A mother who "recklessly" drove her car at a pregnant woman during a road-rage attack has narrowly avoided being sent to prison.

Gemma Fraiser, 28, was told by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court today it was with "the utmost reluctance" that he was imposing a suspended jail term.

But he warned Fraiser, who was convicted by a jury of dangerous driving and assault causing actual bodily harm, that this was the final time she could use her children as a reason for not being put behind bars.

Judge Jeremy Carey added the victim, who was three months' pregant when Fraiser struck her with her Peugeot 206, would be "entirely justified" in demanding that her attacker be jailed immediately.

But he said he also had to take the impact of such a sentence on Fraiser's two children, aged seven and four, into account.

Imposing 12 months' imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Carey said: "I do so not through any undue leniency or compassion for you because I have not a degree of leniency towards you and not a degree of compassion towards you.

"But those children should not be deprived of the love and care that you give them... Your children have done nothing wrong and their relatively difficult position would be made far greater should you be sent to prison now."

The judge added he "would not be sympathetic" if she failed to carry out any of the requirements of her sentence.

"This is the last time your children will act as the reason why your criminal behaviour is not met by an immediate custodial sentence."

"all i remember is the car going back and coming at me again. i thought i was going to die..." – victim emma harrington

Judge Carey also remarked that the fact Fraiser drove her car recklessly rather than deliberately at her victim did not lessen her culpability.

"Plainly, you used a weapon, namely a motor vehicle," he said.

Fraiser, of Coombe Road, Tovil, has previous convictions for assault causing actual bodily harm and common assault.

She was ordered to undertake 200 hours' unpaid work, be subject to a three-month electronically-monitored curfew between 7.30pm and 6am, and take part in 10 Home Office-accredited Women's Wisdom sessions.

She has also been banned from driving for a year.

During the trial, 25-year-old Emma Harrington, who lives in Rochester, told the court she thought she was "going to die" when she was struck by Fraiser's car in Lidsing Road, Hempstead, just after 8pm on Saturday, January 14.

Trouble flared following an altercation between the two drivers after their vehicles were head-to-head in nearby Pilgrim's Way and neither driver was prepared to reverse.

After being hit with a beer can by Fraiser's partner, Miss Harrington followed Fraiser's car along the country lanes in an attempt to take its registration number and report the matter to police.

Miss Harrington's boyfriend arrived at the scene, having overheard the incident via her mobile speakerphone.

It was during a scuffle between him and Fraiser's partner that Miss Harrington was knocked down as she tried to break-up the fight.

Gemma Fraiser was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court

Crying as she gave evidence, she explained she tried to protect herself with her hands as she came face-to-face with the tyres.

"I felt it hit my right hip. I was stood on the pavement. I fell onto the bonnet and then onto the floor. My hands were all bloody and I bumped my head and my leg.

"All I remember is the car going back and coming at me again. I thought I was going to die."

She explained her hands were injured when the "tyres" went over them. "It (the car) was going forwards and I tried to protect myself by putting my hands up," she said.

She suffered cuts and grazes to her neck, both hands and wrists, as well as whiplash to her neck and back. Her leggings were ripped and her skirt had a hole in it.

Judge Carey commented that despite criticism by Fraiser's legal team during the trial of Miss Harrington's behaviour, she was "blameless".

No further mention of Miss Harrington's pregnancy or subsequent birth was made at the sentencing hearing or during the trial.