School bus driver four times the limit while driving children

Judge Hamill revealed that according to the pre-sentence report Gray “had thoughts of killing himself and the children”.

Defence counsel Conan Rea told the judge that Gray had entered a guilty plea at the earlier opportunity, had no previous convictions and was undergoing a mental health crisis at the time.

Mr Rea suggested that supervised and assisted probation would be in everyone’s “best interests”.

Judge Hamill said it was clear that Gray was not mentally well, and that he did not want to “impose custody on someone who is ill”.

However, he repeated that the incident could have been “catastrophic”.

“I’m trying to do something constructive here but this could have been a Crown Court case with a tragic outcome,” the judge added.