'You'd be forgiven if you were a man': Ian Wright shares support for Kirsty Gallacher after driving ban

Support: Ian Wright has shared his support for Kirsty Gallacher
Jeremy Selwyn
Fiona Simpson8 September 2017
The Weekender

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Football pundit Ian Wright has offered his support to presenter Kirsty Gallacher after she was banned from the road for driving three times over the legal limit.

The 41-year-old TV host was seen driving her red BMW X4 erratically before she parked up in High Street Eton to meet her two children for a day out shopping for school uniforms.

Thames Valley Police officers breathalysed Gallacher just after 11am, finding she had 106micrograms of alcohol in her breath - three times the legal limit.

At East Berkshire Magistrates’ court on Monday, Gallacher, dressed all in black, sat with her head bowed after pleading guilty to drink driving.

Wright, who appears Match of the Day, tweeted the Sky News presenter telling her “we all make mistakes” and added that she “would have been forgiven if she’d been a man or footballer”.

The court heard she was stressed at the time because of an ongoing legal battle with ex-husband Paul Sampson, and told the court she did not know she was over the drink drive limit when she got behind the wheel.

She stopped off to meet a friend after work at the Winning Post pub in Winkfield the previous evening, drinking until the early hours of the morning before taking a taxi home.

Driving ban: Kirsty Gallacher
Jeremy Selwyn

Gallacher took an Uber back to the pub in the morning to collect her car, but was still over the limit when she set off to meet her children.

District Judge Davinder Lacchar sentenced Gallacher to 100 hours of community and a two-year driving ban.

She also ordered Gallacher, who got her TV break presenting Sky Sports News before going on to star in shows including The Games, Gladiators, and Strictly Come Dancing, to pay £85 in prosecution costs and a £85 victim surcharge.

Gallacher, of Virginia Water, Surrey, pleaded guilty to driving a motor vehicle with excess alcohol.

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