A restaurant employee sprayed in the face with breath freshener by a robber has spoken of her relief at his jail sentence.

Lynn Simpson and her colleague Jackie Allen were left in agony after robber Gary King sprayed breath freshener in their faces.

King, a heroin addict of no fixed abode, stole more than £2,000 from Fat Franco's restaurant, in New Road Side, Horsforth at lunchtime on November 8, 2002.

On Monday, King, a former employee at the restaurant, was sentenced to two years imprisonment for the robbery at Leeds Crown Court.

Lynn said: "I am relieved but I would rather it have not happened at all. At least if he is locked away for two years he will not get the chance to do it to anyone else.

"I am not bitter, he did apologise to us through the police. It is just sad that people get to that stage with drugs.

"If the jail sentence gets him the help he needs then I hope he comes out a better person."

The 31-year-old was a former employee at the restaurant and had returned to pick up some money outstanding to him when he sprayed the staff in the face and took some cash.

Following the attack police went to King's last known address but he had disappeared, two weeks later he handed himself in at a police station.

The company secretary at Fat Franco's for the past eight years described how the substance temporarily blinded her friend.

"He sprayed us in the face with a substance and it stung like mad," Lynn said.

"He later told the police it was breath freshener but we thought it was mace. It was very frightening.

"He came in and asked for his money and I asked him to wait, then he sprayed us both in the face, it effected Jackie the worst and she had to be taken to hospital. She went blind for about 20 minutes.

"He ran off with money from the restaurant and we buzzed to the rest of the staff and they came to help us. I actually liked him before he did that."

Life has now changed for Lynn at work and at home following her ordeal.

But despite being extra cautious everywhere she goes, she is hoping that her attacker receives the help he needs.

"If he was addicted to drugs it is a problem he will have to deal with and hopefully he will get help now," she said.

"We are quite lucky, he could have done something worse to us. I am glad he didn't do anything more sinister.

"Work has changed for us. Before it was a happy, jolly place and now it is like Fort Knox. We are very wary now and I think I will be forever.

"I am worst at home I make sure everything is secure all the time. You never think something like this will happen to you, but when it does you just put up a wall."