Jamie Carragher: Police contact driver who filmed ex-Liverpool player spitting at him as he receives ‘death threats’

Greater Manchester Police have contacted the man who filmed Jamie Carragher spitting from his car last Saturday while recording the former Liverpool footballer on his mobile phone.

The Manchester United supporter, who has been named by The Mirror as Andy Hughes, has been spoken to by authorities who were looking into the incident, which took place shortly after Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford that Carragher was commentating on for Sky Sports.

The 40-year-old pundit has since been suspended by Sky Sports and will hold further talks about his future, but Mr Hughes, 42, has been spoken to by the police about his role in filming the incident on his mobile phone while driving with his 14-year-old daughter in the car.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed that they had not received any formal complaint, but contacted Mr Hughes after the video of the incident was widely distributed on social media and by numerous news outlets.

Mr Hughes decided to publicly speak out after online trolls identified him on Tuesday and targeted him with death threats and abuse that made him feel “under siege”, with the North Wales resident pleading for the messages to stop for the sake of his family.

“We have been feeling under siege. It has been really worrying,” Mr Hughes told The Mirror.

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“I have received threats, death threats and all kinds of abuse, and I don’t know how to deal with it. I worry for my ­daughter’s safety, I really do.”

Carragher has been suspended by Sky pending further talks and repeatedly apologised for his actions after claiming he “lost it” and had “four or five seconds of madness”. After being taunted by Mr Hughes – who shouted “two-one Jamie, two-one!” at him following Liverpool’s defeat, Carragher put down his car window and spat at him and his teenage daughter, who was sitting in the passenger seat with the window down.

Police have not contacted Carragher, but he said that he would assist them if they wanted to.

“I’m in no position to question or disagree if someone wants to have a pop or the police want to speak to me. I’ve done a bad thing and have to accept whatever comes my way,” he said.

“I’m upset for them, my family and everyone involved. It’s been something we all could have done without but all I can do now is apologise.”

He added to Sky News: “You can’t obviously condone that behaviour in any way, shape or form, no matter where you are, who you’re representing – obviously at Sky Sports now, my family and the most important people in this really who were probably most affected is the family involved and especially the 14-year-old daughter.

“[It was] a moment of madness that really is difficult for me to explain. Watching those clips back it feels almost like an out-of-body thing, that moment of madness, those four or five seconds and no matter what the circumstances you can’t understand behaviour like that, that is just unacceptable.

“But to be honest that is where again I think to myself ‘why did you react like that’ because that’s part of being a public figure at times, different things get said but you don’t react like that. It’s the only time I’ve reacted like that and it will be the only time I react like that, so again, I have no excuse and it’s devastating for the family involved and also for my own family, but that’s down to my actions that’s brought that on.”

Sky Sports suspended Carragher on Monday ahead of his planned appearance at the Premier League match between Stoke City and Manchester City, and said in a statement: “Sky takes this matter extremely seriously and strongly condemns Jamie’s actions, we have made that clear to him in person today and suspended him from his duties. It falls well below the standards we expect of our people.”