Germany's top Protestant caught drink driving

Police arrested the bishop on Saturday night in central Hanover after she failed to stop at a red light. She was then given a breathalyser.

BERLIN, February 23, 2010 (AFP) - The head of the Protestant church in Germany admitted drink driving Tuesday after prosecutors charged her with jumping a red light, five times over the legal limit.

Margot Kaessmann, 51, was "completely unfit to drive," said a spokesman for prosecutors in the northern German city of Hanover, adding that tests had shown a blood alcohol level of 1.54 parts per thousand.

Police arrested the bishop on Saturday night in central Hanover after she failed to stop at a red light. She was then given a breathalyser test.

The legal limit for driving in Germany is 0.5 parts per thousand but this drops to 0.3 parts per thousand if a driving offence is committed.

Kaessmann faces a fine of one month's salary and a driving ban of one year.

"I am shocked at myself that I could have made such a grave error. I know how dangerous and irresponsible drink driving is. I will of course assume the legal consequences," she was quoted as saying in mass circulation daily Bild.

The first woman to be elected head of the Protestant church, the 51-year-old, once described in the German press as a "mixture of Mother Theresa and Demi Moore", is no stranger to controversy.

She made headlines around the world in 2007 when she became the first bishop in Germany to file for divorce from her husband, also a leading member of the Lutheran church.

She was Germany's youngest bishop when she was consecrated in 1999 and has since survived a breast cancer operation.

Kaessmann was elected to the post for a six-year term in October 2009.