Originally published: 27 March 2013
Between the ages of 16 and 18, she spent a string of weekends in police cells after being arrested 30 times for drunken attacks.
Shockingly, Amy, who’s now 21 and began drinking at 14, was downing almost 162 units a week, 11 times the recommended weekly allowance for women. On a typical night, she’d drink a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20, a bottle of Lambrini and 10 vodka shots. Out of control, she transformed from a shy, academic schoolgirl into a violent, drunken lout.
Amy explains: “Alcohol turned me into a crazed animal – I once punched a man in the face five times until he bled and enjoyed it. It disgusts me now. But I became addicted to the confidence alcohol gave me.”
Her boozy temper culminated in a five-and-a-half-month spell in prison in 2010 for assaulting a police officer. It was finally the wake-up call Amy needed – but now she’s struggling to find work because of her convictions and wants to warn others binge drinking can affect lives forever.
Speaking as recent figures show a 50 per cent increase in the past five years in large fines issued to women under 21 for drunken violence, she says: “My past will haunt me forever. I’ve been turned down for jobs and I can’t work with children or the elderly because of my criminal record. I don’t know if I’ll ever work – I’ll be branded a criminal forever and it makes me feel worthless. I want to warn other girls alcohol is addictive and can change your personality.”
Amy, from Glasgow, who grew up with her mum, Helen, 59, a care worker, and her teaching assistant brother Scott, 23, started boozing every Saturday night with older friends.
'All my mates were drinking- I didn't think there was anything wrong with it'
“There was definite peer pressure. My friends were 18, so I’d give them my pocket money to buy a bottle of Lambrini,” recalls Amy, who only has occasional contact with her dad. “I wanted to fit in and be popular. All my mates were drinking – I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. Booze made me confident and chatty.”
She adds: “We’d drink at home if my mum and brother were out, or at friends’ houses. I’d come home hungover but brush my teeth and chew gum to hide the smell. Drinking gave me confidence – I was so shy normally.”
By 15, Amy was drinking every Friday and Saturday night, downing a bottle of Lambrini, a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 – wine mixed with a strong spirit – and six Apple Sourz shots. And, by the time she was 16, she was drinking four nights a week. Amy admits the booze, which was mostly paid for by older friends, started affecting her personality.
She says: “One night, when we were out on the street, wasted, the police were called. When an officer tried to take my bottle, I bit her hand – I felt filled with rage and couldn’t stop myself.
“She handcuffed me and I was kept in a police cell for the night. In the morning, I was horrified – I was a good girl, doing well at school and from a good family. I’d never been violent before. The cell was horrible – it smelt of urine. I only had a metal toilet and mattress.”
Amy was released and confessed everything at home – her mum had thought she was at a friend’s house. She recalls: “Mum was so angry and disappointed – she begged me to quit drinking and stopped my pocket money. I agreed but, although I felt guilty, I secretly had no intention. Being with my friends meant too much to me.”
A month later, Amy appeared in court and was fined £400 for police assault – which she paid for with savings her grandmother had given her.
But it was far from a deterrent. She says: “I was a bit scared, but it was like a badge of honour. My mates thought it was cool.”
And Amy, who began feigning illness to skip school so she could drink in the park, got in trouble again just six months later.
She explains: “We were at a local pub and took our own booze to drink in the toilets. When the landlord tried to kick us out, I punched him in the face, five times. He was bleeding from the nose. I was like an animal, shouting and screaming. I was actually getting a thrill out of it.”
'The alcohol was addictive and, even if I felt guiltym drinking blocked it out'
Amy was arrested and spent another night in the cells. Just two weeks later, she was arrested again after grabbing a female security guard’s hair when she was turned away drunk from an amusement arcade. She was convicted of two assaults and received an 18-month supervision order.
“My mum pleaded with me to change my ways and I tried. But six months on, I was arrested for punching a police officer in the face,” Amy admits.
This time, the teen – who incredibly still managed to leave school with six A to C GCSE grades and was allowed to start a childcare college course – was handed 200 hours’ community service delivering furniture to the elderly. She says: “I had to wear a blue all-in-one. I was embarrassed when I saw people I knew, but I had a laugh with the other offenders.”
A string of drunken assaults followed, around once a month, as Amy began going out up to six times a week and drinking as much as 162 units.
“Mum would come out in her car and try to get me home, but I’d run away. I was out of control. The alcohol was addictive and, even if I felt guilty, drinking blocked it out,” says Amy, who’d quit her course by then.
'My mum pleaded with me to change my ways. I was arrested for punching a police officer in the face'
“I punched my friend once – I couldn’t remember it and was really sorry, so she forgave me. I was the only one in the group affected that badly by the booze, but they were used to me.”
Then in April 2010, aged 18, Amy lost control and punched yet another police officer who tried to stop her drinking in the street. It was her 30th attack and she was sentenced to 11 months in a women’s prison.
“I couldn’t even remember doing it,” she admits. “This time I cried, I was finally really scared. Mum was in bits. There were murderers in there and mental-health patients who had to be restrained – I’d hear them screaming in their cells.
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Thankfully, my cellmate was like me – in for drunk and disorderly – and we became friends. But I struggled to eat and sleep and I realised how addicted I was to alcohol. For my first month in there, I felt anxious and shaky.”
When she was released in February 2011, Amy, who lives with her mum, agreed to have counselling and stopped seeing her old friends. For two months she stayed sober and now limits herself to just two alcopops on a rare night out. She says: “It’s scary to think how much alcohol changed my personality – I can’t risk it happening again.”
But although Amy’s now working voluntarily in a clothes shop and is desperate for a paid job, she fears her boozing has blighted her future.