She was Constance Briscoe, one of Britain’s first black women judges and one who reached the top of the bestseller list with an account of how she overcame a violent and abusive childhood to get there.

A court heard yesterday how Ms Briscoe, 49, pursued Lee Death in her car, stopped him from making a getaway in a taxi and, finally, led the police to a nearby pub, where they arrested him.

Death, 27, called Ms Briscoe a “wog” and a “black c***” as he walked in front of her car after an all-day drinking session on December 23 last year.

At City of London Magistrates’ Court yesterday, he was sentenced to do 100 hours’ unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay Ms Briscoe £100 compensation and costs of £200.

Sentencing Death, the chairman of the bench, Richard Walduck, told him: “It was a very foolish thing to do. You don’t need lectures on the dangers of alcohol. Be careful in the future.

“You were very fortunate to have so many friends to have written on your behalf. Don’t let them down in future.”

Mr Walduck said that the compensation “can no way reflect the damage done — it can only be regarded as a token”.

Death denied racially aggravated threatening behaviour but was convicted after a summary trial. Ms Briscoe told The Times that she had been “astonished and shocked” by the abuse. She added: “The whole incident was extremely regrettable. I did not expect this man who stepped off the pavement to racially abuse me and I found it unacceptable. He had no right. He should work with ethnic minorities to learn how deeply offensive these remarks are.”

She said that Death should give the compensation money to charity.

Ms Briscoe recently reached the top of The Sunday Times bestseller list with Ugly, a harrowing account of how she survived an abusive childhood where her mother called her a “black bitch” and tried to sabotage her career.

She is currently fighting a lawsuit by Carmen, her 73-year-old mother, over claims in the book and stands by everything she has written.

The court heard yesterday how Ms Briscoe stopped her car after Death walked out in front of it. Michael Otuyalo, for the prosecution, said: “The complainant then heard the defendant call out through the half-open window, ‘You black c***’. The complainant asked the defendant what he had said.

“He replied, ‘You f***ing wog’. The complainant informed him she was going to call the police. He replied, ‘Well you called me a white c***’, which she had not.”

Other members of Death’s group, which included his wife and his brother Christopher, were heard to shout “Piss off” and “What’s your problem?” the court heard. “She followed the group of people, who were seen to attempt to board a London taxi,” Mr Otuyalo added. “But the complainant informed the driver of the taxi that she had been racially abused.”

Death then tried to run off, but Ms Briscoe caught up with him in a pub called The Alibi in nearby Shoe Lane.

Ms Briscoe, who has been a barrister since 1983 and a part-time judge since 1996, gave evidence last month and was a “credible and trustworthy witness”, the court heard.

Callum Haddow, defending Death, said his client still refused to accept responsibility for the crime.

He had instructed his legal team to appeal against the conviction.

Mr Haddow added that the trial had been “a contributory factor” in Death’s separation from his wife.

Death, of Sydenham, southeast London, had denied one count of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour thereby causing that person or another harassment, alarm or distress which was racially aggravated.

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