Mum Kylie Eastwood jailed for plying five-year-old son with alcohol

A DRUNKEN mum who plied her five-year-old son with drink has been jailed.

Kylie Eastwood, 36, appeared at Latrobe Valley County Court this morning to be sentenced over the July 20, 2008 incident.

Judge Margaret Rizkalla said she was not satisfied Eastwood's sobriety over the past few years, with the exception of two relapses, constituted exsceptional circumstances and she had no choice but to impose an immediate custodial sentence.

Eastwood will serve eight months for giving her son at least four shots of home brewed Grappa, and four months over a previous suspended sentence she breached.

Judge Rizkalla said Eastwood would serve at least five months before she is eligible for parole.

"In the last two years or so you have clearly made some significant attempts to deal with your alcohol problems," she said.

"In my view this matter cannot be regarded as exceptional."

Judge Rizkalla said the most recent relapse, in April of this year, where Eastwood became intoxicated and turned on the gas in her home while her eight-month-old baby was in the house was another incident that showed inappropriate care of her children.

Yesterday, the court heard Eastwood cheered the boy on as he downed shots in her kitchen.

The father of the five-year-old said his son was told by Eastwood to blame him when she noticed him call for an ambulance.

"Steve" told the County Court, sitting in the Latrobe Valley, he heard his former de facto "woo-hooing" in the kitchen as his son downed shots of liquor.

He said Eastwood had returned home on July 20, 2008, from a friend's house with a big bottle of home-made grappa, which tests later found was 44 per cent ethanol. He said he confiscated it after he caught his son drinking it in the kitchen.

"I walked into the kitchen and saw my son with a shot glass to his lips," he said.

Steve said he took the bottle into the lounge but he soon heard Eastwood cheering in the kitchen and discovered his son drinking more shots. The five-year-old recorded a blood-alcohol reading of 0.09 after he was taken to hospital by ambulance.

Police estimate he consumed between four and six units of the home brew.

Eastwood yesterday pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her lawyer, John Verhoeven, argued she had not intended to cause physical harm to her son by allowing him to have some grappa.

But Judge Margaret Rizkalla said Eastwood knew the effects of alcohol and knew the impact it would have on her son.

"It was clear that she herself had significant alcohol problems," Judge Rizkalla said.

"She was aware of the effect of alcohol on herself and others. She was aware that a child was more vulnerable."

Leading Sen-Constable Sonia Cummings said she attended Eastwood's home in Gregory St to find the boy so drunk he was "making grunting noises" and walking into walls.

A tape recording of Eastwood's initial police interview in January 2009 revealed she told investigators her son "loved a drink".

"He likes his alcohol and asked me for a drink, and I told him, 'Well OK, just one'," Eastwood said.

"At the time I didn't see the severity of it but I tell you what, the next morning I did."

heraldsun.com.au 4 Nov 2010

Another DELIBERATE FAILURE of the law.

Although she has been incarcerated, albeit upon a second offence, if it were a male who committed a similar / the same crime the child would be taken from them.

The far eastern side from where Ms. Eastwood resides is considered by many as a Trailer Park Trash neighbourhood.