A hungover driver who partied all night with alcohol and drugs before knocking down and killing a man walking his dog was jailed for seven years yesterday.

Ashley Smith, 33, had been drowning her sorrows with friends after discovering she had picked up hepatitis C from a tattoo.

But later that day, she "just closed her eyes" at the wheel and hit "vulnerable pedestrian" Colin McGregor, 40, just yards from his home.

Jailing her at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Woolman said: "The courts must drive home the message that dangerous driving, particularly under the influence of drink or drugs, is a very serious crime which may have the gravest consequences."

As she left court, widow Lynn McGregor, 37, said she and her family had suffered "utter devastation".

She also told how one of their two daughters regularly went with their dad to walk the dog but had not done so that evening. She said the seven-year sentence was probably the best she could have hoped for, but added: "We have got a life sentence."

In court, Smith apologised through her lawyer for what had happened. Mrs McGregor said she rejected the apology. "She has done what she has done and taken away a good man," she said.

Smith would not have failed a breath test, the court heard, but the continuing "sedative effects" of drink and drugs affected her driving. She had traces of cannabis, diazepam, and ecstasy in her blood, although the diazepam could have been the result of an injection given in hospital.

Timber salesman Mr McGregor was walking the family dog near his home in Maryton, Kirriemuir, Angus, when Smith's Vauxhall Astra hit him, throwing him into the air.

Smith told bystanders she wished she had stayed in Dundee instead of trying to drive home to Kirriemuir.

Advocate-depute Simon Collins, prosecuting, described how Smith had met friends in Dundee that weekend. She drank heavily and took drugs until 5am and then went to sleep, getting up about 1pm. That evening, she ignored a friend's advice and headed for her home at Reform Street, Kirriemuir.

On the way, said Mr Collins, she stopped at a fast-food outlet in Forfar. Witnesses said she looked "rough" and had difficulty ordering.

Another driver heading for Kirriemuir was so concerned about Smith's Astra that he kept well away, while his wife used her mobile phone to call police and tell them she was weaving from lane to lane.

In Maryton, Smith's car mounted the pavement, glanced off a stone dyke, hit Mr McGregor, and threw him into nearby trees, killing him instantly. The dog was also fatally injured. The car came to rest embedded in a lamppost.

Police identified Mr McGregor from the tag on the labrador's collar and told his wife what had happened.

Smith halted a planned trial by admitting she caused Mr McGregor's death on June 24 last year by driving dangerously along the A926 while under the influence of controlled drugs and alcohol. She also admitted possessing cannabis.

Lord Woolman told her: "As a result of the offence to which you have pled guilty, a young father is dead."

The judge said his sentence was not intended to reflect Mr McGregor's life, or the misery his death had brought. "Such matters are beyond calculation. No sentence any court could pronounce could ever reconcile the family to their loss or cure their anguish."

He told Smith: "The central factor of this case is that it must have been obvious to you, as it was to other witnesses, that you should not have been driving that evening."

Smith, who has one previous conviction for speeding, was also banned for 10 years.