A YOUNG Blackburn mum has told of her heartache at the loss of her unborn child after a car crash involving a drink-driver.

A court heard Eileen Winstanley's harrowing account of the incident, which happened when she was six months pregnant.

She said her innocent child had died for the sake of a taxi fare and how she cuddled his body, praying that he would come back to life.

The drink-driver, David Ian Hornby, admitted to police that he had drunk "three or four" pints of Guinness before getting behind the wheel of his car, which had two bald tyres, one of which was massively under inflated.

He collided head on with Jason and Eileen Winstanley's car near Hoghton Tower as the couple drove to a works Christmas party. Seconds after the collision on December 12, Mrs Winstanley "felt strange" and then collapsed at the side of the road before being rushed to hospital.

Mrs Winstanley said in a victim impact statement: "They said there was a heart beat and I was going to have a mini-scan. Suddenly I got the urge to go to the toilet or so I thought but there was blood there.

"The doctor said he wanted to check it out on the large scanner but I felt everything wasn't right.

"They told us we had lost the baby and Jason just sat there and sobbed."

The baby boy, who the couple later named Jonathon, was stillborn.

"He hadn't done anything to anyone and I felt the least he deserved was a kiss and a cuddle off his mum. I felt I should have been able to look after him better.

"I kept asking to see him and eventually they brought him to me. He was beautiful, lots of curly hair and I could even see his eye lashes and finger nails.

"I held him close and prayed the heat of my body would bring him back to life.

"It seems so cruel, his life had been destroyed for the sake of a taxi fare.

"I saw another couple leaving the hospital with their baby with balloons tied to their car and I wished it could have been me."

Jonathon was buried on December 23.

In Mr Winstanley's statement, who was in the Royal Navy until last year, said he felt guilty because he hadn't been able to protect his unborn child.

"What should have been our first Christmas together has turned into this tragedy."

Hornby, 31, of Chapletown Road, Bromley Cross, pleaded guilty at Blackburn magistrates to driving with excess alcohol, without due care and with two defective tyres.

He was jailed for two months and disqualified from driving for two years. He gave a reading of 82 in blood against the legal limit of 80.

Passing sentence, District Judge Paul Firth said that had the baby been born alive and died as a result of the injuries his mother had suffered, Hornby would have faced a more serious charge of causing death by careless driving whilst under the influence of alcohol.

He said the law makes a distinction between a baby that is still born and one that is born alive and then dies. He added: "No court can restore a human life. Nor can its loss be measured by any sentence.

"No time, no sentence imposed on any offender can reconcile the family of a deceased victim to their loss nor will it cure their pain."

David Griffiths, defending, said Hornby, an agricultural contractor, had a two-year-old daughter of his own.

"He is deeply saddened by the loss that has been suffered by Mr and Mrs Winstanley," said Mr Griffiths. "He accepts that the car's defects were his fault and the fact that he was driving after consuming alcohol was his fault.