in an environment in which he could have accessed an open bottle of alcohol, knives and other potentially hazardous items.

Depute fiscal Jill Currie said that, at around midnight, Fotheringham had been contacted by her mother and they arranged to go out for a drink.

At around 2.45am, police outside the Life nightclub were approached by Fotheringham’s mother who raised concerns that a child was at home alone.

Officers spoke to Fotheringham, whose speech was slurred and she was smelling of alcohol, added the depute.

She claimed initially the child was being looked after in Lochgelly but would not provide a phone number so this could be checked.

She then took a taxi home and arrived back at the same time as police, who had driven there to investigate. The child was found asleep in bed.

Defence solicitor James Moncrieff said: “She accepts this was poor decision-making and is ashamed of her behaviour.”

Sheriff Neil Bowie said: “This was extremely reckless. To leave a four-year-old alone to go out drinking beggars belief. Thankfully, this resulted in no physical injury to the child.”

He imposed a community payback order with 12 months’ supervision and 100 hours of unpaid work.