A lout who hurled vile racist slurs at a bouncer told police he'd been an "a***hole' - and a judge agreed with him.
Graham Lee Ford, of Newcastle Road, South Shields, pleaded guilty at North Tyneside Magistrates' Court to causing racially aggravated harassment, alarm or distress, following an abusive rant outside a Newcastle bar on New Year's Day.
Sue Baker, prosecuting, said: "In the early hours of New Year's Day this defendant is outside a bar on Scotswood Road, he's shouting and being verbally abusive towards a doorman."
Ford, 40, called the doorman, who hadn't been identified, "f***ing taliban" and "f***ing black c***" before the abuse was stopped by police.
Mitigating for Ford, David Forester said he had immediately regretted his actions.
He said: "To be fair to him, as soon as he's arrested his immediate response was 'I'm sorry, I'm being an a***hole'.
"He is interviewed and he tells the officer 'I shouldn't have said it, my sister has a coloured son - I'm disgusted and ashamed of myself'."
He told the court that dad-of-four Ford had just completed a shopfitting course and was getting himself into work after several years of being unwell.
Giving Ford a stern dressing-down from the bench, District Judge Bernard Begley said: "You wouldn't expect me to use in court the description of yourself that you used of yourself when you were arrested, but you summed it up perfectly."
He handed Ford a fine of £125, plus a further £110 in court costs and a victim surcharge, but told him: "Were your financial circumstances different, the fine would be substantially more."
