A WOMAN barrister refused to let a motorist thug get away with spitting in her face during a road rage attack.

Philippa Waddell was crossing a road in Manchester city centre with her boyfriend Neil Wilkinson when jobless Christian Kelly sped up to her in his VW Touareg and braked suddenly.

He leapt out and, after a confrontation, spat in her face before driving off.

But a `horrified and shocked' Miss Waddell refused to let the matter rest. She took down his registration number and later picked him out of a police ID parade.

Judge Alan Berg, sentencing Kelly to eight week in jail for assault, said his behaviour was `repugnant, sickening and disgusting'.

The judge said spitting attacks were `reaching epidemic proportions' and were no longer `the exclusive preserve of professional footballers or angry llamas.'

Weapon

He added: "It seems at the moment, among certain sections of the community, that spitting is the choice of weapon to settle disputes.

"I will not tolerate this sort of offence and people who behave in this despicable way will go to prison."

After the hearing Miss Waddell said: "It was just a completely unwarranted attack. It saddened both myself and my partner because we have lived in the city centre for seven years and nothing like this has happened before.

"We had just come out of the Student Union when we saw him. He accelerated towards us but had to stop. When we were on the pavement he came over shouting and kept pulling back his fist as though he was going to punch my partner. Eventually he went to go back to his car and we told him we had his vehicle details. Then he came back and spat at me without any provocation.

"If he had gone no further than pretending to punch Neil we wouldn't have pursued it but when he spat at me we decided to take action.

"I was horrified and shocked. I didn't say or do anything and to be honest I was in disbelief that something so minor could escalate so quickly and provoke such an extreme response.

"Up until then I didn't believe people would behave like that. I've never had any violence in my own life and never been assaulted.

"It's not something you usually see and it wasn't nice."

Incident

During the case at Manchester Magistrates, prosecuting Tess Kenyon said that the incident happened when Miss Waddell and her boyfriend were about to cross with the lights on red but stopped when they saw Kelly coming out of Brunswick Street in his car.

Peter Broderick, defending, said Kelly believed the light was on green at the time.

He added: "He accepts his behaviour was abhorrent and wishes to apologise to the woman."

Kelly, of Horton Road, Fallowfield, has convictions for robbery, affray and arson and has not worked since 2001. His girlfriend is expecting a baby in October.

Staff from a number of services including ambulance workers, traffic wardens and train conductors now carry spit kits in case they are targeted.

The kits can then be used to check the attacker's DNA against crime records.