Mum ‘spat at grotto elves’

SECURITY has been stepped up at a shopping centre’s Santa Grotto after an angry mum allegedly spat in the face of an elf.

The woman became “really hostile” when told she did not have a booking to the session which was in the grotto’s “autism friendly” hour when lights and noises are dimmed.

Karen Eve, manager of the Castlegate shopping centre in Stockton-onTees, who reported it to police, said: “It was a really awful situation.”