A PUB manager and mother-of-two has spoken of her disgust after being spat at by a customer.

Charlie Allport is the manager at the Spread Eagle in King Street, Hereford. She is also the daughter of the landlord.

The incident took place on Sunday evening when she asked somebody to leave the pub.

Police are investigating the incident, which was captured on CCTV security cameras.

Mrs Allport said she had asked the man in the beer garden to sit down and stop walking around to comply with Covid-19 guidelines.

Another member of staff had also asked the man to sit down, and Mrs Allport said they were verbally abused.

Mrs Allport went to help, telling the man to leave before being verbally abused herself.

Halfway up the alleyway at the side of the pub the man made a noise before spitting at her in the face.

He then tried to break the gates to the pub before giving her more verbal abuse.

“When he was calling me all the names under the sun it didn’t bother me, but when he spat at me I just cried,” she said.

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Since the incident she has taken a lateral flow Covid-19 test, which has come back as negative.

She has been advised to also take another lateral flow test in a few days.

“I have two young children so I didn’t want to catch anything and put them at risk,” she said.

“I was so happy that I was wearing a mask at the time of the incident.

“All our staff wear masks in work all the time, and customers also have to wear masks.

“We’re just happy to be working. To be honest, everybody has been really good since we’ve re-opened.”

The incident happened at about 9pm on Sunday evening and Mrs Allport continued to work until the 2am closing.

“We had five hours service left and it just put a dampener on things,” she said.

Despite the incident the majority of customers have complied with the Government guidelines.

“They were the third person we had to kick out for being drunk and the other two politely left," she said.

“When all the people in the beer garden have been swapping tables I feel like a teacher, but I don’t want my licence taken off me and our staff to be jeopardised.

“Most customers have been abiding by all the rules and have been well behaved.

“Table service has made work harder and we’ve had to employ a new member of staff to carry drinks out to customers.

“We are all working so hard to keep the waiting times for drinks down.”

Mrs Allport said that the man who spat at her was not one of the ‘younger generation’ but was a middle-aged man.

Police are investigating the assault. A spokesman said: "It is believed that a man was aggressive inside the pub and was verbally abusive towards the victim before deliberately spitting at her.

Anyone who witnessed the incident and have not yet spoken to a police officer, are asked to report it online under the Tell Us About section of the West Mercia Police website www.westmercia.police.uk quoting reference 282i of 3 May.