A BATTERED wife who escaped a drink drive conviction after fleeing a crazed attack by her husband wept yesterday as the High Court ruled magistrates had been wrong to clear her.

Lorraine Tomkinson, 43, had been married only two months when her drunken husband attacked her with a knife and a bottle after a New Year's Eve party.

The woman, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, fled in her car, first to hospital then to her children's home in Sale, near Manchester.

She was arrested after driving 72 miles and taken to Altringham police station where a breath test found that she had 52mg of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

Last year, magistrates acquitted her of drink driving on grounds of duress.

But at London's High Court, Lord Justice Latham ruled she had been wrongly cleared and ordered the case back to the magistrates with a direction to convict.

He said the magistrates had "allowed their hearts to rule their head".

It will now be up to the magistrates whether she should be banned from driving or whether there are "special reasons" why she should keep her licence.

The acquittal was challenged by the Director of Public Prosecutions on the grounds that the distance she travelled, and the length of time she spent behind the wheel, had effectively negated any threat to her safety and meant the duress defence could not succeed.

John James, for Mrs Tomkinson, said she had reasonably believed that her only safe haven was 72 miles away in Sale.

But Lord Justice Latham, sitting with Mr Justice Potts said: "I regret to say that, in my view, the justices, perhaps understandably, on this occasion allowed their hearts to rule their heads. However, that course was not open to them.

"Regretfully, the consequence is that the appeal is allowed."

Afterwards, Mrs Tomkinson said she had moved back to Sale and started divorce proceedings.