Drunk dad speeding with baby on floor gets six months' jail

Police found a three-month-old girl surrounded by rubbish on the floor of a car when they pulled over her drunk and speeding father on the Northern Distributor in April last year.Officers took several minutes to realise what they thought was a doll lying behind the driver's seat was a baby wrapped in a light shawl with a soft drink bottle on her head and paper and plastic bottles around her."She's fine - she's sleeping quietly," her father, Taran Atkinson, told police.Atkinson had been driving at 104km/h in a 80km/h zone on the Northern Distributor at Fairy Meadow when police pulled him over about 1am on April 12.He was more than three times over the legal blood-alcohol limit.Atkinson told police he had put the baby on the floor when he went to buy cigarettes because her capsule was in another vehicle.Yesterday, Atkinson, 27, of Duncan St, Balgownie, cried as he was sentenced to six months' jail after he pleaded guilty to high-range drink-driving and not restraining a child under one.The baby girl had been at "extreme" risk of serious injury or death, police told Wollongong Local Court. "It's very fortunate that you weren't involved in an accident because it would have been absolutely disastrous for your young child," Magistrate Michael Stoddart said during sentencing."Mr Atkinson, you should be thoroughly ashamed."Despite "compelling" subjective circumstances, including drug and alcohol issues, Mr Stoddart said nothing but imprisonment was appropriate."What we have here is an appalling set of facts. You were driving with a high-range PCA - 0.165 ... not only that, you're speeding," he said."To make matters absolutely worse, you've got your three-month-old daughter lying on the floor behind the driver's seat. "How disgraceful is that behaviour from anybody, let alone a parent?"