A wedding guest who attacked and threatened to kill a female taxi driver as she drove him home has been spared jail.

John Anderson Routledge, 26, was sentenced to eight weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, for the attack on  Angela Featherstone, who works for Macclesfield Radio Cars.

Routledge  had pinned the driver to her windscreen after waking up in the cab, the court heard.

He then threatened to kill her during a terrifying 15-minute ordeal.

An earlier hearing was told that the sheet metal worker Routledge was topless and heavily intoxicated after drinking at his best friend’s sister’s wedding at Hill Top Country house near Butley Town.

That hearing had heard how Routledge had attacked the driver on Bonis Hall Lane, Macclesfield,  after passing out in the back of the taxi.

The court was told that the owner of the wedding venue had put him in a taxi and that Routledge had become frightened after waking up.

During the attack he also grabbed hold of the steering wheel almost causing the taxi to crash, before getting out of the cab and jumping on the bonnet of a passing car.

At one point he shouted “let me out or I will kill you”.

Routledge, of Peel Lane, Heywood, admitted assault and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear or provoke unlawful violence at an earlier hearing at the court  at Macclesfield Magistrates’ Court.

The hearing was told by Routledge’s defence barrister that he had been drinking all day, and was ‘heavily intoxicated’ and frightened when he had woken up.

Anthony Derbyshire, defending, had told the court that Routledge had no recollection of the incident. 

He said: “He says he was assaulted at the venue beforehand and had suffered a head injury which contributed to his semi-conscious demeanour.

“He was trying to get out of the vehicle, and when in the road was trying to flag down members of the public.”

Routledge was also ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work and made to attend an alcohol program.