Drink driver's Thai-die booze plea

[dr dave soul monsta]

A DRINK driver asked a court for leniency after he visited a monastery in Thailand for treatment to keep him off the booze.

Nicholas O'Brien, 45, who lives in Ferry Road, said he had visited his wife's homeland in an attempt to get over his addiction to alcohol after he was caught driving over the limit. O'Brien said monks gave him a mysterious substance they claimed would cure him - or kill him if he touched a drink again.

And he maintains he hasn't touched a drink since because he is so scared he will drop down dead.

The details of the bizarre treatment emerged at Cupar Sheriff Court in Fife, where O'Brien pled guilty to drink-driving in August last year. He gave a breath test reading of 125 microgrammes, almost four times the legal limit of 35mgs, when he was stopped on the A91 Cupar to St Andrews road.

But in court his defence solicitor provided a report from O'Brien's GP that says he continues to be free of alcohol. He also provided details of the lengths that he had gone to fight his addiction.

The solicitor said: "Mr O'Brien continues to be free of alcohol. The other matter the GP raises is that by May or June my client will be able to return to work. However, my client does not believe this to be possible. He said himself that he has good days and bad days.

"He spent November and December in Thailand. It would appear his in-laws booked him into a monastery where he was given some sort of substance.

"He has been told that if he returns to drinking alcohol he will die. The threat, if anything else, has worked for Mr O'Brien.

"Another man who was in the village at the same time and also took the drug returned to drinking and has since died."

But the court dismissed the plea and put O'Brien on nine months' probation and banned him from driving for four years.

O'Brien was unwilling to speak when approached at his Edinburgh home today.

In the UK, people with alcohol problems can be prescribed Antabuse, a drug that means if they drink alcohol they will be violently ill. George Best was a high-profile user of the drug after being warned that one more drink could kill him.

But a spokeswoman for Alcoholics Anonymous said that such severe methods of beating alcohol addiction as the Thai remedy were not recommended.

She said: "A drug that kills you if you take alcohol is not something I've heard of. Within the AA we believe there are no quick fixes to beat alcohol addiction. You stay away from drink a day at a time and as the days build up you become more confident about keeping going."

MICHAEL BLACKLEY AND JOHN PAUL BRESLIN

[lomuamart]

Monsta.
Get a grip. Where is that story from? The News of the Screws? You havn't credited it.
Anyone whos's over the legal limit and drives deserves everything that's thrown at them.
Songkran rules!!