Last updated at 14:53, Friday, 03 September 2010

A stressed out Cumbrian mum has admitted performing a sex act on herself as she drove her car along the M6 motorway near Carlisle.

Miranda Leslie Chapman, 43, who was arrested after a shocked lorry driver alerted police, today entered guilty pleas to driving dangerously on the motorway between Carlisle and Shap and outraging public decency.

At Penrith magistrates court, prosecutor Huw Edwards described how trucker Jonathan Kitchen was driving south along the M6 on the afternoon of May 26 when he glanced sideways and saw Chapman in her car.

She was naked below the waist and masturbating, said Mr Edwards.

The defendant, who had been shopping in Carlisle, disputed a prosecution claim that she deliberately slowed down as her car crawled slowly past Mr Kitchen’s lorry.

He rang the police and Chapman, of Doomgate, Appleby, was pulled over by an officer a short time later.

“Mrs Chapman was pulled over by PC Simon Tunstall further down the motorway and questioned at the roadside. She admitted fully the offences of dangerous driving and outraging public decency, though not in those words exactly.”

Judith Birbeck, for Chapman, said the defendant had been under stress after receiving two phone calls which had disturbed her.

One was from her daughter, who has health problems, and had announced that she was pregnant again seven months after giving birth; and the other was from her soldier son, who told her he was being deployed to Afghanistan.

Mrs Birbeck added: “In what can only be described as a moment of madness, she decided to masturbate to make herself feel better. It hardly needs to be said that it didn’t in the end make her feel better.”

Magistrates said they will sentence Chapman on October 8 after background reports have been prepared.

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First published at 14:42, Friday, 03 September 2010
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk