A MUM who molested three teenage boys after drinking enough booze "to knock out a bull elephant" at a friend's 50th birthday party has walked free from court.
Amanda Wheeler, 31, from Cheltenham, drank vodka, beer and wine before she kissed and groped a 12-year-old boy on a bench, and then lap danced for a group of teenage boys in Worcester on November 29, 2011.
She also bit a 13-year-old boy on his neck and persuaded him to perform a sex act.
The mum-of-three faced four counts of sexual activity with a child and one of sexual assault during a two-week trial at Worcester Crown Court last October.
Suspended
On Tuesday she was handed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years at Birmingham Crown Court.
Sentencing the part-time cleaner, Judge Patrick Thomas QC told her: "I'm satisfied that this behaviour arose not out of paedophilia, although these were paedophile acts, but out of drunkenness, selfishness and a real element of childishness on your part.
"You were grossly disinhibited, but I don't think that in you there is a tendency or proclivity towards this sort of behaviour and because of this I can regard it as a one-off.
"The aggravating features are the age of the children, the presence of other children during the offending itself and the fact that you were drunk and out of control."
Judge Thomas said statements by the victims showed the assaults had not caused them long term trauma.
He said: "It is because, and only because, of the victim impact statements, and the impact of the sentence to be served upon your children, that I think it is appropriate to step back and suspend the sentence."
The judge criticised Wheeler for her 'out-of-control' actions.
"The evidence established very clearly that on that night you got paralytically drunk and that your behaviour with some children passed beyond the flirtatious to the point where you touched them indecently," he said.
"You fought the case and you should frankly be ashamed of yourself for refusing to accept that your memory of the matter was such that you really couldn't dispute what the boys consistently said."
Samantha Forsyth, defending, said Wheeler had "very significant gaps in her memory."
Wheeler was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.
