Lyndsey Ridley spat on the face of one volunteer and the arm of another during the Lyndsey Ridley People’s Kitchen attack on 17 August, a 45-minute outburst that ended with a guilty plea at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court.
Ridley, 43, of The Willows in Elswick, had been shouting and swearing at customers inside the city-centre charity for the best part of an hour before staff asked her to leave. She left, then came back. A colleague of the first victim asked for help keeping her out. It was only after the full 45 minutes of shouting that she spat, and it landed on the left side of a volunteer’s face.
A second volunteer was also working at the time. Ridley spat in their direction and it caught their arm.
What happened in court
Prosecuting at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court, Rehana Haque told the bench that Ridley had acted ‘recklessly as to whether the spit landed on their face or hit anyone else in the vicinity.’ The court heard she had not intended for her spit to land on anyone specifically.
Ridley pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault. She had nine offences on her record and was already subject to a community order at the time of the incident, with the court hearing she was ‘not doing particularly well’ on that order.
Liz Dunbar, also prosecuting, told magistrates: ‘She’s a very vulnerable lady. She has a number of issues and she’s on a community order. She does have accommodation.’
Magistrates handed Ridley an 18-month community order, despite the difficulties with her existing one.
The target: a charity in its 40th year
The People’s Kitchen is no ordinary drop-in. The People’s Kitchen marks its 40th anniversary this year, a run of unbroken service that puts Saturday morning park runs to shame. According to the Mirror, the organisation was started by Alison Kay and today feeds around 1,000 people a week.
The scale of the day-to-day operation is considerable. JustGiving records that the charity serves 250 to 300 hot meals a day, every single day of the year, no days off, no Christmas closure, no bank holidays. The volunteers who were spat on were part of that effort when the incident unfolded.
Running a service like that depends entirely on people willing to give up their time. Getting shouted at and spat on is not part of the deal. The Lyndsey Ridley People’s Kitchen incident is a reminder of the risks faced by those doing exactly that kind of unpaid, unglamorous, essential work.
The two victims were not named in court proceedings. Ridley is now subject to her new community order. Whether she engages with it more effectively than the last one will be for the court to monitor.