A WOMAN who had been drinking left a six-year-old child outside a Burnley club unsupervised.

Blackburn magistrates heard police who were alerted by members of the public found the child cold and distressed outside the Rosegrove Unity Club at around 9pm on Friday.

Christina Marie Kinlan, 28, of Delph Approach, Shadsworth, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a child.

She was made subject to a community order for 12 months with a nine-month alcohol treatment requirement and 20 days' rehabilitation activity requirement.

She was also fined £50 and ordered to pay £85 costs.

Alex Mann, prosecuting, said when Kinlan was spoken to by the police she was drunk enough to be swaying from side to side.

The child told officers he hadn’t eaten since he finished school.

“The temperature was just two degrees and he was cold,” said Mrs Mann.

“He was taken to hospital to be checked.”

Mrs Mann said Kinlan had a conviction in October 2017 for being drunk in charge of a child.

Nick Dearing, defending, said his client was distraught to have exposed the child to any kind of danger.

He said Kinlan had travelled to Burnley in a taxi to visit a friend.

Her phone had died and she went into the club to call a taxi.

“This is not someone who had casually and clearly exposed a child to danger, it is someone who has made a mistake,” he added.