EXCLUSIVE: THE mother who got her five-year-old son so drunk he could barely speak or stand may yet be sent to jail, after an appeal against her sentence.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Jeremy Rapke QC, has appealed on the grounds that Kylie Eastwood's suspended sentence was manifestly inadequate.

Papers served on her lawyers are believed to have also cited lack of denunciation and failure to act in the public interest as reasons for the appeal.


Kylie Eastwood leaves the Latrobe Valley Magistrates court in Morwell after receiving a five month wholly suspended sentence.

Eastwood, 33, of Moe, was given a suspended sentence by magistrate Clive Alsop last month, despite breaching two suspended sentences.

The Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court was told Eastwood's son was taken to hospital by ambulance with a blood-alcohol content of .09 after she gave him four or five shots of grappa.

The clear liquid home brew was tested by police and found to be 44 per cent ethanol.

Officers called to her home on the day said the boy was unable to speak to them and "kept making grunting noises" and hitting walls.

Eastwood pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering serious injury, which carries a maximum penalty of five years' jail, and failing to protect a child from harm, which has a maximum of 12 months.

Mr Alsop sentenced her to five months' jail, but wholly suspended the penalty for two years.
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He warned Eastwood she was on her last chance and would be jailed if she came back to court in future for endangering the welfare of her children.

He said several changes in Eastwood's life, but principally her abstinence from alcohol since last September, amounted to exceptional circumstances that warranted a suspended sentence.

When Eastwood gave her son grappa in July 2008, she was already on a suspended sentence after being convicted five months earlier of leaving her three children under 10 home alone for several hours while she went drinking with a friend.

She had also breached a suspended sentence imposed in 2005 for refusing a breath test and driving while disqualified.

Mr Alsop used the opportunity while sentencing Eastwood last month to defend the use of suspended sentences.

Eastwood has six children to four fathers.


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/grappa-mum-kylie-eastwood-faces-prison-for-getting-five-year-old-son-drunk/story-e6frf7jo-1225836735195





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